Geordie rising – Newcastle’s 21st century ship comes in

FROM the moment our train sweeps into Newcastle that old sense of Geordie grandeur kicks in. From our Transpennine Express carriage crossing the King Edward VII Bridge we have caught a glimpse of the iconic Tyne Bridge, mightiest of the seven structures spanning the river. Now it’s a case of ‘mind the gap’ to make the leap onto a platform that follows the sinuous curve of the Central Station with its ground-breaking barrel-vaulted iron and glass roof. Wow.

Young Bessie Surtees used knotted bedsheets to elope via a first floor window

Our first impulse is to head north on the Metro to check into our leafy parkland lodgings at Jesmond Dene House. But it’s hard to resist first ogling the station’s Centurion Bar. The city centre boasts some ornate old boozers (notably the Crown Posada), but all pale in comparison with this late Victorian beauty. 

Hard to credit it slumped from its role as the First Class Refreshment Room to being British Transport Police’s holding cells before its refurb. Floor to ceiling it features a riot of terracotta, worth upwards of £3.5 million. These are the coveted Leeds Burmantoft tiles, to be found in Manchester in the Midland Hotel and the Kimpton Clocktower. Elsewhere in the Toon, they glow resplendently orange in the Central Arcade.

Resisting the temptation of the taps, another Toon siren call took us five minutes down Neville Street to The Lit and Phil. Founded in 1793, this independent library moved into the current premises 200 years ago. It is home to 170,000 books (from 16th century tomes to modern fiction). It’s quirky, fun and open to the public, though being a member offers extra privileges. Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant was one as a schoolboy. Oscar Wilde is among many famous visitors, I’m sure they would have got on.

Newcastle has always boasted its own eminences. Layers of history abound. There has been a fort on the site of Newcastle Castle since Roman times. The Norman keep and the Black Gate remain, standing sentinel over the river down below. 

Surpassing it for views is Grey’s Monument (1838), a 133ft doric column, topped with a stone sculpture of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, he of bergamot flavoured tea fame and a 19th century Prime Minister. In the summer months you can book to climb its 164 steps; immediately below you slopes the equally eponymous Grey Street, voted by Radio 4 listeners Britain’s most beautiful. The neoclassical exterior of the Theatre Royal is the stand-out facade in Newcastle’s defining district from that same period.  

Grainger Town takes its name from self-made local builder Richard Grainger, who transformed 36 hectares into a commercial hub that remains a remarkably cohesive conservation district. Centrepiece has to be the Grainger Market, home to 100 stalls, recently restored to the tune of £9 million. Pick up a hand-kneaded stottie from the French Oven. It’s a traditional flat disc of doughy bread. Buy one ready filled or pick you own cheese option from Matthew’s Cheese. They stock 150 types from across Europe, but when in Newcastle… it would be wrong not to sample such local gems as  Northumberland Nettle or Doddington’s Cuddy’s Cave. This gives you one taste of Newcastle, but temples to sport and art offer a more thrilling perspective.

Awa the lads! St James’ Park is the stuff of legends

Heroes don’t come much mightier than Alan Shearer, Sir Bobby Robson and Wor Jackie Milburn. Home-grown football legends across different eras, each has earned a statue at the home of Newcastle United. Expect the Magpies’ adopted son, the recently departed Kevin Keegan, to join them in bronze. This is a fervent football city, which makes a tour of the ground especially worthwhile. Next best thing to attending a match. St James’ is a mere seven minute walk from Grey’s Monument. On match nights the floodlights add a magic to the city centre. Book a stadium tour here. Highly recommended.

The Baltic – visions of a post industrial city

Football was a key part of an industrial city when shipbuilding was king and remained so when it declined and traditional communities became marginalised. One Newcastle-born photographer chronicled that decline and now four of Tish Murphy’s major series are on show at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Twenty-five years ago this major milestone with its vast gallery spaces sprang from the derelict shell of Baltic Flour Mills on the Gateshead bankof the Tyne. It is good to see it celebrating (Close To Home, until April 4 2027) one of the city’s own, born in South Shields, the third in a family of 10. Check out a wonderful documentary on BBC Iplayer, which traces her career triumphs against the odds. The new show is equally remarkable.

