Byker is a district in the east of the
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
and
metropolitan borough
A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of districts of England, local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan distr ...
of
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...
, in the county of
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The county is ...
, England. Home to the
Byker Wall estate, made famous by TV series ''
Byker Grove
''Byker Grove'' is a British teen drama and coming of age television series which aired between 1989 and 2006 on BBC One.
The show was set in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne and was filmed in nearby Benwell. It was created by writer Adele Rose a ...
'', Byker's population was recorded at 12,206 in the 2011 census. Byker is bordered by
Heaton to the north and by
Shieldfield to the north east. Until 1974 it was in
Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...
.
In popular culture
Byker became well known as the setting of the
BBC TV
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...
series ''
Byker Grove
''Byker Grove'' is a British teen drama and coming of age television series which aired between 1989 and 2006 on BBC One.
The show was set in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne and was filmed in nearby Benwell. It was created by writer Adele Rose a ...
'' (1989–2006); although set in the ward, the youth club featured in the series was filmed at
The Mitre in the
Benwell area in the west end of Newcastle.
Etymology
The second element in the name ''Byker'' is
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
''kjarr'' ("marsh"), with the first being either Norse ''byr'' ("farmstead") or
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
''bi'' ("by, near").
History

Possibly the earliest form of the visible evidence of development in Byker was by the Roman Emperor,
Hadrian
Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...
. A wall, turrets and mile castles, stretching from the east to the west coast provided a barrier to invading border clans and tribes.
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...
lies just south of Shields Road and was excavated in the 1990s. The area was populated by soldiers and their suppliers of foods, livestock and trades, such as weavers, saddlers and blacksmiths amongst others. There are the remains of a mile castle or small fort near
Newcastle Stadium
Newcastle Stadium is a greyhound racing and former motorcycle speedway stadium, located on The Fossway, Byker, Newcastle. Racing at the stadium takes place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The circumference of the greyhound tr ...
.
Byker first appeared in historical documents in 1198 ‘as the most important Serjeantry in Northumberland’ held by William of Byker, named William Escolland, who was a Norman noble.
There were 4 taxpayers in 1296 and 5 recorded in 1312. In 1549 the Mayor and Burgesses of Newcastle sought to extend the borough's boundaries to include part of Byker Township, to take advantage of the land by the river ‘for the dropping of ballast for the coal trade’. The transaction was disputed due to financial disagreements and eventually settled in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
and the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
in London.
Byker was formerly a
township
A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
, in 1866 Byker became a separate
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
, on 1 April 1914 the parish was abolished to form Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1911 the parish had a population of 48,709. It is now in the
unparished area
In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparis ...
of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Development
Until the 1960s, Byker was a Victorian working-class area of densely built terraces. Much of the housing needed major repair and some was considered unfit for human habitation (many houses lacked bathrooms), yet most residents wanted to stay in Byker, an area close to industry on the riverside. In 1966 Newcastle City Corporation took the decision to redevelop the Byker area. The council aimed to clear the slums but keep the community.
Byker was extensively photographed before its demolition, primarily by
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen,
[David Alan Mellor, ''No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–1987: From the British Council and the Arts Council Collection'' (London: Hayward Publishing, 2007; ), p.84.] who lived in Byker from 1969.
[Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen]
, Amber Online. Accessed 2010-02-19. The photographs that Konttinen took toured China in 1980 and later appeared in the book ''Byker.''
Ralph Erskine was appointed as the architect in 1969 for the new Byker. The development was run as a "rolling programme" so local people could continue living in the area during the building work. Residents were involved in the design process and it is thought the outstanding success of Byker was as much to do with this as its innovative architecture which used a Functionalist Romantic style, differentiating the Estate from the Brutalist approach which was more common at the time.
New leisure and shopping facilities have been brought to the Shields Road area, while community led initiatives have encouraged the growth of local enterprise and enriched the social fabric of the estate. Byker and the Ouseburn area to the south have seen investment in recent years, becoming a cultural hub for the city. Byker Estate itself received a Grade II* listing in 2007 due to its architectural significance, and has since undergone a £25 million regeneration with a further £4 million of environmental upgrades to the area taking place in 2020.
In 2017 the Byker Wall estate was named as the best neighbourhood in the UK by the Academy of Urbanism's 'The Great Neighbourhood' award.
Education
The ward has three primary schools, St. Lawrence RC Primary School, Welbeck Academy and Byker Primary School, which is equipped with a nursery class. The ward does not have any secondary schools, the nearest secondary schools are
Jesmond Park Academy,
Walker Riverside Academy
Walker Riverside Academy is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in the Walker area of Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. ...
and
Benfield School. Byker Primary School was rated 'Outstanding' in its Ofsted report of 2017.
Recreation and leisure

