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Central Arcade, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

#dark academia #dark academia aesthetic #central arcade #newcastle #newcastle upon tyne #all pics are mine #can queue be far behind

Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, England, UK

Central Arcade, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, UK

Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, UK

Central Arcade, Newcastle upon Tyne 2006, Tyne and Wear, England

photography by cityhopper2

#england #newcastle #tyne and wear #central arcade #shops #travel #britain #uk #cityhopper #photographers on tumblr

Newcastle upon Tyne is full of architectural treasures, one of which is the Central Arcade, a stunning Edwardian shopping arcade built in 1906 within the Central Exchange, a triangular building built by Richard Grainger in 1836-1838 to the designs of John Wardle and George Walker. I’ve painted the outside of the building on many occasions as it appears in my paintings of Grey Street, Grainger Street and Market Street. Folk in Newcastle will best remember the Central Arcade as the home of J.G. Windows music. I recall going in to the basement to check out the latest rock music releases as a long haired Genesis fan many years ago!

Back in 1993 I was commissioned to do an original watercolour of the Central Arcade in Newcastle. At the time, I was doing a series of paintings of Newcastle taken from ariel perspectives. The client had commissioned two other paintings along that theme and wanted the one of the arcade to be viewed from above too. This was a challenging task, as the Central Arcade is enclosed by a glass roof and there is no public access to the balcony that is on the first floor. I managed to persuade the caretaker at the time to allow me to climb through a small window from a room that overlooked the shopping area below, for me to be able to take some photographs.

There’s nearly always somebody busking in the arcade but unfortunately on this occasion there wasn’t so a few days later I drew my son Oliver playing his violin on our driveway from an upstairs bedroom window to get the correct perspective. I was so pleased with the end result that I decided to reproduce the original watercolour as a limited edition print with only 250 in the edition.

A few years ago I decided to paint the Central Arcade again, but at ground level. I did a small watercolour on location viewed from the opposite entrance which I later sold. For the studio painting however, I became the busker playing the violin.

The original watercolour can be seen at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland.