Small wooden boat moored at low tide
Monday walks,  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  Travel galleries

Gallery: New Years Day by the Ouseburn

January 3, 2024 / 39 Comments

Taking coals to Newcastle

an English saying

The phrase, taking (or carrying) coals to Newcastle, is used to indicate a pointless act, often relating to trade. The wealth and power of industrial north east England was founded on coal, and much of its coal was shipped from the quays of Newcastle. The last thing the city needed was more of the stuff, hence the futility of taking any there!

Today’s Tyneside’s is very different, and although the phrase persists you are unlikely to find any coal here. But as in many other places, the relics of the city’s industrial past are being transformed. And nowhere is that more apparent than on the banks of the Ouseburn, a small tributary of the Tyne just east of the city centre.

Here there are still plenty of signs of that past, including old warehouses and the remains of glass furnaces. But many of the old buildings have been transformed into cultural venues including galleries and artists’ studios. There are music venues too, a city farm and stables, traditional pubs and the national centre for children’s books, Seven Stories. This is fast becoming a trendy area to live, but despite some new buildings the old still seem to prevail. And of course there is plenty of street art.

A New Years Day walk

I have written about this area before and had no intention of doing so again, until a sunny New Years Day lured us down to the river to follow this familiar route. As so often when we retrace well-trodden paths, we found new things to photograph and new ways of photographing old sights. We also took a different route back into the city. So here for this week’s Monday Walk is a three-part gallery.

Screenshot from a Google map with route marked in red
Our three part walk

The first part follows the Tyne from beneath the Tyne Bridge to the mouth of Ouseburn. The second follows the burn up to Byker Bridge, via a footpath on its eastern bank before crossing to the west side to climb Stepney Bank. And the final part features a few sights along Byker Bridge, which later becomes New Bridge Street, to the city centre. I hope you enjoy the stroll!

Quayside to Ouseburn
Arched footbridge over a river with flats and old flour mill on far side

Millennium Bridge and Baltic art gallery

Gold star balloon stuck in a tree

A leftover from New Year celebrations by the Tyne

Rusting metal globe suspended from white metal arched
Rusting metal globe

The Swirle Pavilion art installation which commemorates the European ports that were regularly visited by shipping from the Tyne

Panorama of a river in a city with several bridges

Tyne bridges from near Ouseburn

Reflection of a brick building

Ouseburn Victorian Schools, now serviced offices, reflected in a puddle

Brick bridge with lettering

Bridge over the Ouseburn near its mouth

The poem references Anthony Gormley’s Angel of the North

Mural with slogan 'Young hearts run free'

Street art near the mouth of the Ouseburn

Along the Ouseburn
Sign warning about stopping

Under one of the bridges over the Ouseburn

Painted wooden boat planks

Detail of boat moored at the mouth of the Ouseburn

Seen in full in my featured image

Small metal boat with chimney and paddle

Odd little old paddle boat (with incongruous new solar panel)

Metal chimney pot and old stone wall
Roughly carved wooden bear

Details from the old paddle boat

Under one of the bridges over the Ouseburn

Window with screen made of horseshoes

Window detail, Stepney Bank Stables

Woman leading a horse up a steep road

Horse from Stepney Bank Stables

House with mural of waves and external door on first floor
Wooden gate painted with a face

Street art on Stepney Bank

The house on the left is has a plaque indicating that it was once home to Jára Cimrman, Bohemian philosopher and inventor of the electric light bulb, assisted by local inventor Joseph Swann. Thomas Edison later copied and patented the idea. It goes on to say that Cimrman donated Jesmond Dene to the people of Newcastle after winning it from Lord Armstrong in a game of cards.

However Cimrman is in fact a fictional character with no association to this area. The building houses a ‘museum’ dedicated to him (currently closed) which also claims that he ‘invented the front door, but insisted they were only used externally on the first floor of buildings. As a result he received little acclaim for his invention during his life time. It was later adapted for use internally as well as on ‘street’ level and they have since become widely popular.’

Byker Bridge and New Bridge Street
Imposing stone building

The Gibson Street Baths

This municipal washhouse on the corner of Gibson Street and New Bridge Street opened in April 1907, and is one of the oldest public bath houses in England. More recently the building was used by a badminton club but is currently unused and up for development.

Arched window with 'women' sign

Above one of the entrances to the baths

Faded sign on stone wall, 'NFS Static Water'

National Fire Service sign

During WW2 the reservoir of water in the baths was used by the National Fire Service. The faded sign is still visible next to the door.

Mural of an eye

Street art on New Bridge Street

Mural of David Bowie on a brick wall

More street art on New Bridge Street

Modern curved building with steel cage effect
Modern curved building with steel cage effect

City Campus East, Northumbria University, built 2008

I visit Newcastle upon Tyne very often; these photos were all taken in January 2024

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