During my research I discovered that most of the motorcycle shops on Westgate Road are closed on Sundays, not ideal for a feature called On Any Sunday. Undaunted, I rescheduled for a Saturday and headed for Newcastle.
Spring had not yet reached the north-east and this particular Saturday, March the 28th was very cold and very wet. In fact, there was also sleet.
Westgate Road was all but deserted but inside the various shops I received a succession of warm welcomes from diehards of the Hill, all keen to tell me what a shitty day I'd chosen for my visit.
I did my best with the story, but there was no saving the bleak photos of an empty road. The magazine apologised and told me the feature wouldn't be published. The editor, a fine, honourable man, paid me my expenses and a "kill fee".
Having sat on it for five months, I've decided to post the article as a blog entry. I don't like to see work go to waste. Somebody might find it interesting...
On any Sunday*
*you might consider changing to Saturday, it’s all shut on Sundays
Westgate Road, Newcastle
BIKE SHOPS HAVE LINED ‘THE HILL’ FOR HALF A CENTURY AND TWO NEW ONES HAVE OPENED THIS YEAR
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARTYN MOORE
THERE'S a wind of change blowing down Westgate Road in Newcastle, and on the first Saturday of spring it’s bitter, blowing hail and sleet off the North Sea.
That wind catches the rasp of a race can as a mechanic brings a bike round from Armstrong’s workshop to the front of the shop. It’s the only moving motorcycle along the famous half-mile of ‘Wesgit Hill’, the greatest concentration of motorcycle shops in the north-east.
To the north is open land prepared for development. The Tyne Brewery brewed its last bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale here in 2005 and whatever replaces it will impact the residents and tenants of ‘The Hill’. Modernised houses and flats on the north side of the road contrast sharply with some of the scruffier bike shops.
The big dealership on The Hill is M&S and, bizarrely, each franchise has its own premises. You have to wonder if this makes financial sense, with several sets of rates and utility bills to pay, although with the Honda concession about to open opposite the Suzuki shop, M&S seems committed to The Hill.
But it’s the independents that give The Hill its character, like Classic Motorcycles in the former cinema. A stained glass MGM lion still adorns the dusty shop window, a Vincent engine sits on the counter and stuffed bird looks down from a cupboard. Owner Grahame Craggs gets letters from the council.
“They tell me about new workshops with low rent and rates on an industrial estate. They don’t want the new development looking down of the backs of grotty places like this,” he says.
But it’s not grotty, and putting Classic Motorcycles in a ‘unit’ would be like brewing Newcastle Brown Ale in Gateshead. Oh dear, bad analogy.
Back on the street a small group stands at the window of O’Neil’s newsagents, looking at postcard adverts for used bikes. Next door, the steamy second-hand shop window is full of bike boots, helmets and electric guitars. A couple in matching Dianese jackets, collars up and leaning into the gale, don’t want to stop to chat or have their photos taken. Who can blame them? Today, the only chatting is indoors, over a mug of hot tea at Joe Joe’s bike breakers.
“You should have been here last week, man,” says Joe Burns – information that will be given, word-for-word, a dozen times more today. “The street was packed on both sides. One lad pops a wheelie right up the hill with a squad car comin’ the other way. By the time they got turned round he was probably in South Shields.”
You’ll hear this banter in bike shops everywhere, but along Westgate Road it has permeated the walls like the smell of oil and tyres. Incidentally, these men shouldn’t have to go outside to smoke a roll-up. Not today or any day.
“The heyday was in the 80s,” remembers Joe. “The crowds parted like the Red Sea to let bikes go up, often on the back wheel. They’d let buses up, too, but it wasn’t a street for cars.”
Today a CCTV camera sits at the top of the hill with a clear view down to the Opera House. There’s nothing to catch today.
“Some of the lads rigged flip-up numberplates just like James Bond,” Joe says. “They’d run a cable to a choke lever and when they wanted to have a bit of fun, they’d pull the lever and the ’plate would flip up out of sight.”
Lunch arrives from the chip shop as a customer hands over the cash for a header tank and comes up short. “Drop it in next time you’re passin’,” he’s told. And you know he will.
The diversity of the shops means there’s no rivalry. If a trader can’t help you, he’ll send you to someone on The Hill who probably can. Would he be as quick to send you to an industrial unit on the edge of town?
Go to Westgate Road on any Saturday and help preserve part of the north-east’s motorcycling heritage. Don’t go on Sunday though, that’s when the crew on The Hill will be riding their bikes.
For more information go to www.westgatehill.com. Special thanks to Jack Armstrong of Armstong’s and Carl at Custom Lids.
[689 words]
Panel, extended caption 1 (use with pics 035, 038, 039, 040 or 041)
After more than 40 years on The Hill, Joe Burns’s enthusiasm for it is undiminished. He started out in 1966 polishing bikes at Ken Robinson’s – one of the Hill originals – and worked in several of the shops before starting up on his own. He’s proud of his Aladdin’s cave of used spares and edging up some narrow stairs he recalls a letter he got from an old woman in New Zealand who was born on those steps and lived most of her young life in the former flat. What she’d think of the racks of carefully labelled top yokes that have replaced her bedside cabinet is anybody’s guess, but she would surely be impressed by Joe’s idea to sell spare wheels to track day enthusiasts. “Getting a tyre changed at a track day can be expensive and time-consuming,” he says. “I’ll sell you a spare wheel for £50 and you can put your wet weather tyre on that.”
Panel, extended caption 2 (use with pic 047)
New businesses are moving into Westgate Road. The Trading Post has been open since January and is doing good business being the only shop on The Hill catering just for cruisers. The Harleys and Aspencades bring more variety (on a warmer day) to the ‘solo motorcycles only’ parking that lines the street.
From the left, this is: Maria, Carole, Maurice and Joe.
Maurice Savage is the director, he’s also a skilled saddler so the shop provides an outlet for his leathercraft. “We’ve got off to a good start,” he says. “Our affiliation to various clubs and support of events in the region is a big help.”
Panel, extended caption 3 (use with pic 016)
Sounding a lot and looking a bit like ‘the cast of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet meets the Likely Lads out for a blast’, the NE Road Bandits MCC are five of the very few riders braving the bitterly cold weather. From the left, Keith, Ray, John, Ian and Kevin are from “out of town” and here to see what’s going on. Not much, fellas. They were keen to promote their Easter Sunday ride-out to the Washington Wetlands bikemeet via Whitby on April 12. We hope it went well, guys.
[COPY ENDS]
