Newcastle is a very notorious city, holding important titles by the public opinion and oficial awards, such as having the finest streets in England, n.1 Nightlife as tourist attraction (according to Rough Guide To Britain) in Great Britain and 7th in the world.
The city of Newcastle Upon Tyne is marked in history for it's innovation. Mosley street in the city, was the first public street in the world to be lit up by the incandescent bulb and Newcastle was also one of the first cities to be lit up by electric lighting.
Innovations in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the development of safety lamps, Stephenson's Rocket (An early locomotive which became a template for all later ones), Lord Armstrong's artillery, Be-Ro flour company, Joseph Swan's electric light bulbs, and Charles Parsons' invention of the steam turbine, which led to the revolution of marine propulsion and the production of cheap electricity. The city also had the first road/rail bridge in the world, with the opening of Robert Stephenson's High Level Bridge in 1849.
Despite the popularity of the city and the economic development achieved, the health estimates in Newcastle are lower than the English average; with over 16.670 children living in poverty and high children obesity rate, live expectancy 14 to 11 years lower than the English average and bad Healthy Eating and Smoking rates. Newcastle is also claimed to be the loudest town in the UK.
Relevant people and artists from Newclastle:
- The Bands: The Animals, Skyclad and Maxïmo Park
- Musician and former lead singer of The Police, Sting, grew up in the Newcastle Area
- Rowan Aktinson, known for Mr.Bean, studied in Newcastle.
Interesting Fact:
Adam Savage attended to Maker Faire 2016 in Centre for Life in Newcastle
Google Research's Projects at Maker Faire (On Tested Youtube channel)
After our swimming competition in the Aquatic Center in Sunderland, we continued our journey and reached the historic city of Newcastle Upon Tyne in 2 days.
We arrive in Newcastle by the Grainger Town area, the historic heart of the city. This area incorporates classical streets by Richard Graigner and some of the finest streets and buildings in the city, such as; the Grainger Market, Theatre Royal, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street. Most of them built by Grainger.
As with Durham, the city center is designated a conservation area, and was one of the first in England.
On Grey street in Graigner Town we see the Grey Monument, in yet another square, and the Theatre Royal, the building on the right, opened on 20 February 1837.
The Monument was erected to acclaim Earl Grey for the passing of the Great Reform Act of 1832. It consists of a statue of Lord Grey atop a 130-foot-high (40 m) column.
Walking by Graigner Street we have a glimpse of Eldon Square Shopping Center, which was built over Old Eldon Square in the 1960s, a public green space with a war memorial where the Rememberance Day commemoration was held in the city. What is left of the old square is new landscaping and access to the shopping.
Eldon Shopping Center is one of the largest city center shopping complexes in the UK, it also has the largest John Lewis stores in the UK. Opened in Newcastle in 1838 John Lewis (formerly, Bainbridge) is often cited as the world's first department store.
Since we luckily were so close to it, we also visited the famous Grainger Market in Grey Street. The entrance is a little deceptive, it is much bigger on the inside.
When the market was opened in 1835 it was considered to be 'the most beautiful in the world' and it is still one of the largest market halls in England. Counterintuitively, Grainger Market has the smallest Marks and Spencer's store, one of the original stores opened in 1895
From the Market we headed west to see the Chinatown everyone was mentioning, it turns out it is one of the only five Chinatowns in England, with the other four being in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. We had the chance to visit them all already! But we heard of it too late, only in London did we hear in time but we thought there were much more chinatowns in England. Anyway, here is for all the lost opportunities.
The Chinatown is also in Grainger Town. The first Chinese restaurant in Newcastle was opened in 1949, but only in 1988 was it recognized as a Chinatown. Today it has many restaurants, food shops and cafés.
Back to our normal route we went to Millennium Bridge, one of the 7 bridges in Newcastle.
Millennium Bridge is an award winning cycle/pedestrian tilt bridge connecting Newcaslte to Gateshead. It was opened on November 2000 and has operated reliably ever since.
The schedule of the tilting is displayed both on the bridge itself and on a website.
All our stops are right next to each other, interesting city planning.
We will visit two museums, starting with Life Science Centre and then proceed to Discovery Museum, less than a mile away.
The "Centre for Life" as it's also called, was opened by the Queen in 2000 and provides many science themed attractions and experiences, such as a Theatre, a Planetarium and a 4D motion ride, as well as an ice rink.
There are also many science themed events, for children and adults, and it sporadically hosts events such as the Maker Faire. The center is also a research station
After a scienceful visit in Life Science Museum we went to our last stop in Newcastle, the Discovery Museum, opened in 1934 but under the name Municipal Museum.
In the early history of the Museum, the objects were housed in a pavilion, but in 1978 it could no longer meet the museums needs, so it was re-located. It only reopened as Discovery Museum in 1993, focusing in Local History.
We learned that the Inventor of the Steam Turbine, Charles Parsons, built the first steam turbine-powered steamship in 1894, called Turbinia, and that it is now preserved at Discovery Museum here in Newcastle. Turbinia was the fastest ship at the time.
And this ends our trip in Newcastle. See how close the stops were?
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