Joe McCarty: Reflections on the Quayside

We're honoured to present a series of photographs from Joe McCarty of Newcastle's iconic Quayside Market. As part of our Personal Histories: Memories of the Quayside project we're also sharing Joe's memories of days out at the market in as a boy in the 1940s and returning with his camera in the 1970s.

Quayside 1940’s

One Sunday morning, in the late 1940’s, while visiting my grandparents in Byker, my grandfather suggested a visit to the Sunday morning market on the Newcastle Quayside . We set off walking from their house at the top of Norfolk  Rd. and the Sunday morning streets were  quiet, with  few people about. But as we approached the quayside area more people appeared, apparently also on their way to the quayside Before the Quay came into view, you could hear the noise from the market coming over in swirling waves. Once in view, I could see the various stalls and vans, lined up along the quay. They seemed so close to the water’s edge, I wondered if, at some points, the throng of jostling people was in danger of pushing the stalls into the river.

Making our way along the line of stalls, through the crush of the crowd, the chatter and laughter of the people, mixed with the loud calls of the various merchants, created an air of turbulent activity and I have a vague recollection of hearing some music from somewhere

Occasionally my grandfather would pause to hear the entertaining ‘patter’ from. one or other of the van owners and I spent the few coins he had slipped me on an ice cream cornet. Looking up, I was fascinated to see the bulk of the bridges, The majesty of the Tyne Bridge, that, up to that point, even though I only lived in Wallsend, I had only seen in pictures and I was impressed by the High level Bridge, with its lower deck for motor vehicles, and the upper rail deck where a train was passing over as I stood and stared.

Eventually, we turned and meandered back along the quay and then set off back  home through the contrasting quiet of the Byker streets. A memorable morning out for a young boy.

Quayside 1970’s

I had made other, occasional  visits in the 20 years since my very first visit to the Sunday morning Newcastle Quayside market, but, one  visit, was made for a particular reason. It was the start of the 1970’s, and I had recently acquired my first ‘proper’ camera. A second hand, Zeiss ‘Contina’, a 35 mm, film camera, with a built- in light meter. I   had made  a few trial, filmless, ‘dummy’ shoots in the local park to try to develop a routine for reading the light meter, then, by hand, setting the shutter speed, lens aperture and focus distance. On that Sunday, however, there was a roll of film in the camera as I had decided the Quayside market would be a good place to try  out my technique at a ’live’ event.

I realised immediately on arriving on the quayside, I was in the right place. Looking around, there were potential subjects for photo images everywhere. I made a quick decision to concentrate on the market people rather than the individuals in the crowd. At that period, any stranger taking your photo in the street was a photo salesman who would usually then try to persuade you to buy a print of the result. This was not an impression I wanted to create when I raised the camera’s viewfinder to my eye, as I was trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. 

It was easier with the market people as most of them were concentrating on performing their set sales routine and would ignore the pointing camera. This was just as well, as the Zeiss had a fixed focus, 45mm lens, So without any zoom or tele-photo facility, I had no choice but to follow the mantra in the photo training manuals of, ‘get in close’ .As one close up photo shows, The man who sold ‘magic tricks seemed to ignore the camera as he was intent on demonstrating his latest trick, while children, and quite a few adults, looked on. But, on another image, the lady running the rifle range seems to indicate, she was unimpressed  by the camera, and was giving  me a ’hard’ stare. So I clicked the shutter, and moved on quickly. (Well, she did have a few rifles handy!), My favourite image of the day was taken from behind the stallholder who sold various novelty items  (I believe, in later years, this man was photographed by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen). My photograph shows that the crowd at the stall was made up of adults and children and the smiles on numerous faces indicate how they were enjoying his line of non-stop, humorous ‘patter’.

One of the many advantages of digital cameras is that you can check very quickly to see if you have obtained the image you were aiming to capture.  With a film camera, you had to wait for the film to be developed and the photos printed before you could view the full results. When eventually I examined the image of the crowd at the novelty stall, I was struck by how many of the boys appeared to be related and, so, it seemed, were some of the adults.  It was a good example of how the camera image can sometimes reveal more information than the eye ‘sees’ at the time. 

One obvious way to get an overall image of the market was to take photos from the bridges. . From above, you could observe the various elements of the scene. The continuous, steady flow of the River Tyne contrasting with the ebb and swirl of the crowd as people moved at random along the line of stalls. This movement was set against the permanence, solidity and strength of the iconic bridge structures

Many years after taking my photos, I read that one of the early exponents of British photojournalism, Humphry Spender, had been sent to Newcastle to capture images for a feature entitled, ‘Tyneside’, for one of the early editions of, ‘Picture Post’ (Dec 17th, 1938) Spender must have realised the photographic potential of the Quayside market and the published article featured a few images taken there. One photo was captioned,

‘A big feature of Newcastle life is the Sunday market on the quayside. Its sideshows are always crowded.’

I could have used the same caption with some of my photos some thirty years after him. