This photo was taken in 1893 when the Dean Street Railway Viaduct was being widened, the men were working on the highest scaffolding ever seen in Newcastle at that time.
The viaduct is a marvel of Victorian engineering, built in 1848 by the Newcastle & Berwick Railway Company so their passengers could cross the new High Level Bridge and continue their journey towards Edinburgh. The eastern approach was skillfully slotted between the Norman Castle Keep and the mediaeval Black Gate before the viaduct itself soars eighty feet high above the gorge carved out by the Lort Burn, a river which now runs beneath Dean Street. It’s still one of the most impressive structures in Newcastle.
The railway company would have thought the viaduct was completed when the first locomotive crossed it in the summer of 1848, but unfortunately for them, the job was far from over. The opening of the Central Station increased the traffic over the viaduct and it was decided to widen it. So the whole job had to be done again, with a second approach and viaduct running alongside the original ones.
Work began in early 1893 when houses were pulled down behind the Black Gate, and the Dog Leap Stairs were demolished. The scaffolding for the viaduct went up in the summer, and two years later the viaduct was declared open for locomotives on June 9th, 1895. The railway company built a new set of steps called Dog Leap Stairs alongside the widened viaduct, a few yards north of where the originals had been.
When the viaduct first opened in 1848, the Castle Keep and the Black Gate were in a dilapidated state and an embarrassment to the town, especially as the town was named after the Castle. Work began immediately on restoring the Castle, and the Black Gate was pulled back from the brink of collapse in 1883 and fully renovated.
By the time the viaduct was widened, the Castle Keep, High Level Bridge, Black Gate and the Dean Street Railway Viaduct provided visitors and locals with unrivalled views. There isn’t anywhere else in Britain with as dramatic a mix of Norman, mediaeval and Victorian architecture, on such a huge scale, as this corner of Newcastle.