Westgate Road, The Bodega PH (Old Black Bull)

Designed by Septimus Oswald c.1872. This was a rebuild of the Old Black Bull Public House. Jacob Wilkinson took over the Black Bull around 1860. It had a small brewery which Thomas Dixon had run until 1857. The rebuild in 1872 included a shop as well as the public house. This arrangement lasted until 1893 when the shaving saloon closed and the space was added to the public house. Jacob Wilkinson improved the brewery. In 1901 the three-storey brewery building collapsed during foundation digging for the new Pavilion Theatre (demolished in 1992). The brewery had to be rebuilt and re-equipped. In 1903 Wilkinson held a dinner party for 100 people to celebrate its reopening. He died in 1905. The brewery was sold to John Fitzgerald. The pub was refurbished by Cackett and Burns Dick in 1906. Cackett and Burns Dick's refurbishment included a glamorous dome over the rear buffet. Extended by Pascal J. Stienlet, 1937 including a second dome over a new lounge extension. It retained its old name until 1996, when it was refurbished with a new pub front and named The Bodega. The plain red brickwork is enlivened by stone window surrounds, decorative stone trim to the eaves, stone bands at both floors, and alternating red and cream stone over first floor windows, giving it an Eastern look. Unfortunately the original sash windows on first floor have been replaced. The building did carry an early Fire Insurance badge but this has been stolen. The 1996 pub front received a Newcastle City Council Lord Mayor's Award for good design in 1997. LOCAL LIST