Gan doon the toon

The Geordie di­alect re­mains un­touched by time. It sur­vived the stan­dard­i­s­a­tion of the En­glish lan­guage in the 18th cen­tu­ry and beat down the threat from in­dus­tri­al im­mi­gra­tion in the 19th. Today it still re­mains gram­mat­i­cal­ly close to many old En­glish di­alects. The city which gives it voice, how­ev­er, tells a very dif­fer­ent story.

En­ter­ing New­cas­tle across the Tyne is a breath-​tak­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. The domed glass of the Sage con­cert hall gleams on the Gateshead quays along­side a proud re­minder of the in­dus­tri­al his­to­ry of the area, the Baltic Flour Mill, which has been beau­ti­ful­ly ren­o­vat­ed to house a mod­ern art mu­se­um.

New­cas­tle and Gateshead are the per­fect ge­o­graph­i­cal dou­ble act: they’ve grown up to­geth­er, fought hard for suc­cess and could never re­al­ly be en­joyed sep­a­rate­ly; just like Ant and Dec! In ad­di­tion to the Sage and the Baltic Gateshead boasts the icon­ic angel of the North, the most viewed pub­lic art work in Britain, and the mul­ti-​storey car park which fea­tured in the 1971 film ‘Get Carter’. New­cas­tle, tra­di­tion­al­ly the more up-​mar­ket of the two, was re­cent­ly voted arts cap­i­tal of the UK and as home to 50,000 stu­dents is now be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly at­trac­tive to young pro­fes­sion­als too.

Some of the less dra­mat­ic art venues around the city are as wor­thy of a visit as the Baltic; al­though a trip there is es­sen­tial even if it’s just to see the view across the re­gion from the glass view­ing bal­cony. The Laing, in the cen­tre of town, is a more tra­di­tion­al gallery, boast­ing the likes of ‘The Bre­ton Shep­herdess’ by Gau­g­in and many pieces con­cern­ing the Ty­ne­side area.

The Bis­cuit Fac­to­ry in Shield­field, close to the stu­dent area of the city, is a re­laxed com­mer­cial gallery which doesn’t seem to mind the pres­ence of scruffy stu­dents who will clear­ly never buy any­thing ex­cept per­haps a poster print. The Dis­cov­ery Mu­se­um (which, cru­cial­ly, is free) and the Life Sci­ence Mu­se­um are great places for a fam­i­ly day out, or just to re­dis­cov­er your child­ish cu­riosi­ties. Whilst if his­to­ry, rather than sci­ence, is your thing a wan­der round the 11th cen­tu­ry Tynemouth pri­o­ry and cas­tle or the 12th cen­tu­ry cas­tle keep in the city cen­tre it­self.

New­cas­tle’s rep­u­ta­tion as a party city is older than its claim to cul­tur­al cap­i­tal, but just as well found­ed. The huge num­ber of thriv­ing bars and clubs also breeds com­pe­ti­tion, to such an ex­tent that tre­bles for sin­gles seems to have be­come the rule across the city cen­tre. Try Dig­i­tal or Attic for a big night out, or live music at The Cooper­age, housed in an 13th cen­tu­ry build­ing on the quay­side, is great for a qui­eter one.

How­ev­er it’s prob­a­bly ad­vis­able to avoid Sat­ur­day nights in the ‘toon’ when flocks of hens and ram­bunc­tious stags, usu­al­ly com­plete with every plas­tic ac­ces­so­ry Ann Sum­mers has to offer, flood nois­i­ly into the city cen­tre. A num­ber of quirky bars and music venues around (a few great ones are clus­tered on the New­cas­tle quays) offer less chaot­ic en­ter­tain­ment all week round. Try the Cluny, under the arch­es of Byker bridge for real ale, comfy sur­round­ings and live music.

Par­ty­ing by night means, if you’re any­thing like me, that shop­ping to com­plete that per­fect out­fit is es­sen­tial. New­cas­tle doesn’t dis­ap­point here ei­ther. Whether you’re into rum­mag­ing through vin­tage and char­i­ty shops or just pop­ping into your favourite high street stores, the city cen­tre is easy to nav­i­gate and most­ly pedes­tri­anised, which makes grab­bing those ir­re­sistible shoes all the more plea­sur­able. The curve of Grey Street, de­scribed by Prime Min­is­ter Glad­stone in 1862 as “our best mod­ern street”, is now lit­tered with de­sign­er names and busy cafes.

New­cas­tle-​Gateshead has come a long way since the glory days of its ship yards, but some­how it has man­aged to em­brace both new cul­tur­al in­flu­ences and in­dus­tri­al his­to­ry to main­tain its unique and en­dear­ing iden­ti­ty. Of course it’s not all sparkling new ar­chi­tec­ture and mod­ern art, parts of the re­gion are still se­ri­ous­ly im­pov­er­ished, but re­cent re­gen­er­a­tion ef­forts de­serve due praise. So if all that springs to mind when you think of New­cas­tle are grim min­er-​types in flat caps, it’s about time for a re­think, and a visit to this the cul­tur­al metropo­lis of the North will cer­tain­ly make you do that.

Newcastle-Gateshead Hotspots

Drink

Mr Lynch has the only 2am li­cense in the stu­dent area of Jes­mond, and he re­al­ly makes the most of it. The Kitsch décor and mis­matched sev­en­ties fur­ni­ture is enough to keep you en­ter­tained all night, let alone the im­pres­sive cock­tail menu and live music every Thurs­day, Fri­day and Sat­ur­day. If that’s not enough, they even sell Curly Wurlys be­hind the bar. Be­ware though, Mr Lynch isn’t a cheap date.

Eat

Belle and Herbs, Heaton, is an­oth­er stu­dent hotspot well worth a trip. It’s a good idea to starve your­self for a lit­tle while be­fore in order to truly ap­pre­ci­ate their mam­moth meals. The Macho Grande Club is a work of art: a three tier toast­ed sand­wich with grid­dled steak, toma­to salsa, Mon­terey Jack cheese, soured cream, gua­camole, jalepeno pep­pers, fresh co­rian­der and even tor­tilla chips AND it comes with a moun­tain of the best pota­to wedges you will ever taste.

Shop

Ok, maybe this is cheat­ing a lit­tle bit since no real per­son can ac­tu­al­ly af­ford any­thing here, but the bou­tique Have to Love in Gos­forth takes win­dow shop­ping to the next level. I couldn’t pos­si­bly buy any­thing from the su­per-​chic French label Manoush or Amer­i­can retro, but it’s all so per­fect­ly ar­ranged that even just to look at them is sat­is­fy­ing.

Sleep

If you’re in the po­si­tion to splash out, the Mal­mai­son hotel next-​door to the Hilton on the New­cas­tle quay­side is the place to do it. The im­pos­ing goth­ic en­trance may look like an enor­mous venus fly trap, but the in­te­ri­or is dec­o­rat­ed in deep pur­ples and plush vel­vets guar­an­teed to make your stay a lux­u­ri­ous one.