The ancient Duke of Cumberland Inn is pictured here on The Close in June of 1886. The photo can be dated by the advertisement for ‘Nana’, a portrait of a reclining nude that caused a sensation when it was exhibited in Newcastle.
The painting was by the Russian artist Marcel Suchorowsky and billed as ‘The Wonder of the Art World’ when it was shown at the Academy of Arts on Blackett Street. The beauty of the model, the lifelike qualities and the risqué pose created a considerable stir when it toured Victorian England. Thirty-two thousand people in Newcastle paid sixpence to see it in the summer of 1886, the majority of them women.
The building in the photo was thought to date from the fifteenth century, around the same time as the nearby Cooperage. It was situated near the north end of the old Tyne Bridge and had arrow slits in its walls, which suggests it was once a fortified home, designed to defend the occupants from attacking armies crossing the river.
The upper floors were added during the Jacobean period when it was converted into an inn, which may have been named in celebration of the Duke of Cumberland, who ended the Jacobite Rebellion when he defeated Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army at Culloden in 1746. Its nickname was the ‘Yellow Doors’, on account of the bright paint on the shutters, which made it easy to spot by travellers arriving in Newcastle from the south.
It was a considerably larger building when it was bought by James Renwick in 1843 after the suicide of its landlady Mrs Carnaby, who jumped to her death from an attic window. He wasn’t best pleased when a compulsory purchase order was obtained in 1847, and the western half of it was demolished to accommodate one of the pillars that support the High Level Bridge.
It was by then owned by the North Eastern Railway Company, who neglected the building. It stood at the foot of a steep hill and was extremely damp, owing to rainwater washing through it, and the front wall bulged outwards due to subsidence. It was in this sorry state in September 1898 when the landlord Robert Potts applied to the magistrates for a renewal of its licence.
This was objected to by the police on the grounds that the premises were in an insanitary, dangerous and dilapidated condition. It was Police Superintendent Findlay’s opinion that the building may fall down at any time. The Bench agreed unanimously that it was structurally unsuitable to hold a licence, and the renewal was refused. The Duke of Cumberland Inn was demolished shortly afterwards.