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Newcastle

Balmbra's

Last Updated:

19 Jun 2025

Newcastle

This is a

Music Hall, Billiards Hall, Hotel, Pub

54.970700, -1.612006

Founded in 

1840

Current status is

Extant

Designer (if known):

Arthur Stockwell

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Currently being refurbished by the Malhotra Group

Balmbra’s is a historic Newcastle watering hole, first opened in 1840 by a fellow named J Balmbra. He marketed himself as one of the most premium venues in the city, selling ‘highly-flavoured wines, foreign and British spirits, fine sparkling English and Scotch Ales, London and Dublin stout.’ Balmbra was a highly known figure in the city, being a founding member of the Licenced Victuallers Association and quarter-master of the Northumberland Yeoman Cavalry. His reputation allowed the bar to flourish.

It was opened, and nearly always known as the Wheatsheaf Inn. It featured stabling as well as a skittle ground at the rear - effectively the ancestor of modern ten pin bowling but with wooden skittles, a lawn and much smaller balls. By the end of the 1840s he also established a music saloon upstairs, which became known as Balmbra's in later years. It was Newcastle's first proper music halland as such it received a great deal of criticism for the noise and raucous nature of this new entertainment. The Newcastle Guardian had to provide an editorial in 1849 stating they couldn't publish more critique's or offend anyone further.

Still, it was certainly popular as Balmbra continued to run it into the 1860s. Two years before he sold it on to Thomas Handford, Geordie Ridley first performed the Blaydon Races on the first floor. You'll notice he actually mentions the music hall in the first verse:

“I took the bus from Balmbras
And she was heavy laden
Away we went along Collingwood Street
That's on the Road to Blaydon”

It’s still sung on the terraces of St. James, plastered all over Blaydon town centre, and traditional folk bands still sing it in pubs all over the area. The legacy of Balmbra’s cannot be understated.

Due to its popularity, landlords who owned the site after Balmbra, who passed in 1868 held nightly music events and extravaganzas throughout the 19th century. It was the centrepoint of evening entertainment on the Bigg Market for decades and was a mainstay on the Cloth Market until the latter stages of the 19th century.

After a short tenure by Handford, it was taken on by Joshua Bagnall and William Blakey and renamed the Oxford Music Hall. They specialised in variety performances with pantomimes, clowns, burlesque as well as such artists named "General Dot", "Major Mite", "Madame Pleon" and "Miss Mowbray". Sounds like a right hoot.

By the 1880s the music hall scene was hugely popular, and as a result this place suffered. It closed down, returning to sole use as a pub and the reversion of the Wheat Sheaf name. This remained until 1889 when the license was refused due to concerns of gambling and a sheer density of pubs on the market. As such, it became a billiards hall, restaurant and eventually a hotel in the late 1890s. Sadly, the original building set ablaze, and was demolished in 1899. Just before this point its purpose was entirely different, used as a billiard hall and restaurant for the more genteel types of the city.

Very soon after it was caught in a blaze which burnt the whole place down. It was reconstructed as the Carlton Hotel, but to celebrate the centenary of the Blaydon Races it again because a music hall under the name Balmbra's. The new building was designed by Arthur Stockwell, an architect held in great esteem in the city for the previous decades. Of many projects he designed the Gateshead Central Library & Shipley Gallery, the Brandling Villa Hotel, the layout of the first Temperance Festival (Hoppings) in 1882, Gosforth's Tram Car Depot and the former Westgate Road Picture House.

Hopefully, we'll see reopening in the next few years but it's been extensively delayed.

Listing Description (if available)

Public house and music-hall. 1902 by A. Stockwell; originally the 'Carlton' P.H. Sandstone ashlar; Welsh slate roof. 3 storeys and attic, 3 bays. Ground floor has recessed entrance at right, curved window with slender pilasters at left. Bracketed ground-floor entablature. Upper floors have narrow sashes in end bays, paired sashes in centre, all in architraves; pediments above first-floor end windows and end pilasters. Dentils to these and to central window cornice. Top dentilled cornice breaks forward over panelled end pilasters. Similar short pilasters with ball finials flank pedimented shaped gable containing keyed roundel. False segmental broken pediment, with central ball finial, below roundel. Steeply-pitched roof has corniced end chimneys. Historical note: this building replaced the 'Wheatsheaf' P.H., which was owned by one Balmbra in the mid C19 and was the setting for the first performance of the song 'The Blaydon Races' in which it is mentioned.

The Ordnance Survey maps above illustrate the site of the music hall from the middle to the end of the 19th century. Both of these plans above depict the Bigg Market from the 1850s to the 1890s. By this time the Bigg Market was pretty similar to how it is today, with the central sunken lavatories and the Town Hall at its zenith. The Bigg Market area previously stretched much further up Newgate Street before Grainger Street was constructed, which allowed for a huge market to take place effectively where The Gate is today. The Wheatsheaf is shown at the bottom of the Cloth Market under its previous guise alongside multiple other institutions. Though Newcastle still has a high density of public houses today it's surprising just how many inns could be sustained at this time. I guess the market congregation made it an ideal investment, which only carries on to this day.

The Town Hall was still extant in the 1950s, with a couple of decades of so before being cleared for more modern commercial developments. We also see the Balmbra's Music Hall amongst the many narrow chares and yards which developed from medieval times out of burgage plots. Many of the yards and thin thoroughfares have succumbed to building expansion. You'll notice Drury Lane though which once featured the Green's Theatre Royal.

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Balmbra's and the colourful procession of the Cloth Market's outstanding architectural offerings. Taken in May 2025

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The original building can be seen here in 1890, named the Wheatsheaf Inn as it was the upper floor that became known as the music hall. Back then, it was the 'Oxford', playing host to many a famous name like Geordie Ridley in its heyday a few decades earlier.

Source: Newcastle Libraries

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Balmbra's in 1964, shortly after rebranding. Source: Newcastle Libraries

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