Westgate Road, Tilley's PH (Brandy Vaults)

Mid C19. Known as the Cumberland Inn, then from the 1880s the Brandy Vaults Public House. Closed 1963 and became the Garden City Chinese restaurant. The Brandy Vaults briefly reopened and then closed before becoming Tilleys in 1991 incorporating more of the old Tyne Buffet next door. Like the rest of Thornton Street, these plain brick houses with unusually wide sash windows, were also refurbished in the 1980s by the Tyne Theatre Company as accomodation for players and as a Public House, introducing the name Tilley's to commemorate Vesta Tilley (1864-1952) the greatest of the Music Hall male impersonators. LOCAL LIST