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We have just uploaded the latest issue of Newcastle upon Tyne’s The Journal newspaper’s Culture magazine. You can preview it here on read/download the whole 68 page magazine in high quality on our website here.
We have uploaded a video that describes some of what’s going in the Ouesburn Valey area of Newcastle upon Tyne…
Since regeneration of the Ouseburn Valley accelerated in late 90′s, the area has quickly gained a reputation for being one of the coolest parts of Newcastle. Built beneath the arches of six bridges, the valley is packed with artists studios, independent music venues and craft-ale serving pubs, nestled among the occasional recording studio or vintage furniture store.
Since 2003, over fifty aging buildings in the Ouseburn have been renovated, providing the valley with distinctive architecture from the Toffee Factory to the Seven Stories, 30 Lime Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2PQ. In 2013, there are currently over 360 businesses employing over 2000 members of staff in the Ouseburn, and over 150 artists studios which are home to furniture makers, painters, designers and print makers.
Meanwhile events including the annual Ouseburn Open Studios and Ouseburn Festival help draw in around 4,000 visitors every year.
Ouseburn Open Studios includes…
The Biscuit Factory Studios, Stoddart Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1AN
The Biscuit Tin Studios, Warwick Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1BB
Cobalt, 10 – 16 Boyd Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1AP
Ouse Street Arts Club, Ouse Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2PF
36 Lime Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2PQ
Mushroom Works, St. Lawrence Road, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 1AR
Northern Print, Stepney Bank, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2NP
The Toffee Factory, Lower Steenbergs Yard, Quayside, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2DF.
Simon Bonnin from The Ouseburn Coffee Company, Foundry Lane Studios, Foundry Lane, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 1LH set up a roastery in the Ouseburn with brother Pete and business partner Alaric Hammond in 2012, said “It probably is the coolest place in Newcastle. There’s so much going on here. It’s a great place for business start-ups. People can be more creative and go out on a limb perhaps because it is that eclectic environment.”
Andrew Straw from The Cycle Hub, Quayside, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 1BU set up his cycle repair and tour business in 2012, commented “We’re really excited to be in the Ouseburn. It’s definitely the coolest place in Newcastle.
Sunderland Farm is offering an Easter deal at the moment – you can buy a family ticket and a bag of animal feed for just £8 (50% off).
Sunderland Farm is set in 28 acres of land with resident lambs, goats, piglets and ponies. The family ticket offer allows a family of four to visit the farm Monday to Thursday, or on Saturdays where they offer the chance to interact with the animals and take part in fun tasks and educational activities. Some example activities are… feeding baby calves and stroking young lambs; collecting, sorting and packing eggs in the poultry house; milking goats in the goat shed and seeing goat ice-cream being made. There are also garden and wildlife areas to explore. The farm also has a workhouse, beehives, recycling plant, dene, hatchery and a fruit maze.
The farm acts as a training centre for the local community, providing courses and apprenticeships. It is partnered with Springboard and Sunderland college and the centre helps young people who want to try their hands at a different career. The farm is a non-profit organisation and aims to help citizens to improve the quality of their lives, as well as aiming to improve the educational, social and leisure opportunities of the local area. The farm also hosts children’s birthday parties with themes including birds of prey, reptile, farmer and pony.
The farm is located on Keelmans Lane, Sunderland, SR4 0RW and this 50% off deal expires on 6th July 2013. You can find out more details and take advantage of this deal here.
A rival is looking to take advantage of South Tyneside College’s decision to scrap A-level courses. Newcastle Sixth Form College, Rye Hill Campus, Scotswood Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 7SA is opening a new £22m centre in September. College principal Steve Gibson said: “Young people in South Tyneside may have some concerns about the options available to them to study A-levels, but I would urge them not to worry. We are keen to ensure all young people get the chance to study the subjects they want, and we’re getting lots of requests from students from across Tyneside to come and talk to tutors at Newcastle Sixth Form College and have a look around our new building. We offer around 40 different A-levels and have world-class facilities to help students learn. We are in the centre of Newcastle, so we are just a short Metro ride away from South Tyneside. Students do not have to travel far to pursue the future they want.”
The South Shields Gazette revealed this week that South Tyneside College would no longer be offering A-level qualifications from September. Instead, it will focus on vocational training, which it says will provide the ‘best possible’ career route into university and work. About 90 students and 17 lecturers are affected by the changes. School-leavers who have applied to study AS-levels at the college from September will be offered vocational alternatives. Existing students going into their second year will be allowed to complete their studies at the college, in St George’s Avenue, South Shields.
The Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) said it will fight to avoid compulsory redundancies. Jon Bryan, UCU regional support official, said: “The thing we are most concerned about is the extent to which the college is going to redeploy staff. The key thing for us is going to be pressurising the college as much as possible to redeploy people into alternative posts. They are closing the intake for this year, but following through with the second year. That will be helpful in terms of some people maintaining their employment.”
Staff will also need to be retrained to deliver vocational courses, he added, although some already teach them. “If we are lucky, we may be able to avoid compulsory redundancies,” said Mr Bryan. “That will clearly be our focus.” There are two school sixth forms in South Tyneside – Harton Technology College in Lisle Road, South Shields, NE34 6DL and St Joseph’s RC Comprehensive School in Mill Road, Hebburn, NE31 2ET – teaching approximately 270 A-Level students in total. Whitburn C of E Academy in Nicholas Avenue, Whitburn, Sunderland, SR6 7EX has been granted permission to open a sixth form from September 2014, but plans are in the very early stages.
