Civic Centre

Victoria Tunnel Overground Walks Maps and Guide

Many people will have walked the streets of Newcastle without everknowing what lies just a few feet beneath them . . .

The Victoria Tunnel is an old Victorian waggonway which runs underthe city from the Town Moor down to the Tyne. It was built between1839-1842 to transport coal from Spital Tongues Colliery to the river. In1939, the city engineers converted the Tunnel into an air raid shelter toprotect hundreds of Newcastle citizens during World War II.

These two walks follow the route of the Tunnel through the city anduse it as a starting point for exploring the historic buildings andtownscape that lie above it.

For more information about visiting the Victoria Tunnel, or gettinginvolved in the project, please visit:

www.newcastlecommunityheritage.org/victoriatunnelAcknowledgementsThis leaflet has been produced by the Victoria Tunnel Education Project, part of the Newcastle CommunityHeritage Project - a partnership between Newcastle City Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and variouscommunity groups and charities.

Current photographs: Phil Thirkell (Ouseburn Trust Heritage Group) and NCC

Archive material: Newcastle Libraries and Information Services, and Tyne and Wear Museums (illustrationsof Leazes Main Colliery and Riverside Staithes, “Geordie Ha’ad the Bairn – G477S, “Going Home” - K8097).

Contribution to information and design: Ouseburn Trust Heritage Group, especially Roger Fern and AlanMorgan

Map: City ID for Newcastle City Council. GW, NDS, Newcastle City Council, 2008.

Leaflet design and production: the Point Design Consultancy, 2008

Exhibition ParkFollowing the Colliery closure in 1860, the VictoriaTunnel was left unused and forgotten until itsconversion into an air raid shelter in 1939.

It cost £37,000 to adapt: seven new entrances wereexcavated; the floor was concreted and the wallswhitewashed; concrete blast walls and electriclighting were installed; and bunk beds and wooden

benches for 9,000 people were set up. Despite this, the Tunnel was a dark,damp and uncomfortable place. Many people were afraid to use it.Those that did, remember sitting with their families and neighbours,exchanging gossip and singing songs while waiting nervously for the “AllClear” from up above.

Newcastle University Most of this area was developed as part of Newcastle University in the1950s and 1960s. Previously it was mainly gardens and housing. In 1824, therailway pioneer George Stephenson lived nearby on Eldon Place.

Great North MuseumThe Great North Museum was previously known asthe Hancock Museum in honour of local Victoriannaturalists Albany and John Hancock. It opened in1884 and remained open during the War when anaccess point to the Tunnel was created in themuseum grounds. This can still be seen near thetraffic sign on Claremont Road.

Barras BridgeBoth the Victoria Tunnel and the Pandon Burn cross under Barras Bridge.The Church of St Thomas the Martyr was designed by the notable local

architect John Dobson. It opened in 1830and replaced a mediaeval chapel that hadstood at the end of the old Tyne Bridge. TheCivic Centre was built in the 1960s on a sitethat previously had been 19th centuryterrace housing.

Another Tunnel entrance was constructedhere. In 1941, an inspector reported that “asthis is a mining district, the persons who willshelter in this tunnel are possibly better fittedconstitutionally to resist underground anddamp conditions than those in the south”!

City Pool and HallThe pool and concert hall were built in 1927 to replace the original CityBaths designed by John Dobson. There was another Tunnel entrancenearby, now covered by John Dobson Street. People from Shieldfield andOuseburn used the Tunnel to get home from town or from the OlympiaCinema on Northumberland Road. Unlike the blacked out streets, it was litand offered shelter from the rain.

Burt HallThis was home to Northumberland Miners’Association from 1895 and is named after ThomasBurt, the first working miner to be elected toparliament. The rooftop statue is based on afigure in Ralph Hedley’s painting “Going Home”.Although the Colliery and Victoria Tunnel hadclosed by this time, coal mining remained a majorindustry on Tyneside until more recent times.

Northumberland RoadWhen the Tunnel was a waggonway, thiswas the Northumberland Cricket ClubGrounds. Development after 1880included the former Dame Allan’s School,the College of Medicine, and offices andlaboratories belonging to Brady andMartin, the chemists and surgicalinstrument makers. Their building façadestill survives including the “Be ReADY”logo above the door.

Northumbria UniversityNewcastle Polytechnic was formed in 1969when Rutherford College of Technologymerged with other colleges clustered on thissite. It was designated a university in 1992.Major redevelopment in 2007included the new footbridgeover the motorway and TheFive Figures, a row of bronzeand granite sculptures byNorwegian artist NicoWiderberg.

Northumbria University City Campus EastNorthumbria City Campus East opened in 2007. Itsdesign is inspired by the two sides of the brain - theimaginative, spatial side for the School of Design andthe structured, practical side for the Schools of Lawand Business.

New Bridge Street Goods Station occupied this siteduring the war and was the main depot for the city’srationed food. On September 1st, 1941 it took a direct hit during a

devastating raid on Shieldfield. The stored sugar, butter,fat and oil fed a raging inferno that burned for 48 hoursand smouldered for days. Luckily, 70-80 wagons of fruitand vegetables were saved by volunteer railway workersand the next day’s deliveries were made on time.

Shieldfield GreenNewcastle’s 1960’s slum clearanceprogramme saw these tower blocks replacelong terraces of typical Tyneside flats. Many ofthese had been destroyed or damagedduring the 1941 air raid when 100 bombs weredropped on Jesmond, Byker, St Peter’s, Walkerand Shieldfield. 50 people were killed. Therewere 71 serious casualties and 140 peopleslightly injured.

The raid happened so quickly that few peoplewere able to make it to the entrance to the Victoria Tunnelon Shieldfield Green. Many people hid in brick shelters that had beenbuilt in the streets. One of these took a direct hit with a high explosive,killing nearly everyone inside.

Gibson Street BathsThis municipal washhouse and bathswas designed by F. H. Holford andbuilt in 1906-7. During the war thereservoir of water was used by theNational Fire Service (you can still seethe faded sign next to the door). Onthe night of the Goods Stationbombing, water pipes criss-crossedNew Bridge Street from here to theStation as firemen desperately foughtthe flames.

Tarset Street

At the end of Coquet St take the alley onthe right into St Ann’s Close (next to thestreet sign for High Level Walk 178-155).

Tarset St was also bombed in 1941. A sadincident occurred on May 31st when ayoung girl, Irene Page, fell into abottleneck crater left by a bomb. BoyScout Ernest Smith, was lowered down toher on a rope, but passed out. Twofiremen also descended into the holebefore people realised that it was full oflethal gas. Irene and her would-berescuers all died in the crater.

Ouse Street Tunnel EntranceThis entrance was built through the retaining garden wall of 14 OuseStreet. It has survived because it was the only entrance built on privateland. At the end of the war, most of the shelter fittings were removed andnearly all of the other entrances were filled in.

Monument to William Lisle

Blenkinsopp CoulsonColonel Blenkinsopp Coulson was a leadingfigure in the RSPCA and NSPCC. He foundedthe local Dog and Cat Shelter in Spital Tongues.From his monument you can look down onto theriverside to where the Victoria Tunnel staithesonce stood.

Mariner’s WharfBy 1939, the Victoria Tunnel’s riverside staitheshad long since disappeared. They had beenthe site of an extravagant opening ceremonyfor the Tunnel on 7th April 1842. A crowd ofspectators cheered and cannon fired as atrain of eight wagons emerged out of theTunnel. Four of the wagons carried coal whilstthe others were occupied by various localdignitaries and a band of musicians!

Walk Two: Sirens and Shrapnel

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