Newcastle's 'nightmare' town hall in city scene at dawn of the 1970s

WE step back to 1971 with this classic bygone Newcastle city centre view.

- DAVID MORTON

This was the scene at the Groat Market, its name deriving from the crushed oats which historically had been sold there, and which traded cheek by jowl with the nearby Bigg and Cloth Markets.

Any traces of the old market were long gone 54 years ago. On the right, largely out of sight behind the bookmaker and the pub, stood Thomson House, the offices of The Journal, Newcastle Chronicle and Sunday Sun until 2018, when the company moved to premises in Eldon Square more suited to its 21st century digital needs.

When it was officially opened by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson 60 years ago this month, in May 1965 the Chronicle having vacated its former home, the grand, Victorian-built Kemsley House, just around the corner on Westgate Road it was hailed as one of the most sophisticated newspaper offices in the world.