These two photos looking east along Blackett Street were taken almost a century apart. The older one doesn’t have a date, but there are a couple of clues in the picture that help provide one.
The Eldon Grill is on the far right, it had been rebuilt by the wine merchant Farquhar Laing in 1893 after the ceiling in his basement restaurant collapsed, making the whole building unsafe. The building immediately next to it was rebuilt in 1927 and incorporated into the new Eldon Grill, so its presence in the older photo means it could have been taken no later than this. The rest of the buildings on the right side of Blackett Street are still with us.
That can’t be said for the buildings on the left of the photo, only one of which still stands today. It was built for the bookseller and stationer T&G Allan, but it’s just a facade now. To the left of that, you can see a shop sign and an awning with the name ‘Edgar Allan’ on them. He took over these premises from the stationer and picture dealer J.J. Longhurst in 1927, which is the year we can presume the older photo was taken.
You can see the tower of the Laing Art Gallery in the distance in both photos, the gallery was paid for by Farquhar Laing’s brother, Alexander Laing, and opened in 1904. He presented it to Newcastle Corporation but this was a mixed blessing, as the Corporation had no paintings to put in it. The Laing was originally attached to the old Central Library, which was pulled down in the 1960s, you can see the glass frontage of the current Central Library in front of it.
There’s another tower in the older photo above the tram, this belonged to the Pearl Assurance Building, which stood at the bottom of Northumberland Street until it was pulled down and replaced by the concrete building in the newer photo in 1972. It was known as ‘Cook’s Corner’ for many years, on account of it being occupied by the travel agents Thomas Cook.