"Bessie Surtees House" Top 5 Page for this destination Newcastle upon Tyne Things to Do Tip by toonsarah

We must have walked past Bessie Surtees House hundreds of times, but never thought to go in. Indeed, I don’t think either of us had ever realised that you could go in! But staying down on the Quayside on a recent visit we passed it several times, and spotted the notice: “Open Monday-Friday, 10.00 – 16.00. Admission free”. So we went in – and were so pleased we had done so. For a free attraction, there is quite a bit to see here.

The house is most noted for the elopement of its eponymous resident with John Scott, a coal merchant’s son, as the plaque below the window from which she made her escape explains. This happened in 1772, and caused a great scandal within the two families concerned, although the couple married in Scotland and later again in Newcastle. Despite his humble beginnings, and this inauspicious start to his married life with Bessie, John went on to become Lord Eldon (after whom Eldon Square and its adjacent shopping centre were named) and Lord Chancellor of England, so can be said to have done very well for himself. He later wrote about the night of the elopement: "My wife was a perfect heroine, and behaved with a courage that astonished me."

But once inside you discover that there is much more to this house than a window! It is relatively sparsely furnished, and you only get to see a few rooms on the first floor (the upper floors are used as offices by English Heritage, which explains, I think, the free entry). These rooms however display some wonderful features, most notably perhaps the 350 year old fireplace in the largest of them. The carvings on its oak panelling commemorate the 1657 marriage (and this one was legitimate!) of an earlier daughter of the house, Anne Cock, to Thomas Davison, with their initials and the coats of arms of the two families.

The house itself is in part older still – it is actually three houses that have been joined together over the years, and the oldest part dates from the 15th century. The building has had a variety of uses over the years: as a coffee house, druggist, consular offices, maltster (a place where malt was made for brewing) and seamen’s lodgings.

If you like sloping floors with creaking boards, doorways so low you have to duck, and lead paned windows with only a blurry view of the street outside, this is the place for you! I especially enjoyed seeing all the old photos of the house, showing not only how it had changed over the years but also how the entire area around the Quayside had done the same – at one time the haunt of rich merchants, then declining as the city expanded on the hill high above the river, and then in recent years being revived to become the thriving area it now is again.

Address: 41-44 Sandhill, Newcastle upon Tyne
Directions: Turn to the right at the bottom of the Side, along Sandhill, and you will see the house a few doors along. The nearest Metro station is Monument or Central but if you need transport it would be better to use the Quaylink buses that stop nearby
Website: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/bessie-surtees-house/