Percy Street, Newcastle, in 1966 by J Signey(Image: Newcastle Libraries)

Newcastle in 1966: 10 photographs showing scenes around the city 60 years ago

by · ChronicleLive

Two historic dates the average schoolchild would traditionally always know were 1066 - the Battle of Hastings - and 1666 - the Great Fire of London. You could probably add 1966 to that list.

On July 30 that year, at a delirious Wembley Stadium, England’s football team lifted the game’s most coveted trophy, the World Cup, for the first and, to date, only time. The image of captain Bobby Moore holding aloft the Jules Rimet trophy remains seared into the nation’s collective memory. Ashington-born brothers Jack and Bobby Charlton were famously integral to England’s success that day.

Looking at the wider picture, 1966 was a high point in a pivotal decade marked by transformation in British politics and society, and by a booming popular culture that reshaped music, film, television, fashion, and the national mood

Closer to home, our 10 archive photographs capture scenes around Newcastle 60 years ago. On Percy Street, the film Moving Target, starring Paul Newman, was showing at the ABC Haymarket cinema. Further along the street stood the Club a’Gogo which, for a few years, hosted performances by some of rock music’s biggest rising stars.

On Market Street, it was just another shopping day at Binns department store - a favourite retail destination for Tynesiders from 1929 until its closure in 1996. At Barras Bridge, the city’s new seat of local government, the Civic Centre, was under construction; it would be officially opened by King Olav V of Norway in 1968.

And at St James’ Park, in their penultimate match of the 1965–66 First Division season, Newcastle United played out a 1–1 draw with Fulham. Centre-half John McGrath was on the scoresheet for the Magpies as they closed in on an unremarkable 15th‐place league finish.

The real footballing drama would begin when the World Cup tournament kicked off at grounds around the country during the summer. When England beat West Germany in the final at Wembley, more than 32 million people watched the game live on television

In the news in 1966, Labour under Prime Minister Harold Wilson secured a sweeping General Election victory, strengthening its parliamentary majority, while Ronnie and Reggie Kray were questioned by police over the murder of fellow London gangster George Cornell.

The Government announced that a new decimal currency system would replace pounds, shillings and pence in 1971, and the BBC unveiled plans to shift gradually from black and white to colour television - although viewers in the North East would not begin to see it until the end of the decade.

There was also tragedy. A catastrophic coal tip collapse engulfed a junior school in Aberfan, South Wales, killing 144 people - most of them children - in one of the darkest moments in modern UK history.

At the cinema in 1966, there was box office success for Born Free, A Man for All Seasons, Khartoum, Batman: The Movie, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. On UK television, there were debuts for Camberwick Green, Softly Softly, It’s A Knockout, The Money Programme, and All Gas and Gaiters.

And for music fans, in what was a pivotal year in pop, there was unusually no sign of The Beatles in the UK singles chart of this week in 1966. There were, however, hits for The Beach Boys with Barbara Ann, The Who with Substitute, The Kinks with Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Simon and Garfunkel with Homeward Bound, and The Walker Brothers with The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More.

Our 10 photographs give a flavour of life in Newcastle 60 years ago.

Binns department store, Market Street, Newcastle, November 1966(Image: Mirrorpix)
Newcastle Civic Centre under construction at Haymarket, Newcastle, October 1966(Image: Mirrorpix)
The Waterloo pub, on the corner of Bath Lane, Newcastle, 1966(Image: Newcastle Libraries)
Newcastle Quayside when the Tyne was still a working river, 1966(Image: MIrrorpix)