As reassuring a presence as the nearby bridges of the Tyne and the constant flow of the mighty river, the traditional Sunday market on Newcastle Quayside continues to draw the crowds week after week, year after year.
This was the busy scene as captured from the Tyne Bridge by a Chronicle photographer 65 years ago in April 1958 at a time when the location was still a daily hive of industrial and maritime activity. The market, in fact, had first been mentioned in records from around 1736, but is thought to date back even further.
In the early 18th century it was said to stretch from the old Tyne Bridge (where the Swing Bridge is today) to Sandgate (near where the Millennium Bridge is today). It would have been a vibrant mix of market stalls, racing tipsters and fairground attractions. In Victorian times, fortune tellers, escapologists, and strongman acts would have pulled in the Quayside crowds.
READ MORE: Tyneside 65 years ago: 10 photographs from around our region in 1958
Over time, of course, Newcastle has been home to a host of markets - the Bigg Market, Groat Market, Flesh Market, Cloth Market, White Cross Market, Herb Market, Fish Market, Greenmarket and more. In 1770, the town was said to be “provided with all kinds of provision from the very plentiful markets...,here being used annually above 5,000 beeves, 10,000 calves, 143,000 sheep and lambs, with swine, fish, poultry, eggs, butter in a prodigious abundance”.
In 2004, one Chronicle reader from Shieldfield shone a light on a lost world as she fascinatingly recalled the Quayside Sunday market of her 1930s childhood.
“The stall-keepers were all characters with the gift of the gab. We always lingered at the stall that sold sweets. Every so often they’d have a throw-out of sweets into the crowd and there’d be a mad scramble" she remembered. "Another stall sold crockery. This man never stopped talking about his wares. When he came to the plates and saucers he’d juggle them in the air, talking all the time.
“Another stall sold medicine and pills, and there was some sort of rubbing oil. A man would strip to his waist. He would rub the oil over his body and arms until his skin was shimmering. Then he started rippling his muscles, especially his arms and, at the same time he’d be telling everyone the oil he was using would get rid of all his aches and pains and sprains. I could certainly do with some of that oil now,” the 78-year-old joked at the time.
The Quayside Sunday market has had its ups and downs over the years, and we reported in 2007 how it required a major relaunch after struggling for trade. Today thankfully, as anybody who's visited recently will have seen, the Quayside is busy with stalls and shoppers every Sunday.
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