ABSTRACT
George Walker, although it is likely that John Dobson was also involved. It was an ambitious plan for the comprehensive redevelopment of 12 acres, covering not just the estate but much of the surrounding area and necessitating the demolition of the Theatre Royal and the recently completed market. The plan was based around three streets: Grainger Street, Clayton Street (named in grateful recognition for the help of John Clayton) and Upper Dean Street (later renamed Grey Street). The change of name commemorated Lord Grey and the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832, which was marked by the erection of Grey’s Monument at the top of the street in 1838. The scheme was built across the valley of the Lort Burn, which ran to the rear of the city’s medieval Bigg Market and may not have been as attractive as it sounds given that ‘lort’ is a Saxon word meaning ‘filth’ or ‘excrement’. The burn was culverted and paved, its shallow descending curve giving form to the street. The curve, however, left very little room for development to the west of the street in the lower part of the valley. The buildings fronting this part of Grey Street may look substantial from the front but are incredibly shallow. This is an example of the amount of work required below the surface (or in this case behind the facades) to make the plan look so effortless. The development took place over a relatively short period, starting in 1834 and being completed by the end of the decade. The final scheme included 325 shops, new meat and fish markets, a replacement for the Theatre Royal given pride of place at the top of Grey Street, apartments, 40 townhouses and professional offices. In total, the development cost £646,000 and gave Newcastle a new urban quarter the match of anything in the country. The buildings were executed by a small group of architects, including John Dobson, Grainger’s in-house architects and John and Benjamin Green, who designed the Theatre Royal and Grey’s Monument. They are all built of stone and classical inspiration (in truth an architectural style that was already a little out of date in the 1830s). Today only about three quarters of the original Grainger Town remains. The balance was gnawed away, along with Eldon Square, by the 1960s planners. Newcastle in the 1960s under its legendary (and subsequently disgraced) council leader T. Dan Smith was to have become the ‘Brasilia of the North’. The area to the east of Grainger Town gives a sense of what the redevelopment plans would have meant for the city as a whole, with its flyovers and underpasses and that particular Newcastle innovation, the tower block built on stilts over the street. In this climate Grainger Town was seen as an anachronism and there were many who
argued that it should be included in the slum clearance programme. Fortunately, most of it survived and 244 of its buildings were subsequently listed. However, it wasn’t out of the woods yet and in the early 1990s 47% of its listed buildings were designated as being at risk and a further 29% were considered vulnerable. It was in this context that the Grainger Town Project was established in 1996 as a partnership between the city council, English Heritage and English Partnerships. The project ran until 2003, by which time £174 million had been spent on the area, seeing most of its buildings restored and brought back into use and extensive public-realm works. Like all regeneration success stories, walking through Grainger Town today you would never know that it was once so run-down that demolition was considered an option. It has once more become a place for offices and shops and has an increasing residential population. The public-realm scheme means that like John Betjeman, you can once more experience Grey Street traffic-less, and not just on a Sunday. The upper part of the street is pedestrianised, while the lower section is closed to through traffic but with chevron parking for local businesses. The street has been restored to its original restrained and rather dignified beauty. Its shops were always of the upmarket variety and while some bars have been inserted into the heavy bases of its classical buildings, it is never going to be lively. Not that this was ever what it was intended to be. Grey Street, in contrast to the raucous Bigg Market, was always planned as a civilising influence on the city – and long may this continue.
