Shown on second edition Ordnance Survey 10.56” to 1 mile revision. Seems to have been much reduced in frontage. George Henderson 1783 innkeeper, Thomas Bell 1777. Mr Henderson’s freehold against Bankside. Stone, 3 storeys. In 1973 an excavation was undertaken on the derelict site of the Duke of Cumberland. It was established that there had been only two buildings on this site. The first dated to the late 13th century and survived perhaps until the 17th century when it was replaced by the second building, the erstwhile Duke of Cumberland. This pub disappeared from the street directories at the very end of the 19th century. The buildings ran parallel with the street and their front walls corresponded with the inner edge of the present pavement. Both buildings may have extended uphill to the north. The later house had been truncated and had been given a new west wall as a result of the construction of the new High Level Bridge. House 1 probably had shops or workshops on the ground floor. Its earliest feature was the north or rear wall. In front of this the ground had been levelled up with layers of mason's chippings. Stakeholes survived in the top surface of the chippings. The front wall was built on this layer. There were three openings in the front wall. Each was 4 feet wide. In the 14th century the middle opening was blocked up and the building was divided by two partition walls into smaller rooms. No objects datable to the 15th century were found and there wasn't much 16th century material. The patches of chippings and mortar interspersed with thin layers of black trampled soil, and the discovery of a broken stone matrix for a monumental brass, perhaps suggests that this was a mason's workshop. This house was eventually demolished and replaced by house 2. The front and back walls were based on the lower courses of the earlier house. The second house was divided into two rooms. The west room had a timber floor. The east room had a sunken kiln. In the 19th century the kiln was filled in the whole house floored with flags, brick and concrete. The only evidence for the use of the building as a hostelry was two dominoes. The Duke of Cumberland closed in 1898.

Original photo in L373 N536P “Bruce’s School Vol 5”. Cable moulding can be seen around three sides of the ground floor and dormer windows; and around all four sides of both of the first floor windows. It can also be seen along the string course and at eaves level.
Stone, 2 storeys

Constructed in around 1649. wood.

Building known only from documentary references from late C14 and early C15. In 1392, Adam Tang, burgess, conveys to his wife Alice, the Poldhall… which extends from Melemarketgate to Westgate. In 1397 Thomas Robson, chaplain of Newcastle, gave the Polled Hall to William de Hoton of Brandon. In 1406 William de Hoton to Master John Payt, clerk, a tenement known as Poldhall. Dated C14th.

At rear of 27 Dean Street, middle of architrave above the door. The "exubererant" Cathedral buildings fronting on to Dean Street, painted pink and cream, 1901 by Oliver, Leeson and Wood, have a mass of Jacobean-style detailing. At the rear of the building on St Nicholas' churchyard above the rear door is a large circular window and the architrave surmounting this has a dark grey painted sculpture of a rabbit set into the middle. The presence of this rabbit does not seem to have any relationship to the quiet cloistered atmosphere of St. Nicholas's churchyard. The animal has oversized canine teeth and a "manic expression on his face", which have led to the beast being popularly known as The Vampire Rabbit {1}. Christopher Goulding suggests that it is in fact a hare [in fact its ears were once much smaller and rabbit like - they have been lengthened to hare-like proportions since the late 1980s] and that it was an aesthetic joke on the part of the architects Oliver, Leeson and Wood. 'Mad' March hares were associated with the advent of Spring in pre-Christian times and were adopted as a symbol of Easter in Christian iconography and architecture. In British medieval churches there are carved hares playing bagpipes, chasing Green men and 'trinity of hares' running in circles. Where normally a gargoyle might be expected in buildings overlooking the Cathedral churchyard, the architects for the Cathedral Buildings used a grotesque hare. The hare may alternatively have been used as a reference to the work of the engraver of Thomas Bewick, who had a workshop in Cathedral Close. His work often featured hares. The cathedral's patron saint, St. Nicholas of Myra is also associated in some East European Christmas stories with woodland animals such as hares and deer {Christopher Goulding 2006}. An alternative explanation is that was placed there by the architect William H Wood as a reference to Sir George Hare Philipson, who was a physician at the Newcastle Royal Infirmary, providing the vampire association. Hare Philipson was also the founder of the University of Durham Masonic Lodge, and William H Wood was possibly a prominent freemason in the area. Hares appear in masonic symbolism {http://peacockshock.com/archives/cat_newcastle.html}. In 2008 the rabbit was repainted black.

An old wooden trough. Discovered in Westgate Street when pulling down an old house near the Post Office. Donated to the Society of Antiquaries by H.M. Board of Works. See also HER 1377.

Gray says that the house of the Bishop of Carlisle was probably located on this street.

Gray describes St. John's as "a pretty little church… in this Parish the Earles of Westmerland had his House, as others, good Benefactors to this Towne". Bourne records that next to St. Mary's Hospital (HER 1502) there was a very old magnificent building, lived in by Sir Robert Shaftoe and later Mr Charles Clark, Junior. The house was built by the Baron of Bywell and Bolbeck in the reign of Edward III (1327-77). About the same time he built a defensive house "within the bounds of the castle" called Bolbeck Hall. The founders of this house was made Earl in the reign of Richard II in the year 1398. Ralph Nevil, Lord of Raby, became Earl Marshall, so the house was named Westmoreland Place in Westgate. Some have conjectured that Sir Robert Shaftoe's house was part of it. Dated C14th.

Stone coffin found in the precincts of St Mary's Hospital during excavations for the Stephenson Monument. Donated to the Society of Antiquaries by Newcastle Corporation.

Medieval pottery found in Westgate Road on the north side of Stephenson's Monument in the Roman wall ditch. Donated to the Society of Antiquaries in January 1934 by Newcastle and District Electric Lighting Co. Ltd (per Mr NS Tennant of 81 Westgate Road).