A free kick away from St James’ Park, this was the Strawberry pub, as it was on Friday, April 15, 1988.
Popular for decades with Newcastle United supporters, the traditional boozer is always packed on match days. Back in 1988, when our photograph was taken, the most recent game had taken place just three days earlier - a comfortable 3-0 Division One victory over Watford with the Toon’s goals supplied by Michael O’Neill, Kenny Wharton and Brian Tinnion.
If the 1980s were largely underwhelming for the Magpies, the team would end the 1987-88 season on a relative high. Winning their final three games - against Oxford United, Portsmouth and West Ham - United clinched a respectable enough eighth-place top-flight finish, their highest of the decade.
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But the imminent departure of local prodigy Paul Gascoigne - following fellow Geordie talents Chris Waddle and Peter Beardsley out of the door - would cast a shadow over St James’ and the club was now hurtling unstoppably towards crisis on and off the pitch.
Fast forward to 2024 and much continues to change on Strawberry Place. The pub, which three and a half decades ago stood on its own, today stands cheek by jowl with two large buildings - one providing student accommodation, the other being the headquarters of a housing association.
And while St James’ Park itself was transformed into a 52,000-capacity super stadium at the turn of the millennium, a new fan zone currently under construction in an area not far from the Gallowgate End will provide even more choice for the club’s 21st century followers.
Constructed from repurposed shipping containers around a central plaza and main stage, St James' STACK will host regular events for families, while offering supporters a variety of food and drink options and entertainment on match days.
It’s all a far cry from the earliest days of the Strawberry. The property became a ‘beer house’ in 1859, which makes it one of Newcastle’s oldest surviving pubs. It also pre-dated the formation of Newcastle United just over the road by more than three decades. The slightly unusual name of both pub and street is thought to derive from the nuns of nearby St Bartholomew’s on Newgate Street who grew strawberries on sprawling plantations in the area and manufactured strawberry wine.
There has also been an ongoing sports theme in the area. A public baths was once located behind the pub, while St James’ Hall, a 4,000-capacity boxing venue, stood on Strawberry Place just over the road from the football ground. Opening in 1930, it hosted up to six fights a week at its peak. The American world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston sparred there in 1963, and all-in wrestling was popular for a while.
Later it became a bingo hall, its exterior making the briefest of appearances - along with the Strawberry pub - in the 1971 gangster film Get Carter. The venue was knocked down in 1976 to make way for the new St James’ Metro station.
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