The City

Newcastle is a modern, compact, and culturally vibrant European city with a strong identity. The city is easy to get around and offers excellent shopping, restaurants, museums, galleries and cinemas. 

The city centre is renowned for its stunning architecture with many fine buildings and streets, including Grey Street, described by seminal architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘one of the finest streets in England’. Once a busy industrial and commercial dockside, Newcastle’s Quayside is now packed with cafés, bars, and restaurants to enjoy views of the River Tyne and its bridges.

Neighbouring Gateshead is now famed for its contemporary culture and iconic structures, including BALTIC, a converted 1950s flour mill and now a major international centre for contemporary art, the Sage Gateshead concert venue occupying a curved glass and steel building designed by Norman Foster, the Stirling Prize-winning Gateshead Millennium Bridge and Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North.

 

The Region

The region is steeped in history, and our countryside and wide sandy beaches are our best kept secret.

The Northumberland coast and its historic castles, designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, are only 30 minutes’ drive to the north. Hadrian’s Wall world heritage site lies to the west, and South of the city is County Durham, where the ancient city of Durham is complemented by a heritage coastline and rural towns and villages.

Cost of Living

On average, the cost of living in Newcastle is 37% cheaper than London. The North East consistently comes out as one of the best value places to live in the UK based on the average cost of living, and property, in particular, is significantly more affordable than in many other parts of the country. From carefully restored Victorian terraces to contemporary city-centre apartments, semi-rural locations to a seafront home, the region offers a wealth of accommodation choices.

Education and Healthcare

Newcastle’s hospitals have an international reputation for excellence in health care. The university works in close partnership with the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust and Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Mental Health Trust. Education here also has a strong reputation, with a choice of excellent state and private schools, several Further Education colleges and of course our world-class universities.

Travel

Exceptional transport links connect the city and region to the rest of the UK, Europe and beyond. Newcastle International Airport is just over 20 minutes from the city centre by car or public transport, from where there are direct flights to over 80 destinations across the globe. The East Coast mainline provides direct access to London by train in less than three hours and Edinburgh in just over an hour, with trains running approximately every 30 minutes. In addition, the A1(M) motorway links the area to London, Edinburgh and other major UK cities.

Newcastle has a modern, integrated transport system with an extensive network of local buses and the Metro which connects the airport, city centre, coast and Sunderland.

Sports

Sports fans are spoilt for choice in Newcastle, with regular top-flight football, rugby and basketball fixtures in the city. In addition, Gateshead Stadium brings international athletics to the region, while the world-class Durham International Cricket Ground hosts county, one-day international, Twenty20 and Test matches.

Nearby, Close House golf resort is listed among the UK’s top 100 golf courses and, every year, the world’s largest half marathon, the Great North Run, attracts some 57,000 participants and many thousands more spectators.