Newcastle-upon-Tyne is a county town and in an economic as well as cultural sense, the capital of the northeast of England. This industrial city stands on the River Tyne, which is here spanned by six bridges and is about 9mi/14km from its mouth. The city center possesses some noteworthy Victorian
buildings and historic streets, three large shopping centers, as well as a number of interesting museums and varied entertainment facilities, including the prestigious performances offered by the Victorian Theatre Royal in Gray Street. Newcastle, along with neighboring towns, has grown into the conurbation of Tyneside. Previously it was an important exporting port, in particular for coal, but this activity has in latter years become drastically reduced, although the importance that coal once had is reflected in the phrase "carrying coals to Newcastle". Newcastle's centers for heavy industry, mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, chemicals and locomotive building today suffer greatly, in common with other large towns in Northern England, from the effects of the industrial structural crisis and the prolonged recession. The newest restructuring attempts are local initiatives which form part of national projects and attract foreign investment, for instance firms set up by the off-shore oil industry, such as Press Production, and investors such as Dunlop Armaline and British Telecom Marine.
Newcastle Airport is 6mi/10km to the northwest of the city center; there are bus and metro connections. From the Central Station there are direct Intercity connections with Scotland, London, Yorkshire, the Midlands, the Southwest and Wales. Car ferries from Scandinavia (Bergen, Stavanger, Gothenburg) arrive at the North Shields Ferry Terminal (east of the city center via the A 1058 and A 19). Since 1993 the ferry "Winston Churchill" has been running from Newcastle to Hamburg between April and September. There are also boat trips within the city itself which leave from Quayside Pier.
In Roman times the city, then called Pons Aelius, was a fort on Hadrian's Wall, while during the Saxon period it was known as Monk Chester on account of the large number of religious houses which it contained. The city owes its present name to William the Conqueror who, like Hadrian before him, had recognized the strategic importance of the camp and in 1080 gave his son the order to erect a castle, the "New Castle", on the site of the old Roman fortification. In addition, he ordered the building of the St Nicholas' Cathedral (dedicated to the patron saint of sailors).
The city's most famous period coincided with the establishment of the coal mining industry in the region. The coal which was mined was transported up the Tyne on small ships or "keels" to Newcastle, where it was transferred on to larger freight ships. Export taxes on coal were the basis for the city's prosperity in Elizabethan times. Some of the pioneering inventions of the Industrial Revolution, especially in railroad engineering, the development of electricity and turbine driven machines, are closely associated with Newcastle. The foundation of the famous locomotive manufacturing industry was laid by George Stephenson in 1823. The designs for the city's development, which led to the creation of the Victorian streets which even now still dominate the inner city landscape, were undertaken by John Dobson in the early 19th century and carried out in the first instance by Richard Grainger.
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