Newcastle City Council

Welcome to your Elswick 'Where I Live' web pages

This site gives you the opportunity to have your say and find out what's going on in your local area. By using the links on the right hand side of this page, you can find out about local services, key contacts, community groups, volunteering, local meetings and events.

Elswick ward

Click on this map to view the ward boundary (pdf, 2.23 MB). 

L to R: Elswick Park, Riverside Dene, West End Customer Service Centre  

The Elswick ward consists of a number of distinct neighbourhoods including the Adelaide Terrace area, Bentinck Estate, Condercum and Denhill Park, Cruddas Park, Elswick Triangle, Gill Street and the Courts, Grainger Park, Jubilee Estate, North Benwell, and both the St John's and St Paul's areas. The ward also incorporates South Central Station, Newcastle Business Park, Newcastle College, and the Metro Radio Arena Newcastle.

Elswick community awards

The Elswick Ward Committee presents community awards at its meetings to recognise the hard work and commitment of dedicated volunteers and workers in the ward. If you would like to nominate someone who makes an outstanding contribution to community life in Elswick, please contact the Elswick ward co-ordinator, Jo Jefferson.      

Presentation of community awards by the Elswick ward councillors

Top left: Margaret Bailey and Brenda Lyon who are volunteers at Park Road Community Association. They were nominated by the late Sandra McNeill (pictured far right).
Top middle: Michael Bolan, Ann Trotter, Jim Heseltine and Diane Curran, who have been active volunteers at Adelaide House for many years.
Top right: Billy Richardson received his award for personal achievement in producing a DVD about the history of Northbourne Street.
Bottom row: An Elswick Ward Committee meeting - officers attend the meetings to talk with residents about local issues. 

What's going on ...

Decent Neighbourhood Standards

Every neighbourhood in Newcastle will be brought up to a decent standard under a new set of proposals by the city council.  

The council, with residents, wants to create its own Decent Neighbourhoods Standard to ensure consistently good services in each of the city’s 26 wards, with services such as street cleaning, graffiti removal and bin collection being constantly monitored and improved.

Residents who would like to make their views known should visit http://www.letstalknewcastle.co.uk/consultations/index/13 and take part in an online survey.

Riverside Dene

The four refurbished blocks providing social housing in Riverside Dene and managed by Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) are all fully occupied. Sales of the apartments in the Cedars are progressing well with only 5 one-bed flats remaining.

The remaining five unrefurbished blocks are scheduled for demolition. The appointed demolition contractor, Technical Demolition Services, will move onto the site in mid November, local residents will notice large vehicles moving on to site and fencing being put in place. Local residents in the area will be informed via letter of the works, regular updates will be provided to residents, businesses and local community groups through a variety of methods including personal visits, letters, radio and media releases. Newcastle City Council and YHN, who are managing the contract on behalf of the Council, are trying to keep disruption in the area to a minimum.

The demolitions will take approximately nine months to complete, depending on the weather. Anyone with any specific questions regarding the demolitions can contact Stuart Bagnall at YHN, stuart.bagnall@yhn.org.uk. Once the demolitions have been completed and all materials removed from the site, the land will be grassed ready for re-development. There are currently a range of proposals being considered for the area, including residential and commercial and or mixed use. All proposals will be subject to public consultation.

Former Mary Trevelyan school site

The site was marketed for sale by Newcastle City Council in the summer, a number of tenders have been received and are now being considered by the Council.

Loadman Street

There has been no interest in the residential area of Loadman Street however it is expected this may change when the housing market recovers and when the demolition of the remaining tower blocks is completed.

The area to the south of Loadman Street has been identified for business use, and PSL Ltd, the Council’s partner in the development are currently putting together a proposal for 14 small units in one part of the site, the proposal is subject to funding being secured from a variety of sources including a European funding application.

The former Rock Public House

This is now a combination of flats, which have been let out and a retail unit.  At the time of writing this report no licence application had been received for the unit in the Rock, although work has been on going in the unit.

The Beacon

The new building on the site of the old fire station on the West Road is now open. 
Visit the website to find out more.

Highways and Traffic Management - Ward Update

This report (pdf, 1.45MB) highlights short, medium and long term traffic management and highways schemes in the ward as well as information on road traffic accidents and utilities work.

The work listed will be subject to further discussions with ward councillors and will form the basis of the monthly ward report that is sent out to the Elected Members. If you have any questions or comments, you can email the Elswick Communities Officer, come to Elswick Ward Committee, or contact your local councillors.

Newcastle General Hospital site

Outline Planning Permission was granted by Development Control Committee on Friday 21 January 2011 in line with officers' recommendations.  The Committee report is available to view here.

Work is still ongoing to draft the necessary legal agreement to secure the various contributions that the developer has agreed to make. This is expected to be concluded very shortly.

Historic Elswick

Elswick was a separate township which was not incorporated into Newcastle until 1835. The township of Elswick had originally formed part of the Barony of Bolam following the Norman Conquest. The area was owned by Tynemouth Priory from 1120-1539, with a fishery present on the site. Coal was an important commodity at this time, with the letting of coal mines recorded from 1330. Elswick was later owned by the Crown from 1539 to 1628, until it was sold by Charles 1.

The Priors held a mansion in the middle of Elswick which was later occupied by Elswick Hall. Having been rebuilt a number of times, the last rebuild took place in 1810. The grounds of Elswick Hall became Elswick Park in 1881.

Elswick changed significantly in the late 19th Century with the extension of the railway from Carlisle to Newcastle in 1839 and the establishment of William Armstrong's manufacturing works in 1847. Population increased rapidly during this period with the construction of Tyneside flats from Scotswood Road to accommodate the workforce. The area suffered as a result on the inter-war and subsequent depressions, culminating in the demolition of the Elswick works.