Where to Stay in Gateshead, England

What is Gateshead known for?

Gateshead holds the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and the Shipley Art Gallery, while Saltwell Towers stands inland and St John's Church, Gateshead Fell carries the name of the high ground behind the town. Newcastle upon Tyne lies opposite. Across the water, the Discovery Museum, the Laing Art Gallery and the Great North Museum: Hancock fall within reach of anyone based on the Gateshead bank of the Tyne.

What are the main landmarks in Gateshead?

The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art is the building most associated with Gateshead, and the Shipley Art Gallery sits in the same borough with Saltwell Towers standing further inland. St John's Church, Gateshead Fell holds the higher ground. Across the Tyne the list lengthens: Newcastle upon Tyne Castle, Grey's Monument, Bessie Surtees House, the Hatton Gallery, Seven Stories and the Centre for Life all belong to the north bank.

Turbinia joins that same Tyneside inventory.

What is the history of Gateshead?

Gateshead's history runs with the river. For most of its existence the town belonged to County Durham, and only in 1974 was it drawn into the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, the framework that still defines the borough. Industry gave it shape.

Work along the Tyne left Gateshead an industrial place, and that inheritance still separates it in character from the civic core standing across the water in Newcastle upon Tyne. Older fabric survives inland, where St John's Church, Gateshead Fell carries the name of the high ground and Saltwell Towers stands away from the riverside streets. The north bank keeps the older stone.

Newcastle upon Tyne Castle, Bessie Surtees House, All Saints' Church and St Andrew's Church all stand there, and Grey's Monument rises among that city's streets, a short distance from the water that divides the two towns. Galleries and museums came afterwards. The Discovery Museum, the Laing Art Gallery, the Great North Museum: Hancock, the Centre for Life and Seven Stories stand on the Newcastle upon Tyne side, while the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and the Shipley Art Gallery hold the Gateshead one.

Morden Tower and Burt Hall belong to the same north-bank list.

Where is Gateshead?

Gateshead occupies the southern bank of the River Tyne inside the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, with the ground rising away from the water towards Gateshead Fell. Newcastle upon Tyne holds the far bank. The borough covers a little over twenty square kilometres, so the built streets, the ground around Saltwell Towers and the higher inland edge all lie within a short distance of one another.

County Durham once held it all.

What is the climate of Gateshead?

Cool winters and moderate summers follow from the temperate setting, and cloud arrives over the River Tyne through most months of the year. The valley air holds damp. Newcastle upon Tyne shares the same weather from the north bank.

Wetter spells reach the higher ground towards Gateshead Fell before they clear away down the Tyne, which leaves the riverside streets of Gateshead a little more sheltered than the ridge behind them.

How do you get to Gateshead?

Arrivals reach Gateshead through Newcastle upon Tyne more often than not, since the larger city occupies the north bank of the Tyne directly opposite the borough. The two are barely apart. Inside Tyne and Wear the surrounding towns of the metropolitan county sit close enough that Gateshead falls in the middle of local journeys rather than at their end.

Saltwell Towers and Gateshead Fell mark the inland approach.