Anybody who has recently been in the vicinity of where the top end of Pilgrim Street meets Blackett Street will have noticed that the new HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) building in Newcastle is nearing completion. Many of the large wooden fences have come down, especially on the New Bridge Street side, and you can now start to see what the development is going to look like.
However, on the Pilgrim Street side, many of the wooden fences are still in place and so are the artist’s impressions of what the final development will look like; they were created before the building work even started. It is notable, looking at these representations, that the area in front of the HMRC building on both the Blackett Street and the Pilgrim Street side was to be fully pedestrianised. A picture on the BBC, with an almost cloudless blue sky above makes the area look very attractive. Nice looking paving and an abundance of trees give the site a very pedestrian-friendly feel and it genuinely looks like an attractive new square in the heart of the city for shoppers and others to come to.
Yet here we are in 2025, with the building nearly completed, and there has still been no definite decision from the City Council about the pedestrianisation of Blackett Street, or for that matter the top end of Pilgrim Street.
When dodging the buses and other traffic around Grey’s Monument, I still find it somewhat hard to believe that the road that links the south end of Northumberland Street with the Eldon Square shopping centre is not pedestrianised, as it surely would be in other cities, both in this country and in Europe.
History of Blackett Street
Blackett Street was built by Richard Grainger as a main east-west thoroughfare in 1824; after the old town wall had been demolished following the defeat of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, which removed any last threat of invasion from Scotland. It has continued to be a major east-west route through the City centre until today.
However, that does not mean, of course, that it should not be pedestrianised. After all, Northumberland Street was a major north-south route in Newcastle for many decades, but has long since been pedestrianised, with traffic re-routed onto what was originally called the Central Motorway East in 1975.
Pedestrianising Blackett Street
So, the key to pedestrianising Blackett Street/New Bridge Street and the North end of Pilgrim Street is simply to find other routes for the traffic that uses them today. And of course, this is made much easier, by the fact that traffic is restricted to buses and vehicles servicing the shops in the vicinity. Can another route for this traffic be found?
The simple answer to that is yes. After all, in the last ten years, Blackett Street has been temporarily closed to traffic anyway in the Summertime as the area has been pedestrianised. Buses have simply taken what is a ready-made route, from East to West, down John Dobson Street, along Market Street, down the top end of Grainger Street and then up Newgate Street to the junction with Gallowgate and from then on back to the established route, with West to East buses doing the same in reverse.
This means buses avoiding the narrow and cobbled route through Blackett Street, having a wider and better road to go on, while pedestrians can enjoy a traffic-free area around Grey’s Monument.
There are those who will point out that pedestrianising Blackett Street would mean that people would have to walk further to the Blackett Street area for shopping and other services. However, the reverse is also true. People who get off the buses on Blackett Street have to walk further to places such as the Grainger Market, the Theatre Royal, or The Gate than they would if the buses were re-routed.
The question of how people with disabilities would manage is often brought up, and rightly so. In some cities in Europe, such as Ljubljana, there is a dedicated minibus to ferry people with limited mobility from the bus stop to their destination, without seriously upsetting the pedestrianised nature of the city centres in which they operate. Surely, we could put a similar system in place in Newcastle, also helping people whose buses currently terminate at Eldon Square or Haymarket bus stations?
Newcastle Public Transport Users Group
Alistair Ford, chair of the Newcastle branch of the North East Public Transport Users Group commented:
“It has long been the position of our group that the pedestrianisation of Blackett Street and Pilgrim Street would greatly improve the public realm of Newcastle, but care must be taken to avoid inconveniencing public transport users by doing so. Buses currently find it hard going along Blackett Street, so an alternative ‘bus loop’ could actually improve connectivity, dropping passengers closer to the places they want to go and avoid the hold-ups on the current route.
“The key is the City Council being bold and ensuring the alternative route works. This will mean taking some car traffic off routes through the city (e.g. on John Dobson Street south of Durrant Road, on Market Street) to ensure buses can progress smoothly. We have also called on the City Council to establish a working group, with bus companies, councillors, public transport users, disability groups, taxi drivers, and local businesses represented, to talk through bus stop locations and a new plan for the centre of the City.”
Whatever the future, it’s clear now is the time to act before the opportunity to transform the heart of Newcastle is lost for a generation. Will the City Council pick up the gauntlet and set out their bold new vision for the new ‘Pilgrim Plaza’?
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