Oystershell Lane, Newcastle upon Tyne One-Place Study

Before the 1830s Oystershell Lane was little more than a track, called the Back Lane, used by the residents of Elswick to make their way into the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne. It passed through gardens and skirted the walls of Oystershell Hall, after which it was later named. Houses, mostly tenements, began to be built there in the 1830s and 1840s and these eventually numbered thirty-six. The street was demolished in the 1930s in a slum clearance scheme and lay vacant until after World War II when it was incorporated into the Newcastle Breweries site. When that closed down and was demolished the site again became vacant until being redeveloped very recently by the City Council and the University as part of the Helix project. Oystershell Lane is now the site for the Frederick Douglass Centre, a new teaching and learning centre.

Photo shows Oystershell Lane in the 1880s.