Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1840 contain some of Newcastle's finest buildings—Grainger Street, Clayton Street,
and Grey Street are well worth a wander, with the latter voted Britain's finest street
by BBC Radio 4 listeners in 2005. Southeast of Grainger Town stands the ruined
Norman
Castle Keep
(
&
0191/232-7938;
www.castlekeep-newcastle.org.uk), the
“new castle”—after which the city was named—built in 1168-78 by Henry II on the
site of an earlier castle by William the Conqueror's son, Robert Curthose. The site is
open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday noon to 5pm, with entry £4 adults,
free for children 17 and under.
From here it's a pleasant stroll down to and along the quay-side, where you can
truly get the measure of the city's transformation, with gleaming new architecture and
riverside hotels and restaurants rubbing shoulders with industrial vestiges including
Stephenson's High Level Bridge. The
Gateshead Millennium Bridge
—the world's
only tilting bridge (to see it when it does, check times on www.gateshead.gov.uk)—
allows walkers and cyclists quick access to Gateshead.
Centre for Life
ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX Newcastle's cutting-
edge science village is of most interest to visitors for its wonderful Science Centre,
where well-thought-out interactive displays in themed areas, daily science and plan-
etarium shows, and a motion ride make for a great family day out.
Discovery Square.
&
0191/243-8210.
www.life.org.uk. Admission £8.25 adults, £6.45 children 5-17.
Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 11am-6pm.
Discovery Museum
MUSEUM A budget alternative to the Centre for Life,
this venue includes a science maze, the new British Film Institute's Mediatheque,
with more than 1,800 films and TV shows from the BFI's National Archive, and
various hands-on displays about the history of Newcastle and Tyneside.
Blandford Square.
&
0191/232-6789.
www.twmuseums.org.uk. Free admission. Mon-Sat 10am-5pm,
Sun 2-5pm.
Seven Stories
ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX About 20 minutes' walk
outside the center, this unique establishment was set up in 2005 to celebrate chil-
dren's literature through permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as storytelling
and other events. It also boasts one of the U.K.'s largest independent children's
bookstores.
30 Lime St.
&
0845/271-0777.
www.sevenstories.org.uk. Admission £6 adults, £5 children 3-16. Mon-
Sat 10am-5pm, Sun and bank holidays 10am-4pm.
GATESHEAD
The Millennium Bridge brings you to the foot of the
BALTIC Centre for Contem-
porary Art,
stunningly set within a former red-brick flour mill on Gateshead Quays,
looming over the river. It rather eclipses the nearby
Shipley Art Gallery,
Prince
Consort Road (
&
0191/477-1495;
www.twmuseums.org.uk), but the latter's excel-
lent design and contemporary craft displays, plus its painting collection, make it well
worth a visit. Also free, it's open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday 2 to 5pm.
Though the Shipley has been around since 1907, this region's cultural renaissance
is said to have been kickstarted by the building, in 1998, of the
Angel of the North,
or “Gateshead Flasher” as some locals have dubbed it—Antony Gormley's 20m-tall
(60-ft.) steel sculpture of an angel on a hill at the southern edge of Low Fell, overlook-
ing the A1 and A167 into Tyneside, as well as the main rail route. If you don't enter
Gateshead via these means, the Angel Bus (www.simplygo.com/our-services/
the-angel) can take you there.
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