Percy Street

Percy Street, near the Haymarket, has two of the finest buildings in Newcastle in The Bruce Building and The Grand Hotel both of which I believe are now owned and used by Newcastle University. Percy Street is also where most of the buses that come into Newcastle from around the region drop people off.

A few of the buildings on Percy Streeet also feature on my Newcastle University page.






7th October 2023



Sam Fender/Adidas Mural.

The mural, on the corner Morden Street and Percy Street, is by Bristol based artist and designer Jody Thomas. It features Sam Fender and Adidas Gazelle.

Commenting on the huge Adidas mural, a spokeswoman for the brand said it was part of a new campaign that features stars including Sam Fender.






17th July 2023



Percy Street Car Park.






6th November 2022



Percy Street no. 11.

Number 11 stands out from the other buildings in the vicinity. It is a two storey brick building with an attic and stone decoration contrasting with the red brick material.

The building is now divided into two shops, but was originally the premises of a carriage works and still bears the sign ‘Carriage Proprietors. T Howe and Co. Carriage Proprietors’. The building is also significant as the original home of the People’s Theatre when it was set up in the early 1900s as the ‘Clarion Dramatic Club’.

Source: Sitelines.




Percy Street, Nos. 101, 103, 107-111.

This Victorian section of Percy Street West is more elaborate than many of the Georgian buildings on the rest of the street. Despite the buildings being individual, several similar features are carried throughout the group.

The section is mostly three storey red brick, although some sections have attics and some have features decorated with red sandstone. The shop fronts are broken by a grey stone carriage arch beneath a two storey canted oriel window, itself below an ornately shaped gable. This gable feature is repeated in a dormer window in another part of the section.

Source: Sitelines.




The Bruce Building.

Built 1896 - 1900 by Joseph Oswald as offices for Newcastle Breweries Ltd. A red sandstone ground floor and bright red upper floors gives the building a prominent appearance. Grey granite plinth, red sandstone ashlar ground floor; bright red brick upper floors with red sandstone dressings. Roof of plain tiles; copper fishscale dome to turret.

3 storeys and attic. At left a double door, and fanlight on wood band inscribed NEWCASTLE BREWERIES LTD and covered with art nouveau wrought iron grille. Flanking long brackets from plinth to entablature with Jacobean ornament on pulvinated frieze, over door.



Interior: faience entrance hall, faience architraves to doors with pulvinated friezes and scroll pediments; strapwork stucco decoration to many ceilings; deep ornamental stucco friezes. Many richly carved mahogany chimney pieces. Marble stair has wrought iron balustrade and wide-grip handrail. Frosted glass doors, one pair CLERK'S OFFIVE and ACCOUNTANT'S OFFICE.



Grade 2 Listed. Source: Sitelines.






9th June 2022



The Bruce Building.




Percy Street, Nos. 79 to 95 (including Percy Arms).

The buildings of Percy Street West are all Georgian brick structures, which are now used as shops and pubs. The designs vary from building to building, although a coherent style is maintained in several of the buildings.

Number 79 stands out from the other buildings in the vicinity. It is, like the others, a three storey brick building, however it has ornate stone decoration on its first and second floors. The first floor windows are flanked by stone columns and topped by pediments. The second floor windows also have stone surrounds and the central window is topped by an ornately decorated pediment.

Source: Sitelines.




Percy Street nos. 13-21.




Three Bulls Heads.

Shown on Ordnance Survey second edition. Behind the Three Bulls' Heads there was the Percy Street Brewery, which was run by Henry Rudolphus Ritzema from 1850 to 1853. The brewery was taken over by George Southern for a short time. The brewery, which had a two-horse-power steam engine, could produce 35 half barrels per brewing.

In 1984 Bass owned the Three Bulls Heads. They wanted to extend the pub into the amusement arcade next door but the late eighteenth century brickwork of the pub was found to be unsafe and had to be demolished. What is there now is a complete rebuild.

Source: Sitelines.




The Crows Nest.

Shown on Ordnance Survey second edition. Known as Inventions and Bar Oz in the 1980s and 1990s. Has now reverted to its original name again.

In 2014 the first and second floors were recorded by ASUD along with the adjoining Line Building. The rooms contained elaborate plasterwork decoration. On the first floor this was largely hidden by subdivisions and suspended ceiling. On the second floor there is a large panelled ballroom with a decorated plaster vault.

