Britain’s bicycle craze had reached its peak when members of the North Eastern Cycle Club were pictured outside Newcastle’s Grand Hotel in 1910. The second photo shows the same view on Barras Bridge today for comparison.
The craze had begun a couple of decades previously when the penny-farthing design was succeeded by the ‘safety bicycle’. The wheels were now both the same size so it was less dangerous to mount, and inflatable tyres gave a much smoother ride than the solid ones on the older boneshakers.
Bicycles were cheaper to own than a horse, so people pedalled to work until motor cars became affordable after World War I. They created a new leisure industry too, cyclists could leave the smelly streets of Newcastle and enjoy the surrounding countryside. Women were able to travel without a chaperone and with friends, their newfound freedom and independence played a role in the women’s rights movement.
Newcastle was at the forefront of biking innovation, Elswick Cycles had a factory behind Fenwick’s department store on Northumberland Street and was an internationally-known brand. There were several other bicycle retailers on the street; William Olliff’s Cycle Emporium took up the whole corner with New Bridge Street and included a cycling school.
Local newspapers covered the craze extensively. They published weekly columns about cycling, with interesting places to visit and updates on the condition of the roads. Bicycle races featured prominently in the sports pages, the contestants were often members of clubs like the one pictured here.
The North Eastern Cycling Club was about to depart on their annual ride to Barnard Castle when the photo was taken in May of 1910. The hundred-mile round trip would test many riders today on their modern machines, and was quite an ordeal for Edwardian cyclists on unsurfaced roads and bikes with no gears to help them up the hills.
Little wonder that the President and Lady President of the North Eastern Cycling Club, Mr and Mrs Pollock, preferred to make the journey in the comfort of the motor car on the left of the photograph.