Heritage open days- day 2

A busy day having a nosey around more unusual buildings that I've not been inside before as part of heritage open days! Today in Newcastle city centre.

We got the metro to central station then walked around the black gate and Castle keep. Then down to look inside Bessie Surtees House, a 16th century merchants house with original Jacobean architecture. We then walked in the sunshine down the Quayside and over to a fascinating building that I had never heard of before- The Castle Gate. This was the electric power station in Manors, which generated the electricity supply for the trollybuses of the city. It was great to see inside this building built in 1901. In the late 1960s the trollybuses stopped running and the metro system was developed, the power station was no longer required. The old turbines were removed and the building owned by stagecoach had several uses since before selling to the city church in 1996. During the tour we were able to go underneath the building and into the original bomb shelter and unto the tunnel that fed the DC energy to the tramways.

Afterwards, we stopped for a glass of wine in the sun on Grey Street before heading to the Lit & Phil society, which is the largest independent library outside of London. It is a beautiful grade 2 listed building which opened in 1825. I love books and on the guided tour we were able to access members only areas and go up onto the balcony where I took this photograph to blip. I love the circular roof windows and could sit reading in here all day if given the chance!

Next, we went next door to the Mining Institute at the beautiful Neville building. I love the architecture of this building. Its very intricate with stone carvings on the outside and gothic revival in the library inside with vast stained glass windows. We had an interesting tour here (especially as the daughter of a coal miner).

After a long day of site seeing, we went to our new local area for the evening, and tried out the Brandling arms on Gosforth High Street for some food and drink.

After doing so much today, its difficult to chose what to blip! With my love of books, I chose the Lit & Phil society. I'll definitely visit again to browse their selection of local history books. The Heritage open days are a great way to find out about the local area for free, I am only sorry that this is the first year that I've known about it (on its 20th anniversary!) www.heritageopendaysorg.uk