The area behind Newcastle Central Station was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution, with world-changing feats of innovation taking place on and around Forth Banks. The Hawthorn Inn was present for most of this era and is pictured here in 1949. It is currently an Indian restaurant.
The pub was built in 1854 by a property developer called George Allison and takes its name from Robert Hawthorn, who had worked at Walbottle Colliery under the tuition of George Stephenson. He went into partnership with his brother William and they began building marine and stationary steam engines on Forth Banks in 1817.
George Stephenson and his son Robert opened the world’s first locomotive factory next to Hawthorn’s Engine Works in 1823. Two years later they built Locomotion No.1 for the Stockton & Darlington Railway Company and it became the first locomotive in the world to carry passengers on a public railway. One of the most innovative locomotives in the world, known as Stephenson’s Rocket, was built there too in 1829.
The Hawthorn brothers were inspired by the Stephensons’ success and began building locomotives as well, and the two companies exported their engines throughout the British Empire and beyond. Passengers in Delaware, USA were riding in carriages pulled by a locomotive called ‘Pride of Newcastle’ (later rebranded as the ‘America’) in 1829, and Stephenson engines were purchased for Russia’s first public railway.
There was more innovation on Forth Banks later that century, which was every bit as significant as the work of the Stephensons. In 1890, Sir Charles Algernon Parsons’ company built the first power station in the world to generate electricity commercially using steam-turbine driven generators. It was commissioned by the Newcastle and District Electric Lighting Company – which was co-founded by Parsons – to provide electricity for homes in the West End of Newcastle.
The fundamental principles of his steam turbine are still used in nearly every large-scale thermal power station throughout the world today. His innovation also revolutionized marine transport, becoming the engine of choice for nearly all high-speed vessels and warships after the sensational debut of his boat, Turbinia, in 1897. The blading and aerodynamics he developed were the essential groundwork for the later invention of the jet engine.
Meanwhile, the Hawthorn Inn provided refreshment for workers in the area, and there were thousands of them. Business must have been brisk enough by 1903 for its owners, Ridley, Cutter & Firth, to refront the building with its gorgeous Art Nouveau adornments. The arched entrance and windows are typical of the many pubs designed by local architect Benjamin Simpson, although there’s no evidence he was responsible for this one.
All of the heavy industry had left the area by the time the photo was taken in 1949, and the pub was looking down at heel. It ceased trading in 1955 and then became the home of the New Orleans Jazz Club. The building was renovated in 1983 and has been the home of an Indian restaurant called Sachins since then.
Photo credits: William Embleton Collection & Newcastle Stuff.