Middlesbrough Remembered
The Streets
The House
Cooper Common
Excuse me but where is Middlesbrough?
Walk from North Ormesby
Sources and Resources
Only a Short Time in History
Memories of Parliament Road
Welford Street
Football on the Roof
St Patrick's Church
The Tees (Newport) Bridge
Don't Mention the War?
Laws Street Block
Contributors
Dorman Museum
Albert Park and 'Owld 'Enry
An Ayresome Childhood
Street Games
The Shops
St Paul's School
Victoria St/Greta St Now
Newport School
The 'New' Newport School
Archibald Schools
Newport Bombing 15 April 1942
Closing of St Paul's School
Ayresome School
More Memories of Parliament Rd.
Round and About King George Street
Cinemas
Tees Poem
Middlesbrough Welsh
Memories of Duncombe Street
STOP PRESS: ARCHIBALD SCHOOL
University of Teesside Research Project
Honeymans of Cannon Street
Marilyn's Memories
Links for Newport, Middlesbrough
Guestbook
Mail Form
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The Area around Newport/St Paul's School Now
Vic Wood
I took photos of the area around Victoria St and Greta St in 2004 and 2005. There is very little left of the building which had housed two schools,
Newport Rd School and then also St Paul's after that school's original building was destroyed by bombing in 1941. The original streets plan looked like this.
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No longer a residential area
| The houses of the west side of Victoria Street have been demolished as has Holt St which was to the west of Victoria St. The next street to the west was Lamport St and this name has been kept for a street which now runs at an angle off Victoria Street. |  |
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What's Left of the School Building.
 | | This was taken Summer 2004 from the Greta St side. The corner with Annie St can just be seen. The end of the buildings which were retained by Newport have been removed entirely. |
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Lemonade Relief
The school windows had high sills so that we could not see what was going on in the streets around us. This was a Victorian idea to ensure pupils were not distracted. However over the road on the Greta Street side was Lowcock's Lemonade Factory. The lemonade crates were loaded on and off the lorries from a crane protruding from the second storey of the Lowcock's building. So from classsrooms on that side we could see the crates being lifted and lowered even though we could not see the lorry.
It was an irresistible sight and you just couldn't help sneaking surreptitious glances even if it earned you a clip round the lug if the teacher was behind you! Lowcocks is no longer there. I think the building is used by a car repair shop but it looks as if the crane which lowered the crates still is.
The white building at the far end fronts onto Newport Road. It is Autoglass windscreens. This originally was the site of Westend Methodist Church |  |
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The 'Pav'
The 'Pav' was the Pavillion Cinema. It was on the corner of Annie Street and Newport Rd. I don't know how long it was opened but it must have had a short life because it was a shuttered building when I passed it on my way to school in the early fifties.
People seem to have fond memories of it however. My Mam remembers the Penny Push. This was the crowd pressing to get into the cheapest seats. When the doors opened this crowd surged in like an unstoppable tide. My Mam reckons that only being short she was often carried in by the weight of the throng without her feet touching the ground. She also reckons this often meant she got in without paying!
She remembers the comissionaire or chucker-out as she called him,"Sergeant" Kettlewell.He was ex-army,a real tough man."He had to be," she recalls.
One time when Mam was able to afford get into
the fourpenny seats,she was at first irritated
to be greeted from the cheap seats,"What are you doing up there? Have you been taking the bottles back?" However irritation quickly became downright annoyance when through the gloom she saw it was her own brother Edwin leading the chorus!
Looking at the building now I feel a wry smile! When I was a kid we were constantly warned and threatened by our parents and teachers to stay out of it. One time I remember the dire threats after some kids had got in and started a fire. We were constantly told the building was unsafe and they were soon going to knock it down. The wry smile, half a century later, is in seeing it's still here and everything else has been knocked down!
Now it is the Arena Night Club and it has been well established as such since 1991. Nice to see it is a place of entertainment
once again. |  |
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The Acklam
The other notable building surviving on this block is the Acklam Pub one of the few town pubs that hasn't been turned into a 'Phoney Baloney's' with buckets in the window, brooms on the walls and a signpost in the middle of the floor telling you how far it is to Killarney!
(post script 2006..Alas the Acklam too has gone yet another Boro landmark has bitten the dust. Shortly after I photographed it and nipped in for a swift half, it lost its licence for serving under-age drinkers. I hope this wasn't my fault..I do look young for my age! I think they tried re-opening it as a coffee bar or something but evidently this didn't work. Anyway..it's gone now..a victim of the relentless and irresistible impetus to make Middlesbrough look exactly like everywhere else.)
The Acklam was one of the two Newport pubs , the other being appropriately named 'The Newport Hotel'. It was on the corner of Samuelson St and Newport Rd just alongside the approach road to the Newport Road.
Its foundations are now somewhere under the roundabout connecting Newport Rd,the A66 and the Newport Bridge approach road.
The other Newport watering hole is Sammy's (Samuelson's Club), named for Sir Bernard Samuelson, owner of the Newport Ironworks which had provided most of the employment for this end of the town. |  |
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Lorne St and Howard St
Just to the south of the schools running at right angles between Victoria Street and Greta Street are Lorne St and Howard St.
The houses are still there but they are no longer dwellings. They have been converted into lockups and workshops.They are called the Lorne Howard Industrial Units |  |
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