"Newcastle City Hall has no long term future” the headlines from the front page of the local newspaper screamed. This news rocked me to my core, the City Hall being the venue in Newcastle to see live music and comedy. With much trepidation I forced myself to read on. The leader of Newcastle Council went on to say that they planned to build a new venue which would be built next to the Sage on the banks of the River Tyne over the next three years. They felt this would lead to the City Hall taking less bookings, so the plan was to not only sell the City Hall, but the adjacent City Pool which opened at the same time as the City Hall, back in 1927. My thought that this would be a major loss for the city is one shared by the majority of the city’s population. A petition sprang up almost immediately as the fight to save our City Hall started.
For me personally, the City Hall is synonymous with the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne on the same level as the Tyne Bridge, St James Park, and Grey’s Monument. Since as long as I can remember I’ve regularly headed for the City Hall excitedly clutching my ticket to see some wonderful shows. It was only a couple of weeks prior seeing this dreadful headline in November 2012 that I had seen Ross Noble bring the house down with laughter in a brilliant show from his sold-out five night run in his hometown. During the summer of 2000, I was up on that very stage, officially graduating from the nearby University of Northumbria, and the venue is still used for graduations, a special day that will live long in the memory of all former students of the city.
The City Hall celebrated its 85th birthday in 2012, and although it struggled in those early years, it has gone from strength to strength with each passing decade, with the explosion of pop music in the 1960s the City Hall was playing to sell-out crowds every night. Acts such as the Rolling Stones and the Kinks played to over 2000 excited Geordies. The Beatles even played at Newcastle City Hall, a total of four times, three times in 1963, and then again in December 1965 during their last ever tour of the UK.
Since then, The City Hall has never looked back, playing the top acts and regularly selling out. Let’s hope it’s not too late to save the wonderful Grade II Listed Building so the acts of tomorrow can continue to entertain the people of Newcastle for generations to come.
Sign the petition to save Newcastle City Hall here: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/newcastle-city-council-save-newcastle-city-hall
'Newcastle Then & Now' by Rob Kirkup is now available on The History Press website.