About Me
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Hey MySpacers, my name is Newcastle-upon-Tyne and i'm a city located in the North East of England. I was initially a Roman settlement and later an Anglo-Saxon development, but it wasn't until the Norman period and because of my strategic position, that Robert Curthose (son of William the Conqueror) erected a wooden castle on me in 1080 and I was henceforth known as Novum Castellum or Newcastle.
Throughout the Middle Ages, I was England's northern fortress, the centre for mustering armies. A 25 foot high stone wall was built around me to defend me from invaders during the Border war against Scotland, which lasted intermittently for several centuries - possibly the longest border war ever waged. The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned there in 1174, Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and I was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.
Around the 14th century I became a county corporate. Virtually every English ruler from the Conqueror to Cromwell has visited me, along with such figures as Harry Hotspur, the dashing hero of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part One. Shakespeare himself performed in me in 1588. King Charles bestowed upon me the East of England coal trading rights. This monopoly helped Newcastle prosper, but it had its impact on the growth of near-neighbours Gateshead and Sunderland, causing a North of Tyne/South of Tyne and a Tyne-Wear rivalry that still exists.
During the English Civil War, I supported King Charles and was stormed 'with roaring drummes' in 1644 by Cromwell's Scots allies, based in pro-Parliament Sunderland, thus ensuring London's coal supplies. The grateful King bestowed his motto "Fortiter Defendit Triumphans" upon me. Ironically, Charles was imprisoned in me by the Scots in 1646-7.
In 1904, the North Eastern Railway electrified the suburban railways serving both banks of the Tyne and the northern suburbs, creating one of the world's first electric suburban railways. The system was transformed into the Tyne and Wear Metro which opened in 1980, and extends as far as My Airport, Tynemouth and South Hylton in Sunderland. The system is one of only three underground systems in the United Kingdom. My Metro is usually described as Britain's first modern light rail system. It is owned and operated by Nexus. It carries approximately 40 million passenger journeys per year and is the second biggest metropolitan train system in the UK.
The development of me in the 1960s and 1970s saw the demoliton of part of Graingertown as a prelude to the modernist rebuilding initiatives of T. Dan Smith, the leader of my City Council. A corruption scandal was uncovered involving Smith and John Poulson, a property developer, and both were jailed. Echoes of the scandal were revisited in the late 1990s in the BBC TV mini-series, Our Friends in the North.
Large-scale regeneration has replaced former shipping premises with imposing new office developments; an innovative tilting bridge, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge was commissioned by Gateshead and has integrated my older Quayside more closely with major cultural developments in Gateshead, including the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the Norman Foster-designed Sage music centre. NewcastleGateshead Quayside is now a thriving, cosmopolitan area with an abundance of bars, restaurants and public spaces. As a tourist promotion, Myself and Gateshead have linked together under the banner "NewcastleGateshead", but otherwise remain separate.
I have a strong sporting tradition, being home to Premiership football team Newcastle United for whom England player Michael Owen features. Alan Shearer, recently retired, was the best striker to ever play football for Newcastle United. I am also home to Guinness Premiership rugby union side Newcastle Falcons, for whom England player Jonny Wilkinson features.
My Metro Radio Arena is home to Newcastle Vipers ice hockey team, and Newcastle Eagles basketball team. The City's Speedway team Newcastle Diamonds are based at Brough Park in Byker, a venue that is also home to greyhound racing. The greatest Speedway rider of all time, Ivan Mauger, who hailed from New Zealand was World Champion six times and rode for the Diamonds in the 1960s. Newcastle Racecourse at High Gosforth Park holds regular meets, including the prestigious race for the Northumberland Plate, first run in 1838, which takes place in June each year.
I also host the start of the annual BUPA Great North Run, the world's largest half-marathon in which participants famously race over the Tyne Bridge into Gateshead and then towards the finish line 13.1 miles away on the coast at neighbouring South Shields. Another famous athletic event is the 5.7 mile Blaydon Race (a road race from Newcastle to Blaydon), which has taken place on June 9 annually since 1981, to commemorate the celebrated Blaydon Races horse races.
I have a reputation for being a fun-loving city with many bars, restaurants and nightclubs. More recently, I have become popular as a destination for Stag and Hen parties. I was in the top ten of the country's top night spots, and The Rough Guide to Britain placed my nightlife as Great Britain's no. 1 tourist attraction..
There are notable concentrations of pubs, bars and nightclubs around my Bigg Market, and the Quayside area areas of my city centre. There are many bars on the Bigg Market ranging from BluBambu (Bigg Markets main club) to theme bars such as Boom 90's Bar. Other popular areas for nightlife are Collingwood Street, Neville Street, the Central Station area and Osborne Road in the Jesmond area of the city. In recent years "The Gate" has opening in the city centre, a new indoor complex consisting of bars, upmarket clubs, restaurants and a 12-screen Empire multiplex cinema.
The 1960s saw the internationally successful rock group, The Animals, emerge from my night spots such as Club A-Go-Go on Percy Street, the 80's saw Geordie singer Brian Johnson join Australian supergroup AC/DC. Other well-known acts with connections to me include Sting, Dubstar, Dire Straits, The Wildhearts, 3 Colours Red, Duran Duran, and more recently Maxïmo Park, The Sound Explosion, Yourcodenameis:milo, The Motorettes and Kubichek!. Neil Tennant, singer from the Pet Shop Boys, was schooled in Newcastle. There is also a thriving underground music scene that encompasses a variety of styles, including House music, Drum and Bass, Metal and Post-rock. I am home to Shindig, one of the longest running and most sucessful house music nights in the country, and also up and comming nights such as Habit, Error and Wax On.
Lindisfarne are a folk-rock group with a strong Tyneside connection. Their most famous song is "Fog on the Tyne" (1971), which was also covered by Geordie ex-footballer Paul Gascoigne in 1990. Venom, reckoned by many to be the originators of black metal, formed in me in 1979. Skyclad, often considered the creators of folk metal also formed in me after the breakup of Martin Walkyier thrash metal band Sabbat. The predomimant record company i'm home to is Kitchenware Records (circa 1982), previously home to acclaimed bands such as Prefab Sprout, Martin Stephenson & The Daintees and Fatima Mansions, the management of The Lighthouse Family and currently home to recent success Editors as well as several other bands of varied genre.
The largest music venue in me is the 11,000-seat Metro Radio Arena, which is situated in the south of the city centre near the Centre for Life. The 2,000-seat Newcastle City Hall holds a number of music events every month, particularly featuring solo artists. Both of my universities also have large performance venues (each holding in the region of 2,000 people). On October 14, 2005, the 2,000 capacity Carling Academy Newcastle opened, providing a new music venue in my centre. The opening night was headlined by The Futureheads and the profile of the venue has attracted a greater variety of bands to visit me. The Carling Academy Newcastle is the newest in a string of Academies to be opened across the UK.
Other popular music venues of mine include Digital, a new super club featuring a Funktion One Soundsystem, one of only 3 in the world. The Head of Steam, which is located near to Newcastle Central Station. The (national award winning) Dog and Parrot, The Cluny, and The Cumberland Arms. Both Newcastle and Northumbria Universities also house venues to emerging artists, and even well known artists, within its student unions.
The Geordie dialect is a Northern English dialect, with a large amount of vocabulary that does not exist in other parts of England, or other English dialects. Much of Geordie can be traced back to the Old Norse and Old English languages and certain words are similar to their equivalents in modern Norwegian.
