In 1632 the manor of Winlaton was divided between Sir William Selby, Sir William Hodgson and Robert Anderson. At the centre of the Selby's portion was their family seat, a house known as Whitehouse or Winlaton Whitehouse, set in a park of some 30 acres. Sir William Blackett was leasing a house called Whitehouse during the period 1668-75. The "Whitehouse Park" was purchased by Sir James Clavering from the Selbys, sometime around 1675. Once the Clavering family moved to "Whitehouse Park" they transferred the name of Axwell to there, thus it became Axwell Park. Sir James Clavering built the present Axwell Hall (HER 4993) in 1758-62, after which the old "Whitehouse" was demolished and the site of it planted with trees. The location of the Whitehouse is thought to be approximately 100 yards west of the present Hall according to Bourn (Surtees claimed it was half a mile west).

Shown on Ordnance Survey first edition of 1850 on Collingwood Street. Trial trenching in 2005 revealed a layer of compacted coal fines and cinders and a yellow brick wall foundation. The industrial waste was probably derived from iron working.

The Bull Ring was an early street, the course of which has probably not been substantially altered since medieval times. It was named after the place where bulls were baited in the eighteenth century. Craster (1907, 306) noted that "a large flat stone, containing an iron bolt and ring, was turned up here in June 1820", presumably where the bull was tethered. This was also the coaching centre for transport to Newcastle. The flat land above the Bull Ring was owned by George Milburne, a trader in coal, lime and salt. This land was sold off as building lots to the wealthy members of the community in 1690. The course of this early thoroughfare is still discernible [in 2005] as a cobbled track.

A property known as the "Crane House" is listed in records from 1833 onwards at 44 Duke Street, 2 New Quay, 2 Duke Street and 50 Duke Street. It was owned by Mrs Ann Kirby until she died in 1837 or 1838. Thomas Walker was landlord from before 1865 to 1898. The house at the rear was called Kirby's House built onto Kirby's Bank. The properties were listed as houses, shops and pubs. They passed into the hands of W.H. Allison and Co., who operated a brewery in one of the buildings, and went on in 1890 to form the Newcastle Breweries with four other brewery companies. By 1880 the collection of buildings on Duke Street consisted of The Crane House, with a small maltings to the rear, and the adjoining Crown and Thistle pub with stables to the rear. Next to this were warehouses and cottages. In 1905 the Crane House and malting was demolished and rebuilt as the Crane House Vaults set back from the road by Joseph Oswald and Son. The surviving building is of two storeys with a tall chimney, two prominent gables and an oriel window on the first floor. The ground floor is faced in glazed faience. Fluted ionic pilasters separate the ground floor window and floral faience panels fill the spandrels, dentil and egg and dart mouldings in the cornice. The original design included a ribbed chimney-stack, a canopy over the door and half-timbering on the gables (which might be hidden under the modern pebble dash). There was a small window in the Duke Street gable and a flag-pole above the door. Oswald's drawings did not specify any facings so its seems likely that the faience work was ordered from a manufacturer's catalogue at a later stage in the planning of the new pub. Inside there was a front bar and rear sitting room served by a single bar counter with a hatch to the back room. The original glasswork included pictures of a dockside crane, but this was sold abroad. Newcastle Breweries sold the pub after WW2. It eventually became a free house known as the Chain Locker. The building has been facaded (after 2005) and apartments added to rear.

Henry II established a mint in Newcastle in 1157. This is probably when the Newcastle goldsmiths started work. The goldsmiths were sufficeintly numerous in 1536 to join with the pewterers and painters to form a craft guild. In 1702 an assay office (where the metals were tested for quality and awarded hallmarks) was established at Newcastle and in 1716 the Goldsmiths formed their own company. Trade flourished throughout the eighteenth century. Many fine pieces of silver haver survived from this period. In 1884 the Newcastle assay office was closed and the manufacture of Newcastle silver virtually ceased. The little that was made had to be sent elsewhere for assay. The earliest piece of Newcastle silver is a communion cup from Ilderton Parish Church in Northumberland. It is inscribed 1583 Mark VB (Valentine Baker). The Laing Art Gallery holds a placque with Newcastle silver hallmarks and a fine flagon dated 1670, inscribed to Major Thomas Davison. Dated C12th.

In the lower part of Newgate Street where the Swallow Hotel now stands (and before that the Empire Theatre) there used to be an inn called the Scotch Arms. Kings, nobility and Lords of Scotland were said to have lodged there. It is the first recorded hostelry in Newcastle and appears on Speed's map of 1610 as the 'Scottish Inne'. Rebuilt in the late 1870s and a concert hall added in 1889. In 1902-3 the pub was rebuilt as the Empire Theatre (HER 10360).

This well known hostelry was at the foot of Butcher Bank. It was described by three Norwich travellers in 1634 as a "stately prince-like freestone Inne, in which we tasted a cupp of good wine". The landlord at this time was Leonard Carr. It was described in 1635 by Sir William Brereton of Cheshire as 'the fairest built inn in England'. It was demolished in 1862. According to tradition it was the home of the Mayors of the town before they moved to the Mansion House in the Close.

In the early nineteenth century, the Turf Hotel in Collingwood Street was the principal coaching inn of the town. In 1810 Collingwood Street was constructed. Three of the original shops were purchased by William Loftus, a well known coach proprietor who converted it to the Turf Hotel. Mr Loftus was clerk to the Newcastle Races - the hotel became a popular rendezvous for the racing fraternity. In 1824 the local directory tells us that three coaches ran daily from the Turf to London, two to Edinburgh and one each to Carlisle, Lancaster and Leeds. In the palmy days of Newcastle coaching - from about 1826 to 1834, there would have been a fine array of coaches opposite the Turf Hotel, the horses in teams of grey, black and bay. The last mail coach left July 5th 1847. The Turf closed and was demolished in 1889 and a bank was erected on site.

Built in 1744 by William Parker. It's 'Long Room' opened in 1747 and became known as the 'Theatre in the Bigg Market'. It was a theatre for 40 years until the erection of the Theatre Royal. Turk's Head was a popular name for inns from the 16th century. The Bigg Market Turk's Head had a sign depicting a man with 'an expression of defeated ferocity'. The inn's great attraction was the cock-pit (HER 6919). The inn was demolished circa 1830 to make way for Grainger Street. A new Turk's Head was built in Grey Street (HER 7891).

On 23 March 1822 surgeons Doctor John Fife and Thomas Michael Greenhow opened a hospital for diseases of the eye in Brunswick Place. No fee was charged for treatment. 264 patients were seen in the first three months. Larger premises were found on Prudhoe Street in 1824 (HER 10738). This was the same Doctor Fife who, in 1829, lectured on anatomy using the body of a "most disgusting and abandoned female", who had been sentenced to death at the Assizes and taken by cart to the gallows on the Town Moor sitting on her own coffin. 20,000 people came to watch the execution, after which her body was exhibited for six hours in the Surgeon's Hall. John Fife was a Town Coroner in 1819 and in 1821 he was Steward to the Incorporated Company of Barber Surgeons and Wax and Tallow Chandlers of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was one of the first to organise formal medical lectures in Newcastle. He was Lord Mayor in 1839 and 1844 and was knighted in 1840 for his services as Chief Magistrate. The first report for the hospital said "the inestimable value of the organ of sight - certainly the most delicate, and perhaps the most important, which the Creator has bestowed upon man - both as a means of usefulness, and as a source of infinite enjoyment".