STORIES FOR THE ROAD

YOU ARE HERE

The map keeps growing.

Thank you for joining us on the map today.

You Are Here has been made from stories gifted to us by people from all across Newcastle: people who’ve lived here all their lives, people who’ve arrived and made it home, people who’ve moved away, people passing through and people still discovering their place in the city.

They’ve shared favourite places, lost buildings, songs, smells, first nights out, family rituals, food, friendships, strange encounters, hidden corners and the little things that make Newcastle, Newcastle.

Every person carries a different version of this city.

And today, you added yours.

YOU WERE HERE. YOU ARE HERE. YOU’LL ALWAYS BE PART OF THE MAP.

Thank you for walking with us, listening with us and helping to keep the stories travelling.

The Mapmakers
The Six Twenty

Scroll down to read a few more of the stories we’ve collected so far.

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Scroll down to read a few more of the stories we’ve collected so far. 〰️

THE ADVENTURE ISN’T OVER YET…

We’re developing a self-guided version of You Are Here: Newcastle, where you’ll be able to explore Newcastle in your own time and unlock even more stories as you move through the city.

More voices. More memories. More unexpected corners.

It’s coming soon, so keep hold of this link and check back here.

Or visit: https://thesixtwenty.com/work/you-are-here-novum

WHAT HAVE WE MISSED?

The map isn’t finished. And it never will be.

If there’s a Newcastle story you think belongs on it we’d love to hear it:

  • a person

  • a place

  • a memory

  • a song

  • a vanished building

  • a new building

  • a tiny ritual

  • a local legend

Send your story to:
info@thesixtwenty.com

You don’t need to know the whole story. A name, a sentence or a half-remembered detail is enough.

VIDEO GAME

I love that when you walk around a city, I think it’s like a map on a video game where it only highlights and you can see it once you’ve been there.

And even though I feel like I’ve filled out so much of the map, there’s still new bits that I add to it and new areas every so often.

HUSTLERS

Hustlers, the pool place, one of the best spaces. I think we keep losing things like that. That really felt like it was a cheap place to go that was unpretentious… just going and playing pool and snooker and all that, and darts, which is like fun pub activities you do with friends.

Hustlers has gone…And more than that, I didn’t go nearly enough. The couple of times I had though, it was very special to me… but that’s gonna open somewhere else, so that will carry on. But yeah, that’s a place I think is really special.

1911

Because you know in 1911, the suffragettes, refused to comply with the census… Their advice is, if we do not count, we will not be counted. And the WSPU said, Don’t fill in the census. Leave home. Go out for the night. Be somewhere.

And they opened up dance halls, they opened up skating rinks, they went off in caravans… The WSPU offices have 27 women and two men in on the night of the census in 1911, and we haven’t got a clue who they were… But there are 27 women and two men in this office on Blackett Street. Nobody knows who they were.

CHINATOWN

I love, love, love Chinatown so much. It’s actually so amazing. It’s just so, like, multicultural… I love it so much that I actually got a job there.

There’s a little, like, raised bench at the end of the street… and I always go there whenever I’m feeling sad, and I just sit there and listen to music because it’s just so sweet. I love it so much.

MY PEOPLE

The Bridge Inn upstairs room was one of the places James talked about from his formative years making theatre in Newcastle:

I found my people.

And of the Star and Shadow:

Come as you are, people would just treat you as you belong there.