Art, Religion, Food - Part II

This continues the story of a day I spent with Vivien in Newcastle.

Leaving the Discovery Museum, I wanted to check out the businesses occupying the arches of the main railway bridge. I'd read about them and was curious about what was there. I think Vivien thought I was nuts, but it seems to be all the rage, having your small business in an arch.

Following our noses after that took us to Newcastle Castle, actually just the castle keep remains. Funny I didn't think to take photos of it...I can tell I've lived here over 20 years now. Right behind the castle is Milburn House, where Vivien and I once worked.



Milburn House was once a shipping office in the early 1900s. There are still doors that open into black, cavernous safes and sea waves decorate the tiles which cover the walls. The floors are given letters rather than numbers, apparently like ships' deck were identified back then. There were also several wings on each floor. We had plenty of visitors get lost, it being in the maze of streets in the city centre, followed by the confusion of the ground floor being A and the top floor E and then needing to know whether to go N or S...

It's an amazing building in a great location (if you don't mind walking up and down the hill that is Dean Street), but being a listed building limited how offices could be arranged and I found it a very inconvenient. I spent a lot of time with my laptop in the Lit Phil Library to have enough quiet to work, since I shared my office with two other people.I probably have some photos of Milburn House somewhere, but it's easier just to show you these. 




















Right behind Milburn House, is the Cathedral of St. Nicholas (come to think of it, virtually everything in the city centre is practically on top of each other). I remember it was my habit to work into the evening but one night a week I would be driven from my office by the incessant bell ringing at St. Nicks. Just as well, I gave them far too much of my life as it was.

Vivien was surprised to find we could just walk into the cathedral and look around. We timed it badly or we could have had a cup of tea in the cafe, so we'll have to return another day. I've put some photos here, but again there are much better elsewhere. Vivien mentioned that St. Nick's is why Newcastle is a city. I can't explain it fully but I have known for some time that being granted status as a 'city' here in Britain is tied to the notion of having a 'cathedral'. It has to do with church and state still being joined. You can read more about it here.

I've spent any number of lunch hours at St. Nick's but I'd not realized until now how incredibly old it is. Originally built as a parish church in 1091, it burned in 1216. The present building was completed in 1350. John Knox was minister there for a few years in the mid 1500's. The spire is beautiful at any time, but seeing it lit up at night always grabs my heart. 

By now I had my heart set on another cup of coffee before we parted and we fell into this interesting looking place where I thoroughly enjoyed the decor. I think we split something sweet between us and Vivien took something home to Steve, as she often does. 

I was hoping Patisserie Valerie's website had some better photos, but instead I found videos of lovely cakes being made. I'm afraid the thought of all that sugar makes my tummy ache, but I know some folks who would enjoy watching!

The title of these two posts is even more fatuous than I'd originally realized. Applying Oscar Wilde's definition of art, fashion probably doesn't qualify as clothing is useful. Neither Vivien nor I are religious, we just appreciated the architecture. And I definitely don't qualify cake as food!

But we had a great day out all the same. We always do.

Art, Religion, Food - Part I

My brain is slowly being assimilated by Ancestry and Gedmatch. Eventually I will no longer remember how to blog, how to sew, how to talk to living people. I am writing this as a last gasp of self-direction, telling myself it is Wednesday and therefore a writing day. Then again, can you call it writing if the starting point is to look at your photos? Perhaps I should call it journaling instead.

Vivien and I got together on one of our increasingly rare days out and the planned activity was to visit a fashion exhibit of Northumbria University students on display at the Discovery Museum. 



It wasn't a large exhibit but we examined every item (most of them black), chatting and (me) snapping as we circled the room.




There were old clothes, new clothes, old items, a slide show, some photos and sketches and a bit of text:

"Re-Fashion showcases sixty exquisite objects from the museum collection made between 1701 and 1916.  These objects have been selected as a starting point to explore the idea of real and imagined histories inspiring future garment design. Fashion Students and Lecturers from Northumbria University School of Design have researched the collection to develop the final garment designs which will be exhibited in May."

I'm fairly fascinated by the idea of re-fashioning clothes. Who doesn't have a bunch of old clothes they hang onto because of the lush colour, the superior fabric, the potential usefulness, never quite realized; blame it on (formerly) blogging, (currently) family history addiction. Well, OK, maybe it's just me.  






I've no idea what design students go through. So much of the verbiage that accompanies art is meaningless, at least to me, nearly imprisoned in my left-brain. Mind I can twaddle on myself just fine. This post started out as "Day Out in Newcastle", then became "Fashion, Cathedral, Patisserie" and  I even considered "Seeking Sustenance". What grandiose gabble I can produce.

Oh, while I'm thinking of it, I recently read Gods and Kings, by Dana Thomas, and I highly recommend it. The book is pretty much a biography of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano and it is fascinating. I also think it might put anyone off being a really successful fashion designer...



I gather that academia requires documenting certain steps in the creative process, like developing mood boards or sketching ideas or draping fabric, researching background something or other. I can sometimes see the point but most of the time I think I would lose the will to create. But no matter, I'm not going back to school. 



There were indeed some exquisite objects on display, particularly the Victorian and Edwardian age dresses, suits and shoes. 

Of course one doesn't normally see a lot of old every-day clothes worn by ordinary people. Those will have been worn out and used up and probably made into rags. The clothes in museums tend to be ball gowns or special dresses saved in someone's closet for decades. 

After scouring the exhibit we did the same with the shop. I love museum shops. I don't buy much but I do sometimes take photos of the books in case I want to look for them elsewhere. I can often just list them on my Amazon wishlist and be satisfied by the Look Inside! feature. 

The best things in this shop were the silly children's toys and I'll likely return nearer to Christmas. Bill and his adult children are highly entertained by such things. 



We had a bite of lunch at the cafe and with no particular plan that I recall we happened to drop into St. Nicholas' Cathedral. But that is another blog post.

Coxlodge Remnants

After Lucy left us, Vivien & I continued in our rounds of Gosforth.  One road we ended up on was called The Drive.  Bill and I have friends in the running club who live on The Drive and we've been to New Years Day parties there a number of times, so I knew one end of this street a bit, but I've never walked the length of it.  We found a few surprises.

If you remember my mentioning Coxlodge in connection with Job Bulman.  The Hall itself no longer stands, but we happened upon what used to be the stables. 



This is a residence for horses. Not bad, eh?



This enormous building now houses offices for a commercial real estate concern.  Standing outside we could see part of a stairwell that looked interesting.

Vivien convinced me that we should step inside and investigate further.  She intimated that with my American accent we could get away with being a bit nosey.

And so we did and we did (enter and get away with it).  In fact the receptionist was quite tolerant of my snapping photos of the stairs.  She even pulled out a one-page laminated document that spoke a bit about the history of the building.

When the phone gave her sufficient respite she mentioned the programme Who Do You Think You Are that featured super-model Jodie Kidd.  You can watch the videos of that programme here, if you are interested.

The interesting story is that around the time of the First World War, Coxlodge was owned by one of Kidd's ancestors, a Rowland Hodge, a shipbuilder in the Newcastle area.  There was a scandal in 1918 when he and his wife were convicted of food hoarding on an enormous scale (over a tonne of food) and they soon after left the area. 

The other interesting thing about Hodge is that he bought (for £5,000) a baronetcy from the then Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, in 1921, another scandal that led to the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925. 

That Sir Rowland Hodge was definitely a scoundrel if there ever was one and King George V is said to have despised the man; he complained that the honour had been granted at all.



Nevertheless, I'll leave you with one more photo of the remains of Coxlodge Hall, its gatehouse.

 Remember the Rare! agent with the elephants on the doorway?  They can offer you this four-bedroomed house for only £585,000 (about $911,000 US).  Take a tour and see what you think.