Most of these facilities are in the bordering ward of South Heaton such as the East End Pool and Library on Corbridge Street. In March 2019 it was announced that the library would be transferred to the Shields Road Customer Service Centre in May 2019. The ward itself is at Garden City standards in terms of housing density, offering a number of well-maintained green open spaces. The ward hosts the
'''
Byker in Bloom''' gardening competition which takes place every summer, and incorporates a number of different categories including 'Best Balcony' and 'Best Newcomer'. In 2008,
Newcastle City Council
Newcastle City Council is the local authority for the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear in North East England. Newcastle has had a council from medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. ...
agreed a lease of the former Byker Swimming Pool on Shipley Place which had remained closed and unused since the late 1990s, allowing it to be converted into an indoor bouldering and climbing centre known as 'Climb Newcastle'.
Transport

Car ownership in Byker was recorded at 35.4% (2001). The area is served by
Byker Metro station and several bus services. The community bike projec
Recykeon Brinkburn Street provides bikes for local residents in need, and offers training in bike maintenance.
Boundary
Byker ward stretches from the Fossway and Millers Road in the north of the ward to the banks of the River Tyne in the south. It heads south onto the Shields Road bypass (A187) and continues along the A193 bypass along Shields Road to the Ouse Burn. It turns south down the Ouse Burn to the River Tyne and follows the river east, turning northwards to the west of the properties on The Oval (and excluding the Bakewell Terrace properties). Heading east along Walker Road, the boundary then turns north up Monkchester Road and continues north. It turns west along Dunstanburgh Road, and then north between Welbeck Primary School grounds and the properties on Allendale Road. It turns east along Welbeck Road, then north up Scrogg Road, east at Middle Street, and north along Langley Road. The boundary then runs along the gardens at the back of Whinneyfield Road before turning west down the Fossway.
Demographic characteristics
The results of the UK
Census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
taken on 27 March 2011 for the Byker Ward show the total population on Census night was 12,206 people in 5,835 households.
A quarter of people in the Byker ward have a long-term health problem or disability which affects day-to-day activities (25.0%).
Lone parent households with dependent children accounted for 12.3% of all households, which is higher than the city average of 7.6%.
Byker has also experienced a large growth in Ethnic minorities, especially those of Polish and African backgrounds. In 2011, the White population was 88.9%, Asians were 4.2%, Black people were 4.1% and Mixed race were 1.6%.
Notes
External links
Photos of the area from GeographKnow Newcastle ward profileByker UK Census data 2011Kay's Geography guide to the Byker estate including photosan
current issuesNewcastle council 2001 census(archived page)
Ouseburn Valley regeneration project(archived page)
Newcastle Council Ward Info: Byker(archived page)
Further reading
*Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. ''Byker.'' London: Jonathan Cape, 1983. . Newcastle: Bloodaxe Books, 1985. .
*Konttinen, Sirkka-Liisa. ''Byker Revisited.'' Newcastle upon Tyne: Northumberland University Press, 2009. .
External links
{{T&W places
Districts of Newcastle upon Tyne
Wards of Newcastle upon Tyne
Former civil parishes in Tyne and Wear