The Lost Buildings of Jesmond

For all its well-kept Victorian streets, Jesmond has lost its share of landmarks. A grand cinema, a country mansion, a busy railway station and one of Lord Armstrong's showpiece buildings have all vanished or fallen silent over the past century, some flattened by the demolition men and others left as roofless shells. Their stories are woven into the streets and parks that Jesmond people walk every day. Here are some of the buildings that time took away, and what stands in their place now.

The Jesmond Picture House

For most of the twentieth century, the Jesmond Picture House was the grandest cinema in the suburb. It opened in May 1921 and was among the most lavish picture houses in Newcastle, drawing crowds to its auditorium beside West Jesmond Metro station for more than seventy years. It finally closed on 1 October 1993 after a new multiplex opened nearby, then stood empty and increasingly derelict for years before being demolished in the autumn of 2009. The site did not stay vacant for long: a Sainsbury's Local was built there in 2016, so shoppers now buy their groceries where audiences once queued for the pictures.

Best for: Best for a "did you know": Jesmond's grandest cinema is now a supermarket.

Lord Armstrong's Banqueting Hall

Not every lost building has disappeared completely. In Jesmond Dene, the Banqueting Hall built for Lord Armstrong in 1864, to a design by the architect John Dobson, still stands, but only as a shell of its former self. Armstrong used it to entertain his business guests amid the wooded valley, and in its day it was a richly decorated venue for grand occasions. It later lost its roof and interiors and now survives as a striking open ruin, still hosting occasional community events but a ghost of the splendid hall it once was.

Jesmond's old railway station

Jesmond's original railway station is a lost building that found a second life. It opened in June 1864 on the Blyth and Tyne Railway and served the suburb until January 1978, when the line closed to be rebuilt as part of the Tyne and Wear Metro. The trains now run underground through the modern Jesmond station, but the old Victorian station building was not knocked down. It survives as The Carriage, a Grade II listed pub, complete with a 1912 railway saloon carriage in the garden. The station master's house beside it did not survive, and was demolished in the late 1970s.

Best for: Best for a lost-and-found landmark: a Victorian station that lives on as a pub.

La Sagesse and Jesmond Towers

At the north end of Jesmond, the Gothic mansion of Jesmond Towers is one of the suburb's grandest survivals, but the institution it housed is gone. Enlarged in the 1860s and 1880s for the shipbuilder Charles Mitchell, the house was taken over in 1912 by a French religious order, the Filles de la Sagesse, and became La Sagesse School. Generations of Jesmond children were taught here until the school closed in 2008. The buildings still stand, converted for housing, but the convent school that gave the site its name and its Lourdes-style grotto has passed into history.

St Mary's Chapel, a ruin that endures

The oldest lost building of all is St Mary's Chapel in Jesmond Dene. Probably built in the early twelfth century, it was one of the most important pilgrimage shrines in the north of England during the Middle Ages, mentioned in the same breath as Canterbury and St Paul's. It was suppressed at the Reformation and left to fall into ruin, and its ivy-covered walls have stood roofless for centuries. Unlike the picture house or the station master's house, the chapel was never swept away; its quiet ruin remains one of the most atmospheric corners of the valley.

A suburb that keeps its ghosts close

Jesmond's lost buildings tell a familiar story of changing times: a cinema beaten by the multiplex, a railway remade as a Metro, a school that closed and a great hall left to the weather. What is striking is how many of them still leave a mark, whether as a ruin in the Dene, a listed pub or a supermarket on a cinema's footprint. To walk Jesmond's streets with these stories in mind is to see a suburb that carries its history in plain sight.

Frequently asked questions

What happened to the Jesmond Picture House? The Jesmond Picture House opened in 1921 as one of Newcastle's most lavish cinemas, beside West Jesmond Metro station. It closed on 1 October 1993, stood derelict for years and was demolished in autumn 2009. A Sainsbury's Local supermarket was built on the site in 2016.

Can you still see Lord Armstrong's Banqueting Hall in Jesmond Dene? Yes, but only as a ruin. The Banqueting Hall was built in 1864 to a design by John Dobson for Lord Armstrong to entertain his guests. It later lost its roof and interior and now survives as an open shell in Jesmond Dene, still used occasionally for community events.

What became of Jesmond's old railway station? The original Jesmond station opened in 1864 and closed in 1978 when the line was converted for the Metro, which now runs underground. The Grade II listed Victorian station building survives as The Carriage pub, which has a 1912 railway saloon carriage in its garden.

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