More Gosforth

So, what else can I show and tell you (that's what blogging is, right?) about Gosforth?  We found the Gosforth Assembly Rooms, now a Magistrate's Court.  

The leaflet says

Dances there were seen as occasions to meet future partners.

You'll probably have seen the Bath Assembly Rooms in a film at some point.  I can show you the interior of the Newcastle Assembly Rooms, too.  Somehow the former Gosforth Assembly Rooms don't look quite as impressive.  Oh well.





It was still an absolutely glorious day - the whole day, not just the usual apportioned half day of sun. 

They're big on rhododendrons around here.

We followed the map to this real estate agent's office where we were shown the elephants on the corners of the doorway.   Vivien's sister-in-law in Sydney (another thing she and I have in common!) collects elephants so she seems to pay attention to these things. 

Wonder if they specialise in white elephants?

What I find interesting is that these elephants are thought to have come from the Pybus family crest, as that name appears on the original plans for the building (ugly as it is).  This Pybus family history indicates that in 1601 Henry Pybus was a 'Merchant Adventurer' in Newcastle upon Tyne.  We wondered if the family found its fortune in India. 

I do so love tulips!

We wandered along Graham Park Road, called Millionaire's Row of the North. 



Vivien taught me the term 'double dormer'.

Although these were quite nice houses, some with interesting architectural features, on the whole we didn't feel they were that completely wonderful. 

Love, love, love this stained glass.

The really large houses seemed inappropriate for what we could see of the lot sizes.   

And now we come to the final bit of history for today.  Ladies and gentlemen, this semi-circle of grass, past which I've run more times that I can count, has a name - two in fact.



Unbeknownst to me, I have run past Titty-bottle Corner, also known as Nanny's corner.  Laid out in the 1920s, when large houses were being built in the area, it became the location favoured by nannies to sit and feed their infant charges.

So, from there we walked towards Jesmond becaus it was towards a Metro and Vivien had something to show me.

Grand houses at any time but, oh, south facing windows when the sun shines! 

Day Out in Gosforth - Part I

One lovely day (for a change) Vivien, Lucy and I met up to do a walking tour of Gosforth, nearer Vivien's neck of the woods.  She brought a tour guide and read aloud as we walked.  In between interesting passages, we just yakked.  I marvelled at my luck in finding two people whose interests are so like mine - history, walking and yakking.   Not to mention crafting and frugality! 

People have been walking Gosforth High Street for a long time.  Not only is it part of the old North Road, between London and Edinburgh, documents from the 12th Century mention Gosforth Parish Church and there is evidence of a Saxon church on the site.  (Saxons ran England between the Romans and William the Conqueror, roughly between 400 and 1066). 

Most of the history in the leaflet was more recent, of course.  In the early 19th century the two main landowners  in the area were Job Bulman and Charles John Brandling, both now having pubs named for them.  In fact, before being known as Gosforth, it was called Bulman Village, something even Bill didn't know. 

There were also two large coal mines, called Coxlodge and Gosforth, each within a mile of this main road.  In the election in 1826 there were only 6 votes, as only males over 21 who owned property could vote.  Job James Bulman, of Coxlodge Hall, sold land to the Coxlodge Colliery who built and sold freehold houses to literally create more votes. 

We were invited to imagine the time of active coalmines, with waggonways that crossed the main road to distribute coal from the mines.  Even as late as 1949, there was a man's job to stop traffic - such as it was - to allow the colliery engine to cross.  A gatepost still remains.  We dutifully took photographs.  It was a bright sunny day; perhaps we had sunstroke.

Does anyone remember ushers/usherettes at movie theatres - the ones who carried flashlights/torches?  Imagine a 1937 Royalty Cinema with 12 usherettes and a chocolate boy.  Sadly, it's been demolished.

