We step back to a Newcastle city centre scene 90 years ago.
This was Darn Crook in the Gallowgate area.
These days it's got a different name - it’s called St Andrew’s Street after the nearby ancient church.
It runs on to Newgate Street.
Just behind it is Stowell Street.
A couple of minutes’ walk away is St James’ Park.
Our photograph was taken on February 28, 1931, and Darn Crook was busy with traders’ traffic.
There don’t seem to be many parking restrictions as goods lorries unload meat, vegetables and household goods to the various stores and outlets. The keen-eyed will also spot a beer wagon bearing the words “Bottlers of Bass”.
This would have been delivering crates of booze to the Newcastle Arms, still one of the city’s best and oldest pubs.
Newcastle historian Steve Ellwood points out that, in Ward’s Directory, there is reference to the bar as early as 1850. Then, in 1902, it seems to have been rebuilt for a Mr Richard Charlton.
Meanwhile, on Newgate Street in the distance, Steve identifies the rather attractive building as another watering hole, the Bacchus. It served the thirsty folk of Newcastle from 1822 until it was bulldozed in 1972 to make way for the new Eldon Square shopping complex. The pub next door, Bourgogne’s, suffered the same fate. Today, a later incarnation of the Bacchus trades on High Bridge across the city.
Darn Crook has its roots deep in the city’s history.
Its name possibly derives from it being a dark, dingy twisting lane in those distant times.
One of Newcastle’s many streams, the Lam Burn, is culverted beneath the modern-day street. Prisoners from the long-demolished nearby Newgate Prison were said to have been allowed to wander up here occasionally.
Take a wander to the area and you’ll see some remaining stretches of the old Town Wall. In 1810, a length of the wall at the top of Darn Crook was demolished to allow the cul-de-sac to connect to Gallowgate.
In 1644, as the nation was convulsed by the ongoing English Civil War, it was in this area that the Town Wall was finally breached by the besieging Scots, as they entered and occupied Newcastle.
When our older photograph was taken, tough times were engulfing the North East.
In 1930, there were more than one million men in Britain without a job. By 1932, the figure had risen to three million as heavy industry was decimated. Millions, including people in our region, were forced to use soup kitchens and, in an age before benefits, some folk were forced to scrape around old slag heaps to find coal to heat their homes.
On a brighter note, across Newcastle a new picture palace, the Paramount (later the Odeon) opened its doors in 1931 as cinema audiences rocketed. And a year later, Newcastle United lifted the FA Cup at Wembley, beating Arsenal 2-1.
Don't miss our new Memory Lane local history website that's packed with archive photographs and has an easy-to-use picture colourisation tool.
