Station was a cut-price gateway to rest of UK
MANY of us will have travelled to and from Newcastle’s former Gallowgate Coach Station over the years.
Our photo captures a view of the city centre location as it was 40 years ago in July 1982. From there you could depart on long-haul coach journeys to destinations around the UK.
There were lots of stops, it took twice as long as the train, but it was half the price. On a personal note, I was wellfamiliar with the place back in the ‘80s, departing and returning many times either as a hard-up student, or a Newcastle United supporter travelling to away games.
Our archive photo taken during a busy day at the station four decades ago shows National Express coaches ready to leave for Leeds, Cardiff, London and other destinations. And the price of a ticket to the capital in the mid-80s? A midweek return would set you back £19 – and it was cheaper if you were a student.
The relatively cheap prices were the main attraction. You could pick up mid-week ‘boomerang’ return tickets from Newcastle to the likes of Birmingham for £14, Bristol for £17.50, Exeter for £21 and Torquay for £22. National Express newspaper adverts, meanwhile, declared “the sort of luxury we’re offering is more like an aeroplane”, with features aboard the coaches including toilets, reclining seats, video screenings, and – in a reminder of how things used to be – a choice of smoking or non-smoking seats.
This was also the era of the Armstrong Galley non-stop clipper services between Newcastle and London. The giant coaches also boasted reclining seats, video, a toilet, steward service, and even a public telephone – in an age before we all had mobiles.
Departing from just outside Newcastle Odeon on Pilgrim Street, you would arrive at London Victoria station on Vauxhall Bridge Road around six hours later. By the end of its tenure, the old Gallowgate Coach Station was in a run-down state and in 2003 was replaced by a new station – sited on Churchill Street between St James’ Boulevard and Marlborough Crescent.
Our modern image shows the same view 40 years on. Today, there’s no trace of the former station. The 13-storey Sandman Signature Hotel, on the left, opened in 2011, and is the former headquarters of Scottish and Newcastle breweries. We also see part of the towering Gallowgate End and Milburn Stand at St James’ Park which was transformed in the mid and late 1990s.