A view across Newcastle 50 years ago – and a very different St James’ Park to the 52,000-capacity, all-seater stadium which dominates the city centre today.
Back in 1975, the home of Newcastle United was still largely rooted in history. The roofless Gallowgate End harked back to the early years of the club when the bulk of St James’ Park comprised uncovered terracing. The main West Stand dated back to 1906 and the club’s golden Edwardian era.
The Leazes End terrace, which over time had become the ‘singing end’, was the mirror image of the Gallowgate End, but it had a roof, which was added in 1930. The cantilever East Stand, however, was a recent addition. Built in the ‘brutalist’ architectural style of the era, it opened halfway through the 1972-73 season, replacing a huge expanse of open terracing known as the Popular Side. And the four floodlight pylons, at 190-feet tall, stood for 20 years as unmissable landmarks that could be seen from miles around.
Our photograph of this now-vanished incarnation of St James’ Park is one of 10 from the archive which recall scenes around Newcastle in 1975. At the City Hall, fans of the popular boy band of the day, the Bay City Rollers, were in a state of hysteria when the five-piece group stopped off to perform. In South Gosforth, we see the railway station in a state of disrepair, a full five years before the revamped station became one of the stops on the new Tyne and Wear Metro system. And at Gallowgate coach station, which would eventually close in the early 2000s, you could embark on relatively inexpensive long-haul coach journeys to destinations around the UK.
In the news 50 years ago, rocketing oil prices in the Middle East led to big hikes in petrol prices for UK drivers. There were IRA bomb attacks on the British mainland, and the so-called Cod War between Britain and Iceland broke out over fishing rights.
In the wider world, the Vietnam War finally came to an end. The Spanish dictator General Franco died at the age of 82. And, in sport, Muhammad Ali successfully defended his world heavyweight boxing title against Joe Frazier in the brutally contested ‘Thriller in Manilla’. Ali would famously pay a high-profile four-day visit to Tyneside just two years later.
On UK television in 1975 – a time when there were only three channels – there were debuts for The Good Life, Fawlty Towers, and The Sweeney. At the cinema, new films included One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Godfather II, and Jaws. And in the UK singles chart of this week 50 years ago, there were hits for Pilot with January, Ralph McTell with Streets Of London, and Status Quo with Down Down.
Our 10 archive photographs recall some of what was going on around Newcastle 50 years ago.