Morpeth Street looking towards Wallace Street and Chimney Mill

Spital Tongues is a historic area of Newcastle upon Tyne, located north west of the city centre.

Its unusual name is believed to be derived from 'spital' - a corruption of the word 'hospital' that is quite commonly found in UK place names (for example Spitalfields) - and 'tongues', meaning outlying pieces of land. Edward I gave two such 'tongues' of land to the St Mary Magdalene Hospital - hence 'hospital tongues' and eventually 'Spital Tongues'.

St Mary Magdalene Hospital

The first St Mary Magdalene Hospital was founded in the 12th century to care for victims of leprosy, the disease having been brought into Britain by the returning Crusaders. This was sited well outside the town, close to the present-day site of Lloyds TSB bank at the northern end of Northumberland Street. The St Mary Magdalene Hospital was a hospital in the medieval rather than the modern sense, concerned not with curing but with caring. Today, such an establishment would be called an almshouse.

In 1874, the hospital was moved to a new location behind the Hancock Museum, before in turn being replaced in 1959 by 38 purpose-built bungalows in Spital Tongues. These properties are still collectively known as St Mary Magdalene Hospital.

In 1884 the St Mary Magdalene charity opened the Home for Incurables in Moor Lodge, Spital Tongues. Moor Lodge had been built on land that had belonged to the charity for centuries. The charity had previously leased the house and grounds to William Hunter (the coal owner after whom the nearby Hunters Moor was named), so had to pay £500 for the surrender of the lease at this time.

A new home, still extant today, was designed by the architect Edward Shrewbrook and opened with great ceremony in 1893. This occupied the site of the Moor Lodge kitchen garden, and was extended with the addition of the Richardson Wing (providing beds for children) in 1911. The name of the hospital was later changed to St Mary Magdalene Home in 1931 (the same year that the original Moor Lodge was finally demolished, having previously reverted to use as a private dwelling), and it was renamed Hunters Moor Hospital upon becoming part of the National Health Service in 1948. Hunters Moor Hospital is now a Regional Neurological Rehabilitation Centre.

Spital Tongues village

Cows grazing on the Castle Leazes

Originally some way from the centre of Newcastle, Spital Tongues was considered to be a beautiful place, surrounded by the large open spaces of the Town Moor and Castle Leazes. Over the last fifty years, new development has nibbled away at these green spaces, much of it related to the expansion of the University of Newcastle and the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) to the south and east. Nevertheless, for a place located less than a mile from the present-day city centre, Spital Tongues retains a remarkable sense of separation and distinctiveness. Together, Hunters Moor, Nuns Moor, the Town Moor and Castle Leazes provide an effective buffer on three sides between Spital Tongues and the surrounding area, helping to maintain the area's village feel. Indeed, many older residents continue to refer to Spital Tongues as "the village", a sense of identity both reflected in and perpetuated by names such as the 'Village Chippy'.

Shops in Cross Morpeth Street, including the 'Village Chippy' (centre)

Another feature adding to Spital Tongue's erstwhile attractiveness was the existence of its own water supply. The Pandon Burn came out of the ground at a spring in what is now Fountain Row, before running its course to the Tyne. This route crossed the road at what is now Barras Bridge, near St. Thomas' Church in the city centre. The bridge arch is still extant beneath the modern road, while the river is now culverted for the entire length of its journey between Spital Tongues and the Tyne.

Spital Tongues' rural feel was further enhanced by the presence of an orchard on the site now occupied by Burnside and Wallace Street, and by the grazing of cattle on the Town Moor - a practice that continues to this day.

A key shift in the life and character of Spital Tongues took place with the opening of Spital Tongues Colliery in 1836. Basic housing for pit workers housing was constructed in Long Row, behind Morpeth Street, and demolished a century later.

Housing at Chippendale Place, built for the workers of Robson's factory

The area's industrial importance was further developed with the opening of Robson's furniture factory in the 1880s. This precipitated the construction of further housing, including Chippendale Place and Sheraton Street. The terraces of Ancrum Street and Oxnam Crescent were reputedly named after the border towns from which Robson's employees originated.

Buildings and structures of note

Alongside its industrial development, Spital Tongues also established some importance as a military settlement following the construction of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The barracks were home to the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers until 1962, though the Queen's Own Yeomanry (Territorial Army) retains a presence on the site. Other barrack buildings now form part of Leazes Parade, a development of flats for University of Newcastle students.

