Newcastle, England - Guide

Newcastle - General Information

Newcastle started its life two thousand years ago as a Roman Fort built along Hadrian’s Wall and, in its original heyday, was an important centre for the wool trade. It also later became a major coal mining – and exporting – area (hence the phrase ‘coals to Newcastle’). By the late 19th-century Newcastle was amongst the world's largest shipbuilding and ship-repairing centres and became a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. In the late 20th century, the city went through some tough times and became a byword for urban blight. But it has now re-emerged as a centre for culture and science.

Newcastle

The centre of the city is compact, walkable and full of lovely neoclassical architecture, much of which has been recently restored. It still follows a medieval street layout, with lots of narrow alleys or ‘chares’ stretching down to the riverside. The Tyne River itself runs through the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle on the north bank and Gateshead on the south bank. It’s famous for the bridges that span it, some of them historic (the High Level Bridge was the first road/rail bridge in the world) and some startlingly modern (the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, an innovative tilting structure.) The Newcastle/Gateshead Quayside area is now a thriving, cosmopolitan district with bars, restaurants and public spaces.

In addition to these attractions, Newcastle also boasts a thriving Chinatown, the UK’s first biotechnology village (the "Centre for Life") and the vast Town Moor, which lies immediately north of the city centre and is larger than Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath, making it the perfect place to get some fresh air after a late night out partying.

There are notable concentrations of pubs, bars and nightclubs around the Bigg Market and the Quayside area of the city centre. Other popular areas for nightlife are Collingwood Street, Neville Street, the Central Station area and Osborne Road in the Jesmond area. In recent years "The Gate" has opened in the city centre: a new indoor complex consisting of bars, upmarket clubs, restaurants and a 12-screen Empire multiplex cinema.

Newcastle is a shopper’s paradise. The main shopping throughfare is Northumberland Street, which has been ranked as the most expensive street for retail property outside of London. Currently undergoing a full redevelopment, the Eldon Square Shopping Centre incorporates the first and largest Fenwick department store in the UK, and a John Lewis store (also known as Bainbridges), which is sometimes claimed as the first department store in the world. And of course the largest indoor shopping centre in Europe – the MetroCentre – is located in Gateshead, south of the river.

Metro Centre

In terms of retail area, the MetroCentre in Swalwell, Gateshead is the largest shopping centre in the European Union. It has around 330 shops, occupying 1.78 million square feet (165,000 m²) and attracts 24 million visitors per year. Parking is plentiful and free, but traffic going in and out can be heavy. Thankfully, however, the centre’s transport interchange has a large bus and railway station, providing good links to Newcastle. In particular, it is connected to Gateshead metro station by the X66 bus service and to Newcastle Central metro station by the heavy rail services to Newcastle railway station.