It was 1976. At sites across Tyneside, work was under way on the new Metro system which would revolutionise public transport in the region.
Under the streets of Newcastle, tunnels would be dug. There would be new bridges, notably across the River Tyne, and across the Ouseburn at Byker. And then there were the stations. Some would be repurposed from the old British Rail ones, while others would be built from scratch, like this one in Jesmond.
When the Metro started running in August 1980, Jesmond station would find itself situated on the line between Haymarket and West Jesmond.
It was built just to the North West of the original Jesmond railway station, which had opened in 1864 and was a stop on the Blyth and Tyne Railway. Sections of the old station lives on in the shape of The Carriage pub.
Before lockdown, 1.2 million passengers a year were passing through Jesmond Metro Station.
In the 2017 book, Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations, author Simon Jenkins picks out two Metro stations.
One is Tynemouth, which is of Victorian origin, and the other is Jesmond which makes a surprise appearance, given that it is a more contemporary station which first opened to the public only four decades ago.
Jenkins likes the Metro system which, he says, is “second only to the London Underground in urban transit design”, and he name checks Haymarket, Four Lane Ends, Pelaw, St Peter’s and Northumberland Park stations.
His favourite, however, is Jesmond with its black and plain glass flooding the interior with light, the view from the inside of the surrounding trees, dramatic abstract mural, and ornamental garden flanked by obelisks – “it is all faintly surreal,” he says.
Raf Fulcher's 1978 'Garden Front' described as suggesting "that one is looking at a detail of a classical garden preserved within a museum showcase" is one of two art commissions at the station.
The other is Simon Butler's Abstract Murals from 1983, featuring vitreous enamel panels cladding the station walls.
Jesmond Metro Station has come a long way in the 45 years since our photograph was taken.
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