This ghastly conglomeration of businesses resides in a sad building which was an earlier theatre, before 'talkies'.  The Globe Restaurant gives nod to the former Globe Electric Theatre, opened in 1910, where older residents of the area recall paying tuppence (2 pence) to see a cinema, sometimes with accompanying orchestra.  Being off Gosforth High Street, it obviously hasn't been protected as part of the Conservation Area.  

This terrace of buildings used to be council offices. 



The archway lead to the Fire Station between 1896 and 1990, for the first decade a Volunteer Brigade. 


We heard about the history of such places The Gosforth Hotel (love the blue tiled exterior)


and The Queen Victoria pub. 

This one was built in 1899, replacing a former inn of the same name.  This originally had stables with haylofts, a coach house and a shed for bicycles.  I could imagine that last feature being in demand again one day; well, one could live in hope.

Also, the Woodbine Road Chapel,

built by Mr and Mrs Alexander Robson to the glory of God and as a memorial to their daughter, Emma, who died in 1879. 

We had a cafe lunch on a table out doors.  I was feeling practically euphoric with all the blessings of two friends, warm weather and a bacon and Brie cheese panini. 

Historical sightings were regularly interrupted with visits to the brilliant charity shops.  Parts of Gosforth are wealthy and their charity shops reflect this, not so much in posh designer names but in just well made, little worn items.  My main challenge was to remember (a) my ordinary lifestyle and (b) the many clothes I already own.  I did fall for a purple suede shirt, however. 

We also admired the old tram sheds, now a row of shops on the High Street. 



Apparently there used to be horse-drawn trams (which run on tracks) down the High Street which were then electrified and then replaced by trolley buses (which need no tracks but source electricity from overhead cables) and eventually today's regular buses.  I can't help but think about the mess we saw in Edinburgh on a recent visit where tramlines are being installed.  Back to the future or something.

The GP "surgery" (Brit:  a place where a doctor, dentist, etc., can be consulted; or, also Brit:  an occasion when an MP, lawyer, etc., is available for consultation) started out as a

Doctor's office with charming little clock tower....

Maternity and Child Welfare Centre erected by public subscription as the Gosforth War Memorial.  So much more practical than a statue with plaques all over it, don't you think?  We wondered if such a thing would be possible in modern times.

...better seen from the park at the rear of the building.

Something I didn't know at the time I snapped this photo of the United Reformed Church, now a very posh fish restaurant, is that this is where Bill's parents were married.  I wonder if they'd give us a discount on that basis?

Sadly, Lucy had to leave us soon after lunch to go watch her youngest son do something clever at school.  However, Vivien and I continued...

oh, and by the way -

!!!Happy Independence Day!!!

Jane's 80th Birthday Lesson

Jane will love this title when she reads it!  No, she isn't anywhere near 80 years old.  However, on the day The Quilt was presented, I stayed to watch as she gave her ESL (English as a Second Language) lesson.   I thought it was a clever lesson in that it discussed a current event and also told her students something about herself and her homeland.


She asked if they knew what 80th 'birthday' was approaching.  Several of them knew that the 80th anniversary of the completion of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was around the corner.  Jane showed them a photo from the local newpaper.



Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932)

Then she showed a photo from the internet and asked them what it was - they all answered, 'Sydney Harbour Bridge'.  However, it was not.  It was the Tyne Bridge, located in her home town, built around the same time as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but completed a few years earlier.  She went on to explain that Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England was where she grew up.

Tyne Bridge, Newcastle (1928)

Now I always believed that the Tyne Bridge was sort of a trial run for the much larger Sydney bridge, but it turns out that they were both designed based on the even earlier Hell Gate Bridge in New York.

Hell Gate Bridge, New York (1916)

If one starts reading about 'through arch bridges' it turns out there is an even older one in Vermont, simply called Arch Bridge.  However, while this was quite an innovation in the US at the time, the through arch is an improvement on a Roman design.  The Romans built Newcastle's first bridge, called Pons Aelius, near the site of the present Tyne Bridge in about 122.

