A Greggs of Gosforth store in the early 1970s(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

10 archive photographs recalling Gosforth, Newcastle, in the 1970s and 1980s

by · ChronicleLive

We stop off in Gosforth, the desirable suburb that sits north of Newcastle city centre, recalling scenes from the 1970s and ‘80s in 10 archive photographs.

One famous name synonymous with the area is Greggs. The bakery giant can trace its origins back to 1939 when Jack Gregg got on his bike and began delivering fresh eggs and yeast to households around Newcastle. In 1951, Jack bought his first shop - on Gosforth High Street - and Greggs of Gosforth was born. The rise of the brand would be unstoppable.

Our main photograph, showing a Greggs of Gosforth store, dates from the early 1970s. By then, there were 18 shops operating in our region with plans to open six more every year. The two Newcastle city centre stores were located in the Grainger Market and Haymarket, with a third ‘Seconds Shop’ due to open soon after on Westgate Road. By 1975, there were 43 Greggs stores, and by 1980, there were 65.

The following decades were marked by massive UK-wide expansion. Earlier this year, ChronicleLive reported how the chain had opened its 2,500th shop in the UK - in Cobham, Surrey - with a spokesman stating the company intended “to open more than 3,000 Greggs shops in the long term”.

Elsewhere, among our 10 images, we see Gosforth playing Waterloo in Rugby Union's John Player Cup Final at Twickenham in 1977. The North East team would lift the trophy that day, just as they had done a year earlier. From 1980, we see a hurdles race at one of British horse racing’s prime locations, Gosforth Park. In the same year, film actress Britt Ekland was photographed during a stay at the Gosforth Park Hotel - a popular stop-off for celebrities visiting the area and touring pop and rock acts performing at Newcastle City Hall. And from 1983, we see 17-year-old Gosforth resident Rachel Merrit who had been crowned Miss Evening Chronicle at the Tyneside Summer Exhibition on Newcastle's Town Moor.

Today, if Gosforth is one of the region’s most upmarket suburbs, in medieval times it is said to have been known as Goose Ford. By the 19th century, Gosforth was home to a number of coal mines, including Gosforth and Coxlodge. The suburb developed rapidly in Victorian times and continues to develop and prosper. Gosforth, formerly a separate urban district, officially became part of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1974.

Our 10 archive photographs recall some of Gosforth’s people and places in the 1970s and 1980s.

A Greggs of Gosforth store in the early 1970s(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
Regent Farm Road looking towards Regent Centre, Gosforth, 1977(Image: Newcastle Libraries)
Shoppers on Gosforth High Street, March 1977
South Gosforth railway station, September 1975. The station would become part of the Tyne and Wear Metro system in 1980(Image: Mirrorpix)