Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead
| Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead |
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Ruins of the Bertram's warehouse; St. Mary's Church in the background
Woodblock engraving from the Illustrated London News, 14 October 1854 |
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 Great fire
of Newcastle and Gateshead  Great fireof Newcastle and Gateshead shown within Tyne and Wear |
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| OS grid reference | NZ253637 |
| Coordinates | 54°58′05″N 1°36′22″W / 54.968°N 1.606°WCoordinates: 54°58′05″N 1°36′22″W / 54.968°N 1.606°W |
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The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead was a tragic and spectacular series of events starting on Friday 6 October 1854, in which a substantial amount of property in the two North East of England towns was destroyed in a series of fires and an explosion which killed 53 and injured hundreds. There is only one building still extant on the Newcastle Quayside which predated the fire.
The towns of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead sit opposite each other, on relatively steep slopes leading down to the River Tyne. On the north side is Newcastle, the quayside of which was — at least by local accounts — one of the largest in the kingdom, with much shipping and the concentration of town's business and commerce. Gateshead had similarly dense development opposite the quayside with manufactories, mills and warehouses built down to the water's edge, behind which and running up the hill were numberless densely occupied tenemented dwellings.
The towns were linked by two bridges, built no more than 100 feet (30 m) apart. The older was a nine-arched stone bridge, built in 1771, the third to have been constructed on the site. Slightly upstream was Robert Stephenson's new High Level Bridge, completed five years previously in 1849, an ingenious double-decker design allowing railway traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower.
On the Gateshead riverbank, a few yards downstream of the old bridge, stood the splendid new mill premises of Messers Wilson & Sons, worsted manufacturers. This large gaslight-lit building had been erected after a fire which destroyed their previous premises, on the same site, three years before the events of this great fire.
At half past midnight on Friday 6 October 1854, the mill was discovered to be on fire; the cry was raised and immediately the streets crowded with people hurrying to the scene of the growing conflagration. The fire being confined to the upper stories of the building, efforts were made to salvage stock on lower floors; but the great quantities of oil in the premises, used to treat wool, added fuel to the fire and quickly curtailed the attempts. Despite the prompt attendance of the North British and Newcastle fire engines, within an hour the building was one mass of flame and within two the roof fell in and the building was a total wreck.
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