Newcastle

Newcastle has always suffered slightly with an image of being a grim northern industrial city with its best years behind it and, after the steady decline of the coal and shipbuilding industries; there was certainly truth to that.

The past decade however has seen a wonderful renaissance with Newcastle getting a chance once again to show its true colours. It is little known for example that Newcastle has more listed buildings than any other city after London and Bath, a legacy of its great Victorian days.

The river banks of the Tyne have been re-energised and with the dramatic Millennium Bridge across to the Gateshead Quays where the BALTIC contemporary arts centre is. The city boasts a wide-ranging selection of museums and art galleries including the Hancock Museum, the Maritime Museum, the Museum of Antiquities, the Hatton Gallery and the Discovery Museum.

Newcastle also has a well earned reputation for night life and in the last decade a plethora of trendy bars and slick nightclubs have joined the traditional Newcastle Brown alehouses.