The Brass Man was photographed on Collingwood Street in 1966. It is a rare example of a pub’s nickname becoming its official title, and it’s all thanks to William Shakespeare. The colour photo shows the same location today for comparison.
Newcastle’s first Theatre Royal was on Mosley Street, and there was a pub opposite it called the Shakespeare Inn. It remained there after the theatre was demolished in 1836 to be replaced with the present Theatre Royal on Grey Street.
The Shakespeare was bought in 1861 by a wine and spirit merchant called George Gibson. He was building up a large portfolio of pubs and hotels that would later include the Post Office Inn, the Crown Posada, and the Douglas Hotel; but he didn’t have the Shakespeare for long.
It was demolished in 1870 and a large branch of the National Provincial Bank was built on the site at the corner of Mosley Street and Dean Street. Gibson transferred the licence and the name of the pub to a house at 3, Collingwood Street. He took with him a brass bust of William Shakespeare, which had stood on the counter of the old Shakespeare Inn for as long as anyone could remember.
Shakespeare’s head took pride of place in his new pub, which quickly became known as ‘the Brass Man’. Gibson was a councillor and was also known as the Brass Man among his colleagues at the nearby Town Hall.
The Brass Man had only a few years left when the black and white photo was taken. The pub and the tobacconist to its left occupied the last two original buildings on Collingwood Street, dating to around 1810. So there was much consternation at plans to replace them with a concrete office block.
The last pint was pulled at the Brass Man on Saturday, August 14th 1971, with its demolition happening shortly afterwards. The replacement building housed the First National Bank of Chicago, so this was the second time Shakespeare had been booted out by a bank.
It’s not clear what happened to him next, but perhaps his parting words were “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”.
Photo credits: Embleton Collection / Newcastle Stuff.