A Once Beery Street is now Dry

It's a very short street with no place to buy a pint but it wasn't always so. Indeed it had three places to get a pint of Lochside Ale and it was advertised in such a prominent way it was of great concern to The Felling Local Authority.

James Deuchar, as a young man, came to Tyneside from Scotland with barely a penny to his name. He managed a pub, then bought a pub and then bought a brewery, back in his native Scotland.

Click here to see the Beer Boat on the Quayside unloading the beer barrels from the Lochside Brewery in Montrose, Scotland. See here for the Lochside story

In 1900 he bought 31 Davidson Street, Felling. 

A few years later he had the Oddfellows Arms, also on Davidson Street

 and, next door but one, the Durham Ox.

This is the Durham Ox...in Lincoln. The Felling one was never photographed. See here to find out why there is a Durham Ox in Lincoln

See the two buildings on the right of Davidson Street (sometimes spelled Davison) marked P.H. (public house) Click image to enlarge

So if you entered Davidson Street from the top on the right you could get a pint at his beer shop (you may remember it, later and for many, many years, as a sweetie shop), walk a few paces down to the Oddfellows and then on to the Durham Ox. If you wanted another pint of Lochside Ale you could turn left onto Church Street and then right to the bottom of the High Street to have another pint of his ale from the Beeswing, another James Deuchar house.

Not only that but also there were more beer sellers on Davidson Street.

From Trade Directories

1903 Edward Alder, Beer House

1903 James McCann, Beer House

1913 Wm Pinkney, Beer House

What's a Beer House

To finish, here's the gable end of the ex-sweetie shop that still bears the huge James Deuchar advert that caused the Felling councillors such consternation.

This is from the News Magazine of Amos Almond dated 11th Nov 1949
The Planning Committee think this is "undesirable and are taking steps to see if it can removed" Since it is still visible 65 years on, they weren't totally successful

James Deuchar was fond of his gable end adverts

What would they have made of this gable end on New Bridge Street?

I've clumsily tried to highlight the lettering...
if you're local why not go there and see it more clearly with your own eyes. Don't hang about, much as the current owners are proud of the history of their lovely home, at some point this gable end will get painted and/or rendered

My thanks go to the current owners of No. 31 (now 35) and to Anthony Cockburn for his comments on Felling Past and Present which helped me to make this story complete