One of the most recent additions to Spital Tongues, occupying the prominent site on the corner of Hunters Road and Barrack Road, is the BBC Broadcasting Centre, affectionately known as the 'Pink Palace'. Opened in 1986, it brought together the BBC's TV and radio operations in the North East from a range of city centre locations, notably the former Lying-In Hospital building in New Bridge Street that now forms part of the Newcastle Building Society headquarters.

Huntsmoor House, Hunters Road, was built as a soldiers' home in 1899 to meet the social needs of those soldiers stationed at Fenham Barracks. More recently it was used as a warehouse by the Newcastle bookseller Thornes. A three-storey red brick structure, the design of Huntsmoor House is unusual, topped with a crenellated tower featuring carved shields and a flagpole. The central section is flanked by two arched windows that rise through two storeys, with a Tudor style exposed beam gable above.

Chimney Mill, viewed from Claremont Road

The Chimney Mill was constructed in 1782 in Claremont Road, replacing a previous windmill on the site. Grade II listed, it is significant on a number of levels - as the only surviving smock mill in the region; as the first 5-sailed smock mill in Britain; and for being designed by the civil engineer John Smeaton, the man responsible for the third Eddystone Lighthouse (later dismantled and rebuilt as Smeaton's Tower on Plymouth Hoe).

Modern boarding replaced the original windshaft and cap in 1951

The Chimney Mill was powered by wind until 1891, decommissioned in 1892 and later converted into the clubhouse for Newcastle City Golf Club. The Club transferred to Gosforth in 1907, after which the windmill's sails and fantail were removed (in 1924 and 1933 respectively), with the windshaft and cap being dismantled and replaced by modern boarding in 1951.

In the mid 1970s the property was bought and restored by the architect Thomas Faulkner. His conversion created a design studio on the top floor, an architect's studio on the first floor and space for rent on the ground floor. The building has been used as offices for the fashion design company Nigel Cabourn Ltd since 1983. In September 2006, the property was being marketed for sale at a price of £775,000.

The Victoria Tunnel was built to transport coal from Spital Tongues Colliery, opened in 1836, to the river Tyne. 2.5 miles long and up to 85 feet deep, the tunnel was built by 200 men between 1839 and 1842, and came about as a result of the owners, Latimer and Porter, being refused permission to build a surface wagonway across the moor and city. Its Spital Tongues entrance was close to what is now the junction of Belle Grove West and Ancrum Street.

The tunnel ceased to be used in 1860, and remained unused for the next eighty years. It was reopened for use as an air raid shelter during World War II, with £37,000 spent on alterations and new entrances in order to provide seating capacity for 9,000 people. Though no longer used, some of these entrances remain very visible today, notably the entrance in Claremont Road next to the Hancock Museum.

The tunnel remains largely intact today, and though not generally open to the public there have been occasional organised tours starting from its southern entrance on Newcastle Quayside. The northernmost (Spital Tongues) entrance was filled in when Belle Grove West was built in the 1870s and is therefore not accessible.

The house now called Whiteknights was originally known as New House prior to being opened as a lunatic asylum in 1766. At this time the property was renamed St. Luke's, before changing its name to Belle Grove Retreat in 1795. The property went on to give its name to the various other streets and buildings built in Spital Tongues from the 1850s, such as Belle Grove Terrace, Belle Grove Villas, Belle Grove West and the Belle Grove public house. The Belle Grove Retreat reverted to use as a private house in 1857, and assumed its current name in 1900.

The Belle Grove public house, viewed from Ancrum Street

On the corner of Belle Grove Terrace and Ancrum Street, the Belle Grove is a public house dating from 1857. The adjacent house at No. 19, now part of the pub, was once the home of the artist Ralph Hedley until his death in 1913, a connection marked by a commemorative plaque.

Belle Grove Terrace from across Castle Leazes, with the Belle Grove pub on the far right

Belle Grove Terrace was also once home to T. Dan Smith, the leader of Newcastle City Council from 1960 to 1965, and the man behind the intended reinvention of Newcastle as the 'Brasilia of the North'. The 15-storey Mill House tower block in Spital Tongues is one of many such residential towers erected across Newcastle during Smith's leadership.

Morpeth Street and the Mill House tower block