This photograph was taken around 1895 and shows the entrance to High Bridge viewed from the Bigg Market. There are two long-gone pubs in the picture: the old Beehive on the right fell down in 1901, and we can see the Black Bull in the distance on the left side of High Bridge. Ewan McDonald murdered a customer here and was hanged for it, but survived the execution.
This was the second Beehive in the area, the original one occupied an ancient building a few yards away that was a remnant of Middle Street, which ran between the Cloth Market and the Groat Market. The pub and its neighbour, Humble’s basket shop, were demolished in May of 1863 because they were spoiling the view of the newly-built Town Hall directly behind them.
The pub moved into the building on the right of the photo shortly afterwards, but it collapsed on December 2nd 1901 because its foundations were disturbed when the building on the opposite corner of High Bridge was being pulled down and replaced. The current Beehive was built in its place the following year.
We can’t see much of the Black Bull, which is a shame, because it’s the only known photo of this famous old inn. Its frontage was on High Bridge but there was another entrance to it on the Bigg Market, immediately to the left of Young & Sons’ shop in the photo. It was owned by the Pinkney family in May of 1752, when a Scottish soldier called Ewan McDonald called in for a pint.
The Scots weren’t liked in Newcastle due hundreds of years of Border warfare; their army had attacked and occupied the town twice the previous century and treated the Geordies badly. Words were exchanged between a customer and McDonald, who drew a knife and stabbed him. He was tried for murder and sentenced to death, and the execution took place shortly afterwards in front of a huge crowd on the Town Moor.
McDonald wasn’t going down without a fight, he wrestled with the hangman and tried to throw him off the gallows. He was eventually hanged, but not thoroughly enough. His body was taken away for dissection, as was customary at the time, but he revived on the surgeon’s table and sat up. Not wanting to be deprived of such a strapping young specimen, the surgeon is said to have brayed him on the head with a mallet and proceeded to slice him up.
The Black Bull was demolished a year or so after the old Beehive fell down, when High Bridge was widened. The current Beehive is a popular and handsome pub, the exterior is clad with fancy green tiles and it’s a Grade II Listed Building.