When walking through Ouseburn on a wintery Sunday afternoon, I noticed a plaque on a wall that had previously escaped my attention.
Instead of the usual blue you'd find at heritage sites, this one was black and made the extremely outlandish claim that the person it was dedicated to had donated Jesmond Dene to the people of Newcastle after winning it in a game of cards. Determined to find out more, I did a bit of digging to discover that the building houses a museum dedicated to a Czech national hero, Jára Cimrman.
The sign on Stepney Bank, dedicated to the Bohemian philosopher, adventurer and inventor, reads: "Jára Cimrman invented the electric light bulb assisted by local inventor Joseph Swan. Thomas Edison later copied the idea and patented it in his name.
