Gallowgate, lunatic asylum

The asylum at Gallowgate was funded by a public subscription established in 1765 to provide a joint institution for Newcastle, Northumberland and Durham. The site was obtained from the mayor and council. The original asylum, which opened in 1767, was designed by William Newton (who rebuilt the north front of the Guildhall with David Stephenson in 1796). Though it predates the County Asylums Act 1808, this was one of the earliest "public" asylums catering to those patients who might otherwise end up in prisons or workhouses. However, rapidly, overcrowding and other issues, as well as design flaws in the initial building led to issues. Writing in 1826, Mackenzie described it as "frequently crowded to excess, and little attention was paid to free ventilation and cleanliness. The chains, iron bars, and dungeon-like cells, presented to the unhappy inmates all the irritating and melancholy characteristics of a prison, and, at the same time, were highly injurious to their health and lives."

Prior to 1824, the responsibility for the Gallowgate asylum was passed to the Corporation who appointed Noel Thomas Smith as custodian. Smith proposed extensive renovations drawn up by John Dobson which were agreed with the Corporation on the proviso that the interest from the required funding was paid as rent. Dobson radically altered the original design provided ventilated cells with enclosed walkways as well as differing quality of accomodation divided by gender and into three classes, though all were provided with access to a day-room, warmed gallery, water-closet, warm, cold, and shower baths. Class 1 males were provided with an airing-ground (1000 square yard) and the corresponding wing for class 1 females was also improved and enlarged. The class 2 males were in the main body of the building with an exercise yard (650 square yards) and class 3 males were on the chamber floor. Class 2 females were contained in the upper rooms of the projecting wings and class 3 females had apartments in the front of the building. The doors contained proper ventilation with lowered windows to enable outward views and double boarded floors for sound proofing. On the ground-floor was a kitchen, bake-house, wash-house, a yard, offices, matron's room and physician's room. The asylum was largely funded by the parishes with additional luxuries such as private sitting rooms paid for by patients' families. Smith also limited the number of patients and increased staffing; going from a staff of four attending between 90 and 100 patients to a staff of nine attending up to 80 patients.

Despite this, the asylum closed in 1867 due to overcrowding; the site was modified in the late 19th century for industrial use but the Dobson boundary walls survive as the boundary walls of the People's Kitchen on Bath Lane, behind the tyre garage on St. James Boulevard and in the plot south of Heber Street. All of these walls have been archaeologically recorded though they are partially obscured by the remains of a 19th century building on the adjoining plot. Evaluation trenching in 2017 and 2018 recorded buried sandstone walls and mortar floors of the asylum. Further excavation in 2023 found that the site had been landscaped when the asylum was built.