12 December 2015

"...there is a tradition of representing the River Tyne as a god. There are two on the outside of the station. There is an old shop sign now on the stairs at Central Library. There is the fountain, now dry, outside the Civic Centre.

[H]eads of gods also appear among the carved stones on the entry called Prudhoe Chare off Northumberland Street. These are a sort of memorial to demolished buildings - the Town Hall; the YMCA; the old Central Library; and possibly one other. There are three real people represented by their heads (unlike Grey they never had bodies). These are George Stephenson; Thomas Bewick; and Admiral Collingwood. By my reckoning that means there are 2 Stephenson images on the streets; 3 Bewick; and 4 Collingwood - if we count his memorial in the Cathedral and his giant monument at Tynemouth!"

- Personal correspondence with Peter Livsey