The ‘Blinking Eye’ – a 21st century Toon icon

The amazing Gateshead Millennium Bridge debuted in 2001, 10 months before the adjacent Baltic’s launch. Both define the city’s resurgence. The £22m structure  consists of two arches. One is the pedestrian and cycle way across the Tyne, the other the overhead support. At specific times it tilts as a single rigid structure. As the top arch rotates downward, the pedestrian pathway rises upward like a closing eyelid. Hence the nickname. This creates a 25m clearance for shipping and, of course, can strand you if you are caught unawares.

Dakota Newcastle Hotel – worth it for the view alone

With no advance warning we had a bird’s eye view (sic) of its tilting from our fourth floor Signature Suite in The Dakota, bang across from the Baltic. It was our spectacular second base, handily placed on the Quayside between the city centre attractions and happening Ouseburn. All other Dakota hotels (including Manchester and Manchester Airport) are new-builds, but this is a transformation of St Ann’s Wharf, once a law firm HQ. It may well be my favourite among the group, much of it down to the warmth of the Geordie welcome. 

The bar was buzzing and the doormen shared their memories of those football legends of yore and the run-down Toon so vividly recorded by Tish Murtha. Dinner in The Grill, majoring on meat, matched the immaculate standards you expect from Dakota; ditto at breakfast. The hotel has 118 beautifully appointed  rooms with The Grand Deluxe Suite Newcastle’s largest and most luxurious, featuring two bedrooms, a private dressing area, a fireplace, a steam shower, and a roll-top bath. We were delighted with our more modest corner Signature Suite that offered those stunning views of the lit-up Quayside and beyond.

Head west along Quayside to the city’s medieval heart

Just a 10 minute walk from the Dakota you’ll find the street called Sandhill. There since Roman times, it was once literally a hill of sand when the tide was out. Reclaimed, by the 15th century it was a coveted address. Among the merchant’s mansions was what is today known as The Surtees House. Its celebrity comes from  a famous elopement of 1772. Determined to marry the man of her choosing, young Bessie Surtees used knotted bedsheets to escape via a first floor window (marked  today by a plaque). Happy ending after a marriage in Scotland? Her beau, an ‘unsuitable’  coal merchant’s son, eventually rose to be Lord Eldon, Lord Chancellor of England. Eldon Square shopping centre celebrates his memory via the usual high street brands.

The elopement was one of many fascinating stories recounted on a guided tour with Anne Grissa of Newcastle City Guides. From her we also learned that a lightning strike decapitated Earl Grey in 1941, the statue’s head not restored until after the War. And she brought a whole new dimension to our perception of Bigg Market,  a calmer place now than in its partying heyday. Bigg, was a type of barley grown and traded in the area since the Neolithic era. Anne pointed out the silvery metal grains of bigg embedded in the street furniture in homage. Blink and you’d miss them. Proof of the benefits of an expert tour.

Head east along the to Ouseburn, industrial cradle reborn

Eclectic creative community? Look no further than the converted warehouses and green spaces that cluster round a trickling tributary of the Tyne. For a tourist attraction check out the Victoria Tunnel, a 19th-century coal wagon way and World War II air-raid shelter offering guided historical tours via the Ouseburn Trust. I’d prefer to stay overground on a gentle streamside walk up to Byker Bridge and the community-run Ouseburn Farm.

Those warehouses are now home to leftfield artists’ studios, while The Biscuit Factory is the UK’s largest independent art, craft, and design gallery. There’s a thriving music scene at venues like The Cluny and a wealth of boozing opportunities – pubs and microbreweries.

Pick has to be the cosy waterside Free Trade Tavern, which combines a stupendous view down the Tyne with an exceptional cask and craft beer roster. On our visit it was hosting a tap takeover from legendary Bristol brewers Left Handed Giant.

