It was 1972 and there were wintry scenes around the Civic Centre in the Barras Bridge area of Newcastle.
Much like today, there was a cold snap 50 years ago and the region was covered in a blanket of snow. Notwithstanding, the wintry Tyneside conditions provided for an attractive photograph. Our modern-day image was captured earlier this year. Back in 1972, the Civic Centre had only been up and running for five years.
Plans for a new ‘town hall’ dated back to before World War II, but it wasn’t until November 1960 that the city’s Lord Mayor laid the foundation stone. The building work was completed by 1967 for a total outlay of £4,855,000 (around £63m at 2022 prices). As a seat of local government, it replaced Newcastle’s Victorian-built Town Hall in the Bigg Market, which had long fallen into disrepair and would finally be demolished in 1973.
