Historic paintings of Newcastle set to be sold at auction
Sep 7 2010 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
A DETAILED picture of the Newcastle of 150 years ago has emerged from historic items up for auction.
Today a batch of watercolour paintings of old buildings in Newcastle will be sold by city auctioneers Anderson & Garland.
They are the work of artist James Wood, who died in 1886 and whose early career focused on depicting historic landmarks in what was then still a town.
The portrayal of a now largely lost Newcastle includes the New Gate, Pandon Gate, West Gate and Pilgrim Gate, engraver Thomas Bewick’s workshop near St Nicholas Cathedral, clown and theatre owner Billy Purvis’ house at the Close, Sallyport Tower when used as a school house in 1850, and Cromwell’s cottage at Stella in Gateshead.
Newcastle Library has a collection of Wood’s watercolour street scenes.
Today’s batch is expected to fetch £200-£300.
“James Wood must have been interested in history and felt that these places needed to be recorded,” said Anderson & Garland’s Steven Moore. “It is an important series of images from what in many respects is a vanished Newcastle.”
The picture of the town is filled in by a mass of detail in two Ordnance Survey atlases from 1861, which will be sold on Thursday.
The huge books cover the town centre and what were then outlying handfuls of buildings in rural surroundings, but which are now Newcastle suburbs.
Fenham Hall is isolated in the countryside, Denton Burn consists of three buildings, High Heaton is a scattering of homes and a colliery, Cowgate is a few structures and a windmill, while Brandling Village in Jesmond is set in wide open spaces.
Newcastle as a drinking circuit is also nothing new.
In 1861 the small area between St Nicholas Cathedral and the Castle Keep was home to a cluster of pubs including the Burns Tavern, Meter’s Arms, Burnt House pub, Grapes Inn, Sun Inn and the Union pub.
In the Groat Market were the Black Boy Inn, Crown and Thistle Hotel, White Horse, Lord Chancellor’s and the Flying Horse.
Off adjacent Pudding Chare were to be found the Friendly Sons of Erin pub, the Collingwood, the Hatter’s Arms, Salutation Inn, Rose Inn and the Wellington Hotel.
Breweries also abounded, including the Stag Brewery off New Bridge Street, Sandyford Brewery, Leazes Brewery, Barras Bridge Brewery and malt kilns, Haymarket Brewery with its nearby Cock and Anchor and Crow’s Nest pubs, Haymarket Hotel and Plough Inn.
The most striking factor is how, in the town centre, industries of all types sat cheek by jowl with homes.
Opposite the Bonded Warehouses on the Quayside, where the Copthorne Hotel now stands, were a bottle works, foundry, steam mill, and timber yard, with the Malthouse Brewery.
The needs of the workers were catered for by the nearby Old Dolphin pub, Dolphin Tavern and the Wagon and Horses.
The Forth Banks and Skinnerburn area was home to the Hawthorn Engine Works, gas works, iron works, glass works a pottery and a wrestling ground, while opposite St Andrew’s Church in Newgate Street is an iron works.
Off Northumberland Street, long before it became a focus for shopping, was the Orphan House and Wesleyan Schools, Royal Victoria Lunatic Asylum and a coach manufactory.
Leazes Terrace looks out on to open land which would one day be St James’ Park.