Essential eating out spot has to be The Cook House, offering inspired modern British cooking from Anna Hedworth. This architect and self-taught cook opened the original in nearby shipping containers before creating this Scandi-esque dining space with outdoor decking. Anna’s latest cookbook, Service, whetted my appetite and our lunch more than lived up to its blandishments. We also dined handsomely at Long Friday, Cook House offshoot up in affluent Jesmond.

How Newcastle has embraced the craft beer movement

The Free Trade Tavern may be my star beer bar, but there’s plenty of competition. Seek out the Mosaic Tap near the station or the three tiny bars that form a Hoppy Triangle north of the Monument – Town Mouse, The Wobbly Duck and Mean-Eyed Cat. Or maybe a brewery taproom is your bag? Go to Donzoko (open-Thu to Sun) next to Byker Bridge; Helles is the pick of their Germanic styles

Better still trek to Wylam Brewery Tap (Fri-Sun), in the domed, Art Deco Palace of Arts up in Exhibition Park. Jakehead IPA is as impressive as the setting with strong claims to be the signature Newcastle beer (Newkie Brown is now brewed far away in Tadcaster). If the 15 minute walk from Haymarket Metro Station is too much for you, Wylam also run an atmospheric Quayside hostelry, the Sandhill Arms, next door to the Bessie Surtees House.

A trio of quirky dining destinations

You want history with your pan haggerty? Blackfriars is housed in a 13th century Dominican refectory and has claims to be the oldest dining room in the UK. Pan haggerty is a thrifty North East dish of sliced potatoes, carrots and onions. Here as a gratin it gets a posh makeover involving truffle, pickled walnuts and black garlic.

The Small Canteen has no such historic claims. It is a 15 cover converted sandwich shop in Sandyford on the way to Jesmond. Despite the ‘no frills’, the quality of chef Sam Betts’ cooking has earned it a spot in the Good Food Guide’s 100 Best Local Restaurants. Jay Rayner dubbed it “bloody marvellous”. Best to book by text message. Expect an intimate dining experience. The equally tiny menu shifts regularly. We felt blessed with our substantial confits of duck.

In its own right Riley’s Fish Shack is worth the 25 minute Metro ride to Tynemouth, one of the UK’s coolest seaside towns with a ruined Priory and a wealth of indie shops. Under blue skies we roamed the vast Longsands strand and then decamped to the more enclosed King Edward’s Bay to breathe in the salt air bang on the beach. From the wood-fired grill we were brought a duo of unforgettable crab soufflés, followed by a seared monkfish wrap and a  dover sole in a mushroom dressing.  With a bottle of benchmark Muscadet. Yes it is definitely a shack, but the food is palatial.

Take tea at Jesmond Dene House, perfect Newcastle hideaway

Back from the Shack it was hard to resist a tea-time splurge at this luxurious boutique hotel we were staying at a mile and a half north of the city centre. For £32 a head it surely offers one of the best afternoon teas in the land in an elegant Arts and Crafts setting. Despite the recent Muscadet, we did add on a glass of English sparkling rosé for an extra £14. In the same restaurant at breakfast an ample helping of Craster kippers made up for not being able to fit in dinner there.

But then Jesmond Dene House is all about indulgence, easy to walk off in the nearby glades of Jesmond Dene park, a 3km stretch of greenery in the middle reaches of the Ouseburn, home to kingfishers and red squirrels.

The Grade II listed House itself, which became a hotel in 2005 and now has 40 rooms, dates back to the Georgian period. Yet it is the late Victorian expansion bankrolled by new owner Sir Andrew Noble that define its look today. A west wing, Great Hall and Gothic porch were added. The panelling, plasterwork, stone carvings, exuberant chimneys and stained glass are pure Arts and Craft Movement. Renovations by current owners the Kronen Collection have respected that vibe.

We stayed in the latest addition, the New House, in a lavish suite with its own private patio named after Noble’s business partner, armaments and shipping magnate Lord William Armstrong.

Our day’s surfeit of sea air, dover sole and monkfish, fancies, savouries and scones, then an exquisitely comfortable bed, ensured a night of deep sleep.