City in Tyne and Wear, England
Newcastle
Newcastle's Tyne Bridge and Sydney Harbour Bridge were built by the same firm, Dorman Long, and the city also has a street voted Britain's best.
Key information
- County
- Tyne and Wear
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 300,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Newcastle United, the Tyne Bridge, Newcastle Brown Ale, Grey Street, Geordie culture and nightlife
- What locals are called
- Geordies
- Famous people
- Ant and Dec, Alan Shearer, Cheryl, Lord Armstrong
- Football clubs
- Newcastle United
About Newcastle
The Tyne Bridge's famous Australian twin
Look at the Tyne Bridge, then look at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The resemblance is no accident. Both were built by the Middlesbrough firm Dorman Long, and both share design influences, including New York's Hell Gate Bridge. The Tyne Bridge opened first, in 1928, performed by George V. Sydney's bridge design, though, came before it. It is one of seven bridges across the river within a short walk of each other, and each one tells a different chapter of Newcastle's engineering story. Robert Stephenson's High Level Bridge of 1849 carries trains above and road traffic below. The Swing Bridge of 1876 was the work of William Armstrong, built so that tall ships could still reach his Elswick works upriver. The Romans got there first. They built a bridge here called Pons Aelius, named after the emperor Hadrian's family, and Hadrian's Wall begins just down the river at Wallsend.
Why you can't carry coals to Newcastle
The old saying about carrying coals to Newcastle, meaning doing something pointless, exists because the city was the great coal port of England. For centuries, Tyneside coal was shipped down the coast to heat London. The "new castle" itself was built in 1080 by Robert Curthose, William the Conqueror's eldest son, and gave the city its name. The stone Keep still standing today went up later, between 1172 and 1177 under Henry II. Coal also made Newcastle a place of invention. George Stephenson's engineering firm built locomotives here, including the Rocket in 1829. Joseph Swan demonstrated his incandescent electric lamp to the city's Literary and Philosophical Society in 1879. Armstrong's works turned out cranes, guns and warships, and made him one of the richest men in Victorian Britain.
Who exactly is a Geordie?
Locals are Geordies, and so is their dialect, famous for words like "howay" (come on), "canny" (good or nice), "bairn" (child) and "hinny" (a term of endearment). Nobody can say for sure where the name comes from. One popular theory points to the Geordie lamp, a miners' safety lamp developed around 1815 by George Stephenson. Another says it comes from the city's loyalty to the Hanoverian Georges in the Jacobite rising of 1745. The name has stuck so well that the city's own football fans simply call it "the Toon", the local pronunciation of town.
Black and white obsession
Newcastle United, the Magpies, date from 1892. That year Newcastle West End folded, and Newcastle East End took over St James' Park and some of West End's players. In December 1892 East End renamed themselves Newcastle United. The ground sits right at the heart of the city, so on matchdays the whole centre turns black and white. Alan Shearer, born in Newcastle, became the club's record goalscorer. The city also has a long-running rugby club, Newcastle Red Bulls, formerly known as Newcastle Falcons. The club adopted its new name in 2025 following its acquisition by Red Bull. Newcastle also gave the world the Great North Run, a half marathon founded in 1981 by Olympic runner Brendan Foster. It now draws tens of thousands each September. The Town Moor, a huge stretch of common land close to the centre, still has grazing rights for the Freemen of the city. Each June it hosts the Hoppings, one of the biggest travelling fairs in Europe, which grew out of a temperance festival in the 1880s.
Stottie cakes, saveloy dips and the Dog
The classic local snack is the stottie cake, a flat, round, chewy loaf, often stuffed with ham and pease pudding. The pease pudding is a thick spread of boiled yellow split peas, and it is a Tyneside staple. A saveloy dip, a saveloy sausage in a bun dunked in the meat juices, is for the hungry. Greggs, the bakery chain, began on Tyneside in the 1930s and remains a local favourite. Then there is Newcastle Brown Ale, first brewed in 1927 and nicknamed "the Dog" locally. It is a mainstay of Tyneside pubs and found a worldwide following. Nights out here have a reputation of their own, and the Bigg Market and the Quayside are part of the lore.
Britain's best street and a rude comic
In the 1830s the builder Richard Grainger and architect John Dobson reshaped the city centre into the elegant streets now known as Grainger Town. Grey Street, curving downhill from the 41 metre Grey's Monument to the Tyne, was voted the best street in Britain in a Radio 4 poll in 2002. The monument honours Earl Grey, the prime minister behind the 1832 Reform Act, whose name also lives on in a famous tea. More recently, the city produced Viz, the grown-up comic launched in 1979 by Chris Donald. Its crude, funny characters such as Roger Mellie became a national institution. Add TV duo Ant and Dec, both born here, and pop star Cheryl, and you have a city that punches well above its weight.