Grainger Memorial Plaque, St John the Baptist Church, Newcastle. 1888. Beside the door on the south nave wall. The church is at the corner of Westgate Road and Grainger Street. The inscription on the plaque reads:
Sacred to the memory of Richard Grainger and Rachel his wife. A citizen of Newcastle upon Tyne does not need to be reminded of the genius of Richard Grainger and a stranger is referred to the principal streets in the centre of the city as forming the most splendid and enduring monument to that genius. He died 4th July 1861, his wife 16th October 1842. This tablet is erected by the direction of their daughter Rachel Elizabeth Burns 1888.
Richard Grainger was the builder and developer of central Newcastle, and Grainger Street was laid out just beside this church, causing the building, with its medieval elements such as a fourteenth-century transept and fifteenth-century pinnacled tower, "to rise starkly from the very pavement" (Grundy et al. 427). The street name visible in the lower right-hand corner of the picture is that of Grainger Street.
Photograph and text by Jacqueline Banerjee. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL, or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
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Reference
Grundy et al., eds. The Buildings of England: Northumberland. London: Penguin, 1992.
Last modified 24 August 2011