A South Tyneside College spokesman said: “There are numerous other providers of A-levels within South Tyneside and we are working to ensure no young person is left without that local provision. “We strongly believe the many and varied courses we provide are best suited to meet the needs of young people and employers in an ever more competitive employment market. We remain committed to helping those who have applied to start AS-level courses with us in September to find routes on to vocational courses or into alternative provision elsewhere in South Tyneside. We understand they may be disappointed at not taking those courses with us and we are offering them every possible support.”
Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum, a few minutes walk from us over on Baring Street, South Shields, NE33 2BB re-opens for the summer from tomorrow. They kick things off with a free-entry dramatic day of Roman re-enactments with Cohors Quinta Gallorum between 10am and 5pm. Find out what life was like at Arbeia Roman Fort in the third century, from the clothes people wore to the weapons they used, and meet some ‘real’ Roman soldiers. A fantastic day out for all the family at Arbeia Roman Fort in South Shields.
Prime Minister David Cameron has visited the Nissan car plant in Washington Road, Sunderland, SR5 3NS for the official launch of production of the Nissan Leaf. The new version of the 100% electric car has more than 100 modifications and will roll off the line at the company’s record-breaking Sunderland plant.
In 2012 its factory floor produced more than 500,000 cars, a first for a car plant in the UK. The Sunderland factory will now produce every single Nissan Leaf that is sold in Europe. It marks the culmination of a £420 million investment in the model by the Japanese company and around 2,500 jobs in the North East are supported by the production of the car in Sunderland.
Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Nissan’s record-breaking year last year is a success story for UK volume car manufacturing and demonstrates how our automotive industry is competing and thriving in the global race. I warmly welcome the production of the new electric LEAF model and battery plant at Sunderland.”
Sunderland Empire Theatre hosted X Factor auditions today but there will be no Tyneside auditions this year – I think maybe we’ve had more than our fair share of talent competition winners from Tyneside?! You can read more about the Sunderland auditions here…
Sunderland Empire Theatre bosses are preparing themselves as The X Factor rolls into town. The ITV show is hosting mobile auditions in the city’s famous theatre tomorrow, and general manager Ben Phillips said he is ecstatic to be welcoming the audition trail to the city. “Sunderland Empire are thrilled to be hosting one of the X Factor Mobile Auditions this Thursday as they hit the road on their search for the next winner,” he said. “The X Factor Mobile Auditions will be a great opportunity for inspiring talent from across the area to shine. Good luck to you all.”
The mobile auditions – open to all members of the public – are separate to the larger auditions which take place in front of The X Factor judges later in the year. A spokeswoman for the show said that they are set up to give the maximum amount of people possible the chance to display their talents, and take place in towns and cities where the usual auditions don’t reach.
There will be three X Factor Mobile Audition vans travelling across the country this year throughout March to kick off the search for the next big talent. Last year’s winner was Middlesbrough’s James Arthur, who first showcased his talent at the mobile auditions. James, who had the fastest selling single of 2012 with his cover of the song Impossible, said: “If the X Factor audition van had not come to my town, I don’t think I would have auditioned. “Auditioning for The X Factor has completely changed my life”.
Auditions will take place at the Sunderland Empire tomorrow from 10am to 3pm for people to turn up and show off their talents. They will also stay open until 4.30pm for those in full-time education. Last year auditions were held in front of the judging panel – including Nicole Scherzinger and Gary Barlow – at Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena, but this year bosses said they will not be returning to the city. A spokeswoman for The X Factor said: “Last year we found some great talent in Newcastle including our winner James Arthur. However this year we won’t be returning. Each year we have to make sure we visit a range of different cities across the UK in order to give everyone the best opportunity to audition.”
If you’re planning on going out in South Shields this Easter Bank Holiday weekend then the drinks deals at Yates might be of interest…
The low-cost budget airline EasyJet operates eleven flights per day departing from Newcastle International Airport. That’s more than 450,000 passengers each year flying direct to and from Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belfast International, Bristol, Faro, Geneva, Jersey (as of yesterday 26th March 2013), Málaga, Malta, Minorca, Nice and Palma de Mallorca.
Low-cost airline EasyJet has celebrated its tenth anniversary at Newcastle International Airport, Woolsington, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE13 8BZ with its inaugural flight to Jersey. Since it began operating from Newcastle upon Tyne in 2003, more than 13 million passengers have travelled through the airport with the airline. It initially served just seven destinations, but Jersey is now its thirteenth.
Newcastle International Airport believes the success of EasyJet has made air travel more accessible to people in the region and encouraged other airlines to set up routes to and from the city. Newcastle Airport’s operations director Richard Knight said: “The market’s quite young for low-cost travel, it wasn’t that long ago when we couldn’t afford to go on our summer holidays all over Europe. I think EasyJet and other airlines have really opened up those opportunities to people in the North East. EasyJet have proven there is a market and that has helped attract other airlines to the region.”
Hugh Aitken, EasyJet’s UK commercial manager added: “We’re proud of what we’ve done to make travel easy and affordable in the North East. We’ve been growing a lot in the last year, Newcastle upon Tyne is absolutely in the middle of that as we look at new opportunities.”
We received a new customer review today from a guest who stayed in one of our standard single rooms for three nights earlier this month. You can read what she wrote about us here…
Excellent and friendly service, beautifully kept rooms with kettles, irons etc. Very comfortable beds, TVs in the rooms, free wifi, no need to carry keys as doors were opened with codes, the shared bathroom was fantastic. Provided really nice, fluffy towels too. Easily one of the loveliest B&Bs I’ve stayed in for a long while. Extremely good value for money in my opinion too. 9.6/10
