Most references since the late 19th century state that Blackett Street was named after John Erasmus Blackett (JEB), four times mayor of Newcastle, and the father-in-law of Admiral Collingwood (see Naval Blacketts). Indeed, our own 2013 book “A History of the Blacketts” states that the street was named after him. However, recent research has cast doubts on this.
In 1824, about ten years prior to the building of Grainger Town, Richard Grainger began building thirty-one houses in what was to become the thoroughfare of Blackett Street. This was not a new street, but the redevelopment (and later the extension) of an existing one, running along the northern section of the old town wall, west of Pilgrim Street. Adjacent to this section of the town wall was the northern boundary of the vast former Blackett mansion, known by various names as Newe House, Grey Friars and Anderson Place, owned by the Blacketts from 1675 to 1782 (see Grey Friars/Anderson Place and Blackett Street, Newcastle).
This much was already known, but evidence has now emerged that the earlier street also bore the same name, at least early as 1803, and, when it was known as a lane rather than a street, probably at least as far back as the 1780s. The following early references have been discovered, confirming that the name predates Grainger's original redevelopment:
1.The Newcastle & Gateshead Directory for 1782,1783, 1784 John Haigh, gardener, Blackett’s Lane (Note: John Hague, gardener, is shown as of High-Fryer-Chair[sic] in Whitehead’s Newcastle Directory for 1778. This could indicate that Blackett's Lane was part of, or a continuation of, High Friars Chare, though we have not been able to establish that this is so.)
2. St. Andrew’s parish records show burial of Eliza Bell, age 16, of Blackett Street 26 Dec 1803, plus many more burials and baptisms showing Blackett Street regularly from then on. Mostly artisans (printers, masons etc) but also some yeomen.
3. Mackenzie & Dent's Triennial Directory for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead & Places Adjacent, 1811. Several entries, all artisans, plus Parish Clerk, with addresses in Blackett Street.
4. Letter dated 1 July 1814 from James Davison of Blackett Street to Admiralty offering to pay for the discharge of John Jordan from the Royal Navy on grounds of ill health. (Held by The National Archives.)
Blackett Street also features in the following 19th century publications:
1. Historical Account of Newcastle-upon-Tyne including the Borough of Gateshead. Eneas Mackenzie 1827 p188 : “At the foot of Northumberland Street, a new and handsome street is now forming, called Blackett Street, and which terminates at the north end of Newgate Street. This street is 70 feet broad; and the houses are building after a commodious and elegant plan, furnished by Mr. Dobson, architect....This street was commenced in 1824. Previous to this time, it consisted of a few straggling houses and work-shops, built against, or adjoining to, the town-wall. The north side consisted chiefly of gardens; but the street, being unpaved, was dirty and almost impassable. This place was formerly an useless waste, where manure was deposited.” [NB. Mackenzie cites the derivation of the names of most streets he mentions, but not that of Blackett Street.]
2. Oliver's New Picture of Newcastle upon Tyne, Dr. Thomas Oliver 1831 p 96 "Previous to 1824 Blackett Street consisted of a number of detached old tenement houses, cow-byres, pig-sties..." p 130 "The continuation of Blackett Street to the west is a most desirable and necessary improvement to a completion of Eldon Square and Blackett Street..."
3. Architectural and Picturesque Views in Newcastle upon Tyne, William Collard and M. Ross 1841 p 59: “Opposite to New Bridge Street is Blackett Street, formerly a dirty narrow avenue occupied principally by cow-houses and similar erections, but which being removed in 1824, were replaced by the present airy and elegant buildings. “
4. Newcastle Town, R.J. Charlton 1885 p 90: “Leaving Newgate, the wall ran alongside the site of the present Blackett Street…..Unhappily the old town wall is gone, with its turrets and Blackett’s Pant [i.e.drinking fountain]…”
5. Men of Mark Twixt Tyne and Tweed, Richard Welford 1894 p319: John Erasmus Blackett “The busy thoroughfare which stretches from Pilgrim Street to Gallowgate was called Blackett Street in his honour, and better, perhaps, than sculptured marble, preserves the name of a family that produced rulers of Newcastle — aldermen and sheriffs, mayors and members of Parliament — for the greater part of two hundred years.”
In addition, John Straker in Pedigree of the Family of Blackett (Newcastle Typographical Society 1829) includes several references to John Erasmus Blackett, but does not mention any link between him and Blackett Street.
By 1782, the time of the earliest reference to Blackett's Lane shown above, JEB had been Mayor of Newcastle three times, but it seems highly unlikely that what was at the time an unpaved, dirty lane would have been named after a prominent citizen. Moreover, it is significant that Mackenzie, writing only three years after Grainger had commenced redeveloping Blackett Street, does not mention the derivation of the name, unlike various other streets. Indeed the first publication that we have discovered linking the name to JEB does not appear until Welford in 1894. Nevertheless, a number of later sources seem to have followed Welford's assertion, though with the notable exceptions of Ian Ayris's 1997 publication “A City of Palaces”, and English Heritage’s “Newcastle’s Grainger Town: An Urban Renaissance”, published in 2003. Indeed, Ayris states (p40) that the architect John Dobson's plan, produced in 1824 and published in 1827, proposed "...to create an extension to Blackett Street, which would enhance its role as a principal thoroughfare".
Since the original Blackett's Lane/Blackett Street ran alongside the northern boundary of what was still then Grey Friars (later Anderson Place), owned by the Blacketts until 1782, it seems far more likely that the name derived from the owners of the adjacent mansion, and was retained after Blackett’s Lane became Blackett Street and was then redeveloped by Richard Grainger in 1824, ten years prior to the development of Grainger Town.
That is not to belittle in any way JEB. He, like several of the Blackett baronets of the 17th/18th centuries, had of course been a prominent citizen of Newcastle, and was an original partner of the Newcastle Upon Tyne Fire Office. He was also from 1773 to 1805 the Chief Steward of the vast Blackett lead and coal businesses, owned by his wealthier relatives, having been appointed by Sir Walter Blackett, possibly the best known Blackett in Newcastle public life. That, plus the fact that JEB was Collingwood’s father-in-law, might perhaps have led later historians to assume that Blackett Street was named after him.
Richard Grainger would have been well aware of the Blacketts, whose generosity helped to give him his start in life. Born in High Friar Lane in 1797, alongside the northern boundary of Grey Friars, his schooling took place at St. Andrew's Charitable School in Newgate Street. The school had been established and paid for by a legacy under the will of Sir William Blackett, who died in 1705 ('The Charity of Sir William Blackett the Younger' still exists to this day). As well as providing Grainger with his schooling, on leaving school at the age of fourteen pupils were also provided by the charity with 40 shillings "to put them out Apprentice or Equip them for Services", and Grainger no doubt used this handsome sum towards becoming an apprentice to a master carpenter, thus learning the building trade. Little could he have imagined at the time that he would one day (in 1834) come to purchase Sir William Blackett's mansion and demolish it as part of his grand scheme for the building of Grainger Town.