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Byker, Newcastle

The Hope & Anchor (Jackson's Bar)

Last Updated:

28 Feb 2024

Byker, Newcastle

This is a

Pub

54.977378, -1.578007

Founded in 

1850s

Current status is

Extant

Designer (if known):

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Now Jackson's Bar

The Hope & Anchor, which is now known as Jackson’s Bar.

Another very common pub name this, and is one of the earliest on the road. A pub of this name has been situated here since at least the mid 1850s, part of what was called the “Catterick Buildings” which was probably a terrace of some sort. An Elizabeth Minto lived in lodgings here in 1872, and features in another post we've published by Dorothy Whittaker on a murder at the Ouseburn: https://www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/post/serial-killer-strikes-in-ouseburn

Given it was one of the only pubs on the street, it hosted a swathe of different gatherings. Freemasons, crop auctions, Conservative meetings and death inquests all feature. The earliest references notes an appointment for St Peter's Lodge specifically - Lodge 706. They were likely named after the St Peter's area on the Quayside, near the Ouseburn.

The pub was rebuilt around the beginning of the 1890s, noted as being in a location surrounded by derelict old houses. The author in the Chronicle piece makes the age old observation of the new replacing the old, with “only thirty years ago green fields extending the whole district”.

The pub changed its name to Jackson's around the beginning of the 1990s. It later gained notoriety as the scene of a shooting involving David Roche, the former Newcastle United midfielder and Wallsend Boys Club player, in 1995. He had been drinking in the pub after a funeral, and was shot after a pub fight. He had been banned from entering Newcastle but received special dispensation for the funeral.

Listing Description (if available)

The Ordnance Survey maps above illustrate the Hope & Anchor in the latter half of the 19th century. The 1864 map shows the pub adjoined to the Catterick Buildings, which were lodgings/dwellings likely for miners in the area. It stood opposite the south lodge for Heaton Hall, which was at this time one of the only buildings on Shields Road. Before this map, it stood close to a waggonway which stretched up to the Lawson Main Pit and into Heaton, though this had been severed by this time.

The 1890s map demonstrates huge transformation of the urban landscape. The boom of coal and shipbuilding saw the sprawl of terraced housing, which Byker become an effective suburb of the city. The Hope & Anchor was rebuilt by this time, extending into much of the whole Catterick Building plot.

The 1921 Ordnance Survey further shows the terraced sprawl extending from the city. The quarries and collieries of Lawson Main are still in situ, however on the whole Byker remains largely the same bar Byker Wall.

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Jackson's Bar in 2024

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The Hope & Anchor, undated but appears to be around the 1960s. Source: Newcastle Libraries

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