These two photos illustrate how dramatically Newcastle’s Quayside has changed in recent decades. The bleak transit sheds in the first image have made way for the Pitcher & Piano, marking the shift from a working riverfront to a place for leisure.
The black and white photo is from around 1970 when these sheds were becoming redundant due to the introduction of container ships, which offloaded their cargo at modern facilities downriver from here. But Newcastle had been a busy seaport when the sheds were built in 1910, and they were among the last vestiges of the Tyne’s heyday to survive.
They were part of a scheme to rebuild Newcastle’s waterfront, a project almost as ambitious in scale and cost as Richard Grainger’s redevelopment of the town centre in the 1830s. It began when Newcastle Corporation received Parliamentary approval in 1904 to replace the quay between the Swing Bridge and the Milk Market, and extend it along the North Shore towards the Ouseburn and beyond.
This new quay was lined with sheds like the ones in the first photo, and there were ships moored alongside them as far as the eye could see. Their cargo was unloaded by dockers and stored in the transit sheds before being despatched by road or rail to their final destination. Ships were also loaded with products from Newcastle’s mighty industrial base, destined for the four corners of the world.
The sheds in the photo stood on the London Wharf, where much of Newcastle’s trade with the capital took place. Passenger ships also plied their trade from here, notably the Bernicia and her sister ship the Hadrian. They provided a scheduled service to London every Wednesday and Saturday in the 1920s; it took about 24 hours and single tickets cost a quid. This was about the same price as the train or coach fare, but was a more exciting journey.
Those days were long gone when the first of these photos was taken, and by the 1980s the transit sheds were occupied by car mechanics and other tradesmen. The Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race visited Newcastle in 1986, and the following year this part of the Quayside was cleared of its sheds, as the Tyne & Wear Development Corporation began the second major redevelopment of the area.
Over £100m was spent clearing away the Quayside’s maritime past and replacing it with offices and housing. The Pitcher & Piano was built on the same spot as the sheds in 1996, and was joined by the Gateshead Millennium Bridge five years later. Nowadays, the Quayside is a popular place to live, work, and play.
However, despite all that investment, nobody managed to fix the puddle that appears in both photos.