Text only homepage

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle City Council - the best starting point for the Tyneside MEDC is its historic focus Newcastle upon Tyne and its local government website. (This is not as detailed a site as it used to be.) http://www.newcastle.gov.uk Like all sites, pages on the Newcastle City site do get moved around. Apologies if I haven't managed to keep up! The A-Z index or drop-down links on the home page should help you find your way around.

• Population
• Unemployment
• The new wards - interactive map showing June 2004 boundaries
• Census 2001 and clickable map by ward
• Deprivation Statistics
• Policies and plans
• Housing
• Newcastle Electronic Maps Online (NEMO)
• Newcastle Neighbourhood Information Service (NNIS) Features city map. Smaller areas than wards. You will have to read the disclaimer first.

Newcastle City Council: Local development framework http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/ldfhome?opendocument

Bridging Newcastle Gateshead A 15 year project set up to tackle problems caused by unpopular and abandoned housing and the effect it has on local communities. http://www.bridgingng.org.uk/

Photographs For images of the Newcastle area try Chris's 'Monkchester' site http://www.monkchester.co.uk/index.htm

Grainger Town is an area of classical architecture developed by Richard Grainger in the 1830s and '40s, where many of the buildings now have 'listed' status (think Bath and Edinburgh's New Town). In the 1980s this once prosperous area of Newcastle was overtaken by new retail and commercial centres (eg Eldon Square and the Metro Centre). Many properties were left to fall into disrepair and the area's residential population fell. By the 1990s around one million sq ft of floorspace was unoccupied. The Grainger Town Project was established in 1997 in partnership with Newcastle City Council, English Partnership and English Heritage to reverse the trend. http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/grainger.nsf

Black Friars, Monk Street, is another historic part of Newcastle, this time mediaeval in origin, dating from when the city was primarily a religious centre. Originally a thirteenth century Dominican friary and for 400 years the home of some of the towns' craft guilds, it now houses craft workshops and a restaurant. The grassy courtyard attracts office workers and their sandwiches at lunchtime. Panoramic image: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/panoramas/360_blackfriars.shtml

Competitive Newcastle This was the ambitious Economic Development Strategy of the Labour ex-administration. Competitive Newcastle aimed by 2010 to create a dynamic, entrepreneurial city at the heart of a 'knowledge-based' regional economy, offering increasing opportunities for innovation, business, employment, education and leisure. Walker Riverside and the Quayside were part of this. Going for Growth - A Green Paper was published in January 2000 making the case for a regeneration strategy that would be citywide, ambitious and long-term. These initiatives have been cut back. See Keith Shaw's paper and Guardian news story. http://www.sustainable-cities.org.uk/Database_files/GfGshaw.pdf http://society.guardian.co.uk/housingdemand/story/0,14488,1388664,00.html Going for Growth original initiative http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/wwwfileroot/regen/plantrans/NewcastleCity-wideGoingForGrowthPlan.pdf Walker Riverside action plan survives http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/walkerriversideaction?OpenDocument Original East End plan (very large file) http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/wwwfileroot/regen/plantrans/RegeneratioPlanEastEndGoingforGrowth2002.pdf

Regeneration note http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/regen

Unitary Development Plan http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/statplans?opendocument

Enterprising Newcastle Advice for starting up a business. http://www.enterprisingnewcastle.co.uk/home.htm

Newcastle Science City is the integration of science and technology research and development, and its application, with spatial planning and urban development. Aims to boost the economic and social development of the city and the North as a whole. http://www.newcastlesciencecity.com/site/

Art, image and culture Newcastle, in common with other councils in Tyne and Wear has encouraged public art projects, not all of which have received the public acclaim Gateshead's 'Angel of the North' by Antony Gormley enjoys (eg 'lego men' surrounding the Boer war memorial at Haymarket, which will go when someone wants it and will pay for removal). Metro stations boast a variety of works, mainly murals and sculptures. Cultural revolution http://travel.independent.co.uk/uk/article357746.ece One of the more controversial is Thomas Heatherwick's 'The Blue Carpet' which allows you to walk on your granny's recycled Bristol Cream bottles. http://www.bluecarpet.co.uk Art on the riverside http://www.southtyneside.info/visitingus/art_riverside.asp Public Art links from Sheffield Hallam University http://public-art.shu.ac.uk/weblinx.html

Expenxive initiatives get a lot of criticism. The local press is the best way of picking this up. Newcastle's evening newspaper keeps a time-limited archive of stories (and letters) online (you need to register to use it). icnewcastle is a site which aims to serve the whole of the North East and comes from the publishers of The Journal (Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Northumbria) and the Evening Chronicle (Newcastle's evening paper). http://www.icnewcastle.co.uk

View the Quayside on both Newcastle and Gatehead sides of the river from the Tyne Bridge (the one on the bottles of 'broon' ale). View the Millennium Bridge (with a blink, not a wobble) and the fog on the Tyne. http://www.tynebridgewebcam.com

The transformation of the Quayside Newcastle and Gateshead Quays was a derelict industrial relic but is now a vibrant cosmopolitan area including the award-winning Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Other notable developments are the Baltic centre for contemporary visual arts and the Sage concert halls. Lots of clubbing and cavortin too... http://www.newcastlequayside.co.uk/frameset.html See also http://www.gateshead-quays.com/

[back to top]

[back to top]

Other Tyneside

Tyne and Wear Research and Information (TWRI) is funded by the five metropolitan district councils that cover the area. The Cities of Newcastle Upon Tyne and Sunderland and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside. Its major function is to support these sponsors through the assembly and analysis of statistical information. Instant atlas feature. http://www.tyne-wear-research.gov.uk

Gateshead http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/

Gateshead Quays is a 52 acre riverside site of derelict industrial land and buildings on the south bank of the Tyne in the shadow of the Tyne Bridge - directly opposite the recently refurbished Newcastle Quayside. Gateshead Council and its partners are overseeing major regeneration projects including: Baltic Centre for Contemporary Visual Art; Gateshead Millennium Bridge; The Sage Gateshead; Tyne Bridge Hilton International hotel. http://www.gateshead-quays.com/

North Tyneside including Wallsend, Tynemouth, North Shields and Whitley Bay. http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk

Tynetown A town centre management plan for North Shields, Whitley Bay and Wallsend.http://www.tynetown.com

South Tyneside including South Shields, Hebburn and Jarrow. http://www.southtyneside.info/

[back to top]

North East other links

One NorthEast is the Regional Development Agency to help the people of the North East to create and sustain jobs, prosperity and a higher quality of life. The agency is responsible to the people of the North East of England and to the Government. http://www.onenortheast.co.uk/ Regeneration http://www.onenortheast.co.uk/page/environment/regeneration.cfm Coalfields programme http://www.onenortheast.co.uk/page/environment/coalfields.cfm

North East Process industry Cluster (NEPIC) An organisation formed by the 200 Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, Speciality, Commodity and Petrochemical companies based in the North East of England. http://www.nepic.co.uk/

NERIP is the North East Regional Information Partnership - 60-plus organisations which aim to improve the quality of life for people in the North East of England. http://www.nerip.com/

North East England Wide ranging site. http://www.northeastengland.co.uk/page/index.cfm

[back to top]