Source: Sitelines.






19th June 2022







The Newcastle Moss Tree.




Percy Street Car Park.





The Bruce Building.











26th November 2017




Former Grand Hotel.

1-24 Barras Bridge is the former Grand Hotel, and is now shops and accommodation.

The name ‘Grand Hotel’ is carved in to stone at the top of the building between two ball-finial capped gables. The front of the four storey building is made of stone, the back is of brick.

The shop fronts on the ground floor are separated by pillars which are carved at the top. The first floor windows are topped with ornate carving and the second floor windows have small triangular pediments, except in the bays beneath the gables, where the pediments are more elaborate. The façade is capped by a stone balustrade.

Source: Sitelines.






Kings Gate, Newcastle University.




The INTO Building, Newcastle University.

INTO University Partnerships Ltd is an organisation which works with several university partners to provide specialist degrees and pathway programmes designed for international students. The main building of INTO Newcastle University, on Percy Street, opened in September 2012. INTO are also partners with Newcastle University for the Newcastle University London campus. The main INTO Building in Newcastle connects to the Line Building East via a pedestrian walkway.

Source: Co-Curate.




Line Building East.

The original Line Building East on Percy Street in Newcastle was built in the 1920s, and was demolished and rebuilt c.2015. The name of the building relates to its former owners, John Line and Sons Ltd., which was a national company which designed and produced wallpaper. A warehouse belonging to the company stood to the north of the Line Building and the two were connected by a bridge.

The building was purchased by The University of Durham, Kings College - later Newcastle University. Over time the building was used for the Strata Control Research Laboratory, the Department of Metallurgy and then the Archaeology Department. In the 1960s the University took over the first and second floors above the adjoining Crows Nest. A glazed bridge connected the two buildings. The Line Building East was demolished and replaced by a new four storey building, plus basement, with glazed bridge link at level 2 connecting the new building to the south west side of the main INTO Building at Newcastle University.

Source: Co-Curate.




Eldon Place, Claremont Buildings.

Shops and offices, now University Chaplaincy. Dated 1896 by W. Hope for Fairless Harrison, tanner; 1905 additions. Steel frame and sandstone ashlar; graduated slate roof with copper dome to turret. 3 storeys and attic, 6 irregular bays.

Pilasters, Doric Order on ground floor and Composite on first, define 4 right bays with shop windows on ground floor and similar windows on first. 2 left bays have office entrance at right under segmental canopy; altered ground floor to these and to third bay. Sash windows elsewhere, those on second floor grouped, in panelled pilasters under segmental pediments. Right corner entrance to shop under corbelled turret. Gabled dormers over 2 left bays and 3 right, linked by pierced parapet, have raised shaped pediments and ball finials. Tall ashlar chimneys.

Grade 2 Listed. Source: Sitelines.







The Bruce Building.




The Grand Hotel.







Footpath and road works.








The Haymarket Bus Station.




Prudhoe Place junction.






The Percy Arms.




Mark Toney.




Three Bulls Heads.




Percy Street Car Park.




The Goose.



















9th November 2014



The Grand Hotel.




The Crows Nest.




The INTO Building, Newcastle University.




The Bruce Building.




Looking South West along Percy Street.




The Haymarket Bus Station.






11th June 2014








25th December 2013








12th January 2012




View from the top of the car park.






22nd February 2009



Newcastle University.




The Grand Hotel and Newcastle University.




Claremont Buildings.





The Bruce Building.




Percy Street Car Park.




View from the top of the car park.




The Magic Box and Eldon Gardens.




Eldon Gardens.




Haymarket Metro Redevelopment.





The Percy Arms.





The Grand Hotel.












More Information:
Historical interest in Percy Street:
Past and present public houses/breweries in Percy Street:
Historical interest in Barras Bridge:
See my other photos around Percy Street:

2 comments:

Yvonne Young said...

I`ve walked past that Kiddie Kot building millions of times and haven`t really noticed it until this photo. The new building is really getting along quickly, looks a bit like the Sage.

Newcastle Photos said...

Funnily enough there was another reader commented on a different page yesterday saying something similar to what you said about not noticing something they walk past often until they see a photo of it.
I reckon most people in the town are just in too much of a hurry to notice stuff around them.

And yeh it does'nt take them long to build something new nowadays especially when its all the rage at the moment to have glass fronted buildings like that one and the new library.