Getting completely carried away with through arch bridges, it turns out that Sydney Harbour is not the largest either.  That distinction is currently held by the Lupu Bridge in Shanghai.

I'm pretty sure Jane didn't get quite this carried away in her lesson, but I must admit that I slipped out before I had to talk English with her students as I figured my American accent would just confuse them.

Arch Bridge, between Vermont and New Hampshire (1905)

Crosswords

Bill is reading the book of short stories, titled Lord Peter.  (I’m back onto Harry Potter; no point in owning them all if I’m only going to read them once, right?) 

He remarked that if Dorothy Sayers had any failings as an author it was her fascination with puzzles.  I admitted that after the first explanation of how to decode the messages in Have His Carcase, which was admittedly very clever, I skimmed over the rest until the story resumed.  She tells more than the average reader wants to know about patterns of bell peels for churches in The Nine Tailors.

My last office was in Milburn House in Dean Street, Newcastle, next door to the St. Nicholas Cathedral and working past 6 pm on Wednesdays was impossible, because of the bells.  Dead annoying if you were trying to meet a deadline, but then the whole building was shut and locked with lights out at 7pm as I recall, so there were some limits to the insanity of work hours.  But back to Dorothy Sayers.

Apparently puzzles were very fashionable during the inter-war years.  Crosswords were first invented in 1890, they only became widespread after WWI.  More than wide-spread:  they were the latest craze. 

Imagine a world without crossword puzzles.  Not that I do much with them.  For all that I love words, I’ve never been any good at crosswords and crosswords in a (still) foreign culture – I get nowhere at all.  Mom loved them, though my Dad preferred the daily cryptoquote; he showed off by doing them in his head and writing the answer all at once.

One wonders what all those crossword fanatics did with their time and brains before crosswords came along?  Probably all those useful and practical things that people did before computers were invented…

Goal - Get Carter

Following on from yesterday’s post about the joys of reading a book set in a place you know, I thought I’d tell you about the film, GOAL, starring Kuno Becker and Anna Friel.  Never heard of it?  Me, neither.  A friend in the running club, Terry, kindly gave me this DVD to watch, though he warned me it wasn’t a great film. He said it was a story of a young American boy (actually, he's an illegal alien in LA) who is good at ‘soccer’ and who manages to come over to England and secure a position with Newcastle United Football Club (NUFC).  Terry was right that it has great views of Newcastle, the stadium, Long Sands beach at Tynemouth and the sea front houses at Cullercoats. He also said it portrayed Geordies as crazy about NUFC; I can attest that this is an entirely accurate portrait.

I was happy enough watching it up to the point where the bad guy came along…I’m so soft I had to turn it off cause I knew it was going to upset me. I don’t get much time for watching videos, as I prefer to do it when it won’t disturb Bill. I expect the chance of getting him to watch this with me is about as good as Newcastle’s chances for winning the FA Cup this year (don't ask me what FA stands for...I'm not a footie fan).

I might have a slightly better chance (but don't hold your breath) of getting him to watch the film Get Carter, with Michael Caine.   I may have seen this once quite a while ago, but I don't remember it, so it wouldn't hurt to dust off the video we taped off the TV.  Just mention this film in the pub with a bunch of Geordies around and you'll get them reminiscing about all the places in Newcastle and Gateshead that were captured in that film and are now torn down.  A big 'favourite' is an old multi-storey car park which was apparently pretty hideous but, perhaps because of the film?, somehow isn't missed exactly, but always gets a nostalgic mention.  They aren't alone, apparently (I wonder if this is a good idea for Bill's Christmas prezzie?).  The locals around here will enjoy seeing this man's labour of love, chasing up the locations in the film.  Even I enjoyed looking at it.



Never heard of the movie Get Carter? I hadn’t either, but Michael Caine is big over here with men of a certain age. I’ve watched a few of his films and all his characters strike me as much of a muchness…sort of like John Wayne always playing himself…but – perhaps now I’m of a certain age - ‘e grows on you, ‘e does.