Tyneside in 1964: 10 photographs taken across our region 60 years ago

It was 1964 - and the Newcastle skyline was under transformation, with looming new multi-storey housing blocks taking shape in the west and east ends of the city.

‘High-rise’ had become a fashionable architectural concept in the bombed-out post-war UK where, in our region at least, many of the Victorian-built terraced streets that provided homes for working people were worn out and ready for demolition. The new easy-to-assemble tower blocks - or ‘streets in the sky’ - meant lots of families could be rehoused in the same place, quickly and (very importantly at the time) cheaply.

We see Newcastle’s Todds Nook flats nearing completion. The first two blocks, Westgate Court and Todds Nook, were approved in 1961, with work finishing in 1964. Vallum Court opened a year later. Each block stood 190 feet high, boasting 120 flats on 20 floors.

This high-rise trio provided a strikingly apt visual metaphor for a rapidly changing Tyneside, so much so that they appeared prominently in the title sequence of the classic 1973 BBC TV sitcom, Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? which was set in our region. The flats would flirt with further television fame as location scenes in the dramas Our Friends In The North and 55 Degrees North.

Our photograph is one of 10 from the archives which recall scenes around Tyneside in 1964. Elsewhere, we see South Shields boatmen on the Tyne when it was still a busy working river; singer Adam Faith performing at Newcastle’s fashionable new nightclub La Dolce Vita; and power station chimneys towering over homes at Stella Park, Blaydon.

In the news headlines 60 years ago, Harold Wilson’s Labour Party won the General Election; the British and French governments agreed in principle to build the Channel Tunnel; the death penalty was abolished; the Great Train Robbers were each sentenced to 30 years in prison; and mods and rockers fought running battles in UK seaside resorts during the summer.

It was a time when the sound of popular music was being revolutionised by wildly exciting new English bands. In the singles chart of this week in 1964, The Beatles were at number one with Hard Day’s Night, the Rolling Stones were at number two with It’s All Over Now, while at number five were Newcastle five-piece, The Animals, with House Of The Rising Sun.

For those planning a trip to the cinema in Newcastle this week 60 years ago, at the Odeon you could see The Three Lives Of Thomasina; at the Queens, The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm; and at the Essoldo, I Married A Werewolf. And if you were staying at home for a night in front of the box with its two TV channels - BBC and Tyne Tees - the highlights (such as they were) on Thursday, July 21, 1964 were The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Beverly Hillbilllies and Emergency Ward 10.

Our 10 photographs recall scenes around Tyneside captured in 1964.