Photographs Of Newcastle: Ouseburn 2014 to 2018

This page features the Ouseburn area from 2014 to 2018.

24th December 2018

View from across the River Tyne in Gateshead.

1st October 2018

The River Ouseburn.

The Toffee Factory.

The site was developed in the 1870’s as a location where livestock (cattle, sheep and pigs) imported from overseas could be held for twelve hours before being released to local markets. When these imports declined in the early 1900s, the large multi-storey building opposite was converted for use as a Maynards toffee works. You can see the chimney is made of lighter, newer bricks than the original building and probably dates from 1906 when the toffee works began operation.

The firm of Maynards had recently merged with a local confectionary maker called John Vose, and their new toffee works at Ouse Street was a feature of this area until the early 1970s. Their elegant chimney continues to be a landmark to this day, despite the damage caused by a severe fire in the 1990s. For over 200 years the banks of the Ouseburn have been extended into the river, and from the 1820s a quay wall was built to support riverside industries. The 1868 Ordnance Survey shows corn mills and brick works once occupied this site.

The former Maynards toffee factory now has 24 office units varying in size between 500sq ft and 800sq ft, units aimed at the commercial creative market such as graphic designers, software engineers and architects. The building is home to 160 staff. The remaining walls and floors of the existing Victorian building were preserved. The factory, which was under threat of demolition, is a throwback to when the Ouseburn Valley was at the heart of Tyneside’s industrial revolution.

Source: Newcastle Heritage.

Maling Street.

Lower Steenbergs Yard.

Back Maling Street.

Maling Street.

Cut Bank, glasswork flues.

These remains of a brick furnace reflect the importance of the Ouseburn glass industry. More accurately they are five flue arches belonging to the former Liddell-Henzell Bottle Works, which was founded in the 19th Century. The works were situated next to the Cut Bank Bridge over the Ouseburn.

Source: Sitelines.

17th July 2018

Taken around The Free Trade Inn.

The River Ouseburn meets the River Tyne.

30th May 2018

Lower Steenbergs Yard.

Maling Street.

The River Ouseburn.

20th September 2017

Maling Street, The Tyne Public House (Ship Tavern).

The Tyne public house, originally known as the Ship Tavern, has been an important part of the Ouseburn since the 19th Century. The Ship Tavern was opened in 1850 only to be destroyed by fire before 1895, when the pub was rebuilt as it stands today. This two storey building has decorated sandstone pillars and arched ground floor windows set in a brick face. The windows have leaded stained glass upper panes, and lower panes engraved ‘Ship Tavern’. The pub is known locally as the ‘Bottom Ship’.

Source: Sitelines.

2nd May 2017

Maling Street, The Tyne Public House (Ship Tavern).

The River Ouseburn meets the River Tyne.

The Ouseburn Barrage and Glasshouse Bridge.

Storage areas under Horatio Street.

7th April 2017

The River Ouseburn.

The Malings.

Lime Street.

21st February 2017

The Ouseburn Barrage.

Back Maling Street.

The Toffee Factory.

Glasshouse Bridge.

The site of the Glasshouse Bridge, at the confluence of the Ouseburn and the Tyne has long been a popular point at which to cross the Ouseburn Valley; there was a wooden bridge at a lower level as early as 1619. The 6-arch brick road bridge was built in 1878 and provided easier access to the industrial sites along the river bank. The name is derived from the former Glass Houses that stood on the eastern side of the Ouseburn Valley. Originally the bridge was known as New Glasshouse Bridge to differentiate it from the older Lower Glasshouse Bridge, which was demolished in 1908.

Source: Sitelines.

Ford Street and Walker Road junction.

20th December 2016

Stepney Road.

Stepney Road, Stepney Yard Student Accommodation.

15th November 2016

The Tyne Pub.

The Ouseburn Barrage.

The Tyne Bar from Quayside East.

23rd August 2016

Stepney Road.

A new cafe on Stepney Road directly underneath Byker Bridge.

