Son of JB Priestley back in the North East

Oct 29 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

EVEN the Millennium Bridge put on a tilting performance for Tom Priestley yesterday as he followed in the footsteps of his famous father.

Tom, the son of author and dramatist JB Priestley, had arrived on the Tyne riverside 75 years after his father’s visit sparked uproar with his damning descriptions of the North East in his 1934 best selling book English Journey.

Visiting the region amid the Great Depression, he wrote how Gateshead appeared to have been designed by an enemy of the human race, of the “wastelands” of Wallsend, the ugliness and misery of Jarrow and the smoking volcano pit heaps and choking air of County Durham mining villages.

Yesterday Tom, a retired film editor who lives in London, took the chance to tour Newcastle after playing his part on Tuesday night in a packed Priestley event at the city’s Discovery Museum to mark the 75th anniversary of English Journey and the re-issue of the book.

JB had described Newcastle as being so black it looked like it had been carved out of coal, but yesterday Tom saw a very different picture.

His circuit included Grey Street, the Central Arcade, St Nicholas Cathedral, the Castle Keep and the regenerated quaysides of Newcastle and Gateshead.

He said: “I have been impressed, I must say. London is so crowded, but here people have the space to walk freely and enjoy places and the city centre is on a human scale.”