Newcastle switched on the electric light first
- Swan’s lamp, 1878
- First house lit by electricity
- Sage began here
- 26,000 in digital work
How Newcastle-upon-Tyne grew
The short version, in order. Pick a year.
Swan demonstrates the lamp
Joseph Swan showed a working incandescent lamp to the Literary and Philosophical Society in December. His own house at Low Fell became the first home anywhere lit by electric light.
Joseph Swan, and the first electric light
Joseph Swan demonstrated a working incandescent lamp to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne in December 1878. His own house at Low Fell, just across the Tyne in Gateshead, became the first home anywhere lit by electric light bulbs.
In October 1880 the Lit and Phil became the first public hall in the world lit by electricity, and that December Swan took twenty lamps to Cragside in Northumberland, where they ran on hydroelectric power.
None of that is the internet, but all of it is the precondition. Every server room and data centre on earth is downstream of the moment somebody worked out how to make electric light practical, and that happened on Tyneside.
What that means if you trade in Newcastle
Newcastle is a regional capital serving a very large area, from the coast to Northumberland, and its businesses are used to being the nearest option for a long way in several directions.
It is also a city with a low tolerance for pretension. A website that sounds like it was written by a marketing agency in London will underperform one that sounds like the person who answers the phone.
What Newcastle-upon-Tyne businesses ask us for
Say how far north you go
Northumberland journeys are long. Being honest about range saves wasted calls on both sides.
Sound like yourself
Plain speech outperforms polish here by a distance.
Cover both sides of the river
Gateshead is a different council and, to customers, a different place. Be explicit.
The tech scene here
The North East has over twenty-six thousand people in digital employment, and Newcastle is the centre of it. The mix leans towards games, e-commerce and enterprise software — Sage was founded here and is still headquartered in the region, and there is a long-standing games cluster including Ubisoft Reflections.
Newcastle Helix, a twenty-four acre development in the city centre, houses the National Innovation Centre for Ageing and the National Innovation Centre for Data. The Toffee Factory in Ouseburn, a converted Maynards sweet works, holds a cluster of smaller digital and creative firms.
Five universities across the region feed into it, which is the underlying reason the talent pool holds up.
How well do you know Newcastle-upon-Tyne?
Five quick questions. Get all five right and you win a 10% off discount code for your website. Every answer is somewhere on this page, so have a read if you get stuck.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne quiz · 1 of 5
Who demonstrated a working incandescent lamp in Newcastle in 1878?
Common questions
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