16th March 2016

Crawford's Bridge.

The oldest of the surviving bridges crossing the lower Ouseburn. The name derives from Thomas Crawford who owned a number of properties in the area in the early C19.

Early/mid C18. Coursed squared sandstone. Segmental arch recessed under chamfered abutment; parapet courses follow slope of road, high at centre. Chamfered coping to parapet ending in low piers, with pyramidal coping to that at south-west, and continuous stretch of wall about three metres at north-east. Stone drains from road surface protrude through north-east and south-west faces. Mason's mark - diagonal cross in square - above road at centre of west parapet, O.S. bench mark above road at centre of east parapet.

Source: Sitelines.

1st March 2016

Looking south from Byker Bank.

20th October 2015

Byker Road Bridge.

Constructed in 1878 to overcome the need to descend and ascend the steep sides of the Lower Ouseburn Valley. 1878 for pedestrians, 1879 for raod traffic. A toll was charged for its use until 1895. Cost £50,000 to build. Originally a toll bridge. Purchased by City Council in 1890 for £107,500. Between 1878 and 1895 a toll of half a penny was charged for use of the brick bridge. Toll lifted 1895. In 1899 the bridge was widened from its original width of 9m to 15m.

Source: Sitelines.

Taken outside The Ship Inn.

Lime Street, No. 36, Flax Mill (Cluny Warehouse).

Built as a flax mill in 1848 on the site of an earlier corn mill, to the design of John Dobson for the firm of Plummer and Cooke, who previously owned the flax mill on the adjacent site which became Northumberland Lead Works. Flax was used to make linen and sail cloth. Originally steam powered the adjacent freestanding, recently restored chimney forms part of the original Dobson complex. Its use as a flax mill was short.

In 1866 it was bought by Proctor and Sons and converted to a flour mill. The building was extended in the mid 1870s when two brick warehouses were constructed - one for flour, the other for grain. The complex is shown on Ordnance Survey second edition as "Northumberland Mills".

Then taken over by Henry Leetham and Sons in 1900. A Miss Carr apparently lived in the garden house next to the big chimney and was employed by Leethams to test each batch of flour by baking small loaves of bread in her oven.

The flour mill stood empty for many years until it was taken over by McPhersons Wine and Spirit Merchants in the 1920s, who stored bonded whiskey under the brand name of Cluny. Now internally divided, it has a variety of users, mainly craftspersons or artists and a café bar.

Sandstone ashlar, later brick additions and attic storey date to 1870s, Welsh slate roof. The road between mill and chimney is at a much higher level than the internal cobbled yard into which the former coal shoots opened. One of the shoots retains its original metal shutter.

Grade 2 Listed. Source: Sitelines.

The rear of a stationers on Lime Street.

The Toffee Factory.

13th May 2015

The River Ouseburn.

7th April 2015

Lower Steenbergs Yard.

1st April 2015

Crawford's Bridge.

Stepney Bank, Ship Inn.

The Ship Inn is a popular and attractive traditional working class pub located in the heart of the Ouseburn, lying beneath Byker Bridge. In the past it was popular with the local abattoir workers. The building was originally part of a terrace in Stepney Bank which was destroyed during the 1930s

. It has been designed relatively simply. It has two storeys and an attic above with two dormers. The ground floor has large windows with painted stone lintels and sills. The façade is brick and the west side has been rendered white. Also on the side is a single storey modern garage extension.

Source: Sitelines.

Lime Street, No. 36, Flax Mill (Cluny Warehouse).

Ouseburn Valley.

Ouseburn Farm.

The Toffee Factory.

Horatio St, Blenkinsopp-Coulson Drinking Fountain.

Drinking fountain and portrait bust. 1914; signed Alexis Rudier and bust dated 1912. Sandstone, pink granite and bronze. Wide stone base; granite plinth and basins; sandstone pedestal with long inscription commemorating W.L. Blenkinsopp Coulson and his efforts to help the weak and defenceless 'among mankind and in the animal world'.

