The Gateshead Railway Club & Institute, Hudson Street

Image: © Andrew Curtis Taken: 4 Aug 2015

Hudson Street is on the right; Wellington Street is on the left Image The historic importance of this building lies in its connection with the Greenesfield Railway Works, as it was constructed for the North Eastern Railway Company as a Literary Institute for their workers (formed in 1854 and previously housed in the Old Rectory in Oakwellgate). The building included apartments for a caretaker, a library, a lecture room with a capacity of 600 people, class rooms, billiard rooms, and two large dining rooms. Whellan (1894) describes how the catering staff were all male, and: “...the meals are cooked in the gas ovens without charge, and each man’s dinner or breakfast, as the case may be, is numbered, and put in its place just before the electric bells in the various workshops announce the meal hours. In the two rooms combined dinners are provided for nearly 1,000 men daily.” Bridges Conservation Area Character Appraisal, Gateshead Council, April 2013. Tyne and Wear Sitelines (HER: 7520) Gateshead, Hudson Street, Railway Club: http://www.twsitelines.info

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