Larger-than-life bust has drapery wrapping round pedestal. Has two fountain bowls - one for humans, one for animals. The fountain originally stood in Percy Street before being moved to the Haymarket then in 1950 to its present site.

Statue to William Lisle Blenkinsopp-Coulson 1841-1911. Erected by public subscription. Bronze bust by A. Rechbers and cast by Alexis Rudier, Paris, surmounts a sandstone pedestal. There are two new rather crudely carved animal heads. The originals will have faucets discharging from the mouths of the beasts. There is now no water supply.

Grade 2 Listed. Source: Sitelines.

18th March 2015

The Toffee Factory.

Albion Row, Ouseburn Schools.

St. Lawrence Road, Free Trade Inn.

The former beerhouse probably opened shortly after the introduction of the 1830 Beer Act. Bought by Henry Davidson of the White Lion Brewery in 1888. Rebuilt in 1896 to designs by Oswald and Son. Their original design had two large decorative gables in Queen Anne revival style with ball finials and hooded canopy over the door.

Inside the bar had a V-shaped counter to echo the shape of the building. There was a club room upstairs. Henry Davidson opted for a cheaper design which increased the size of the tenant's accomodation and replaced the proposed club room with bedrooms. The façade hardly had any decoration apart from facings round the windows and a parapet inscribed with the name Free Trade.

In 1899 Matthew Wood, brewer from South Shields bought it. In 1911 there were structural alterations. The tenant's kitchen became a parlour, the bar counter was extended and the family room became part of the main bar. In 1919 the Free Trade became a Newcastle Breweries pub. In 1937 more internal partitions were removed.

It almost closed in 1947 when Newcastle Breweries applied to transfer the licence to a new pub to be built in Sackville Road. The Free Trade was not granted a full publican's licence until 1963. It is still a free house. Little of the original interior survives apart from the basic form of the bar counter and part of the back bar fitting.

Source: Sitelines.

Maling Street, The Tyne Public House (Ship Tavern).

25th February 2015

The Malings.

Panoramic View of the Ouseburn Valley.

7th October 2014

The Ouseburn Viaduct.

Ouseburn Viaduct is the sister viaduct of another at Willington. It is a wrought iron reconstruction of the original laminated timber structure, built by John Green in 1837-9. It is 918 feet (280 metres) long, with four stone approach arches and five main arches, carrying the railway 108 feet (33 metresetres) above the Ouseburn. The stone piers carried the original timber structure and were probably designed to be reused when the timber was replaced.

Grade 2 Listed. Source: Sitelines.

Byker Road Bridge.

Stepney Bank, Ship Inn.

Ouseburn Farm.

Lime Street, No. 36, Flax Mill (Cluny Warehouse).

Lower Steenbergs Yard.

29th September 2014

Looking N from under Byker Bank.

The River Ouseburn.

Byker Bank.

6th May 2014

Byker Road Bridge.

Stepney Road.

26th March 2014

Maling Street, The Tyne Public House (Ship Tavern).

7th March 2014

Panoramic View of the Ouseburn Valley.

1st January 2014

The Toffee Factory.

Ford Street, Cartright's Carriage Works.

In 1936 workshop buildings were built for the wheelwright Cartright on the site of the packing house for the Ford A Pottery. The Ordnance Survey fourth edition 6" to one mile plan of 1942 labels the building as 'Carriage Works'. The fifth provisional edition 1:2500 of 1952 labels it as a 'Coach Works'.

The building has latterly been in use as R and J Ince Builders and Timber Merchants and DS Motors and is now The Brinkburn Brewery.

Quite an attractive industrial building, brick single storey workshop with a square chimney which served the carriage works furnace. Two storey office at the the eastern end. Inside, the sandstone north wall of the previous pottery packing house survives and so does the tunnel which linked the packing house to Ford A Pottery.

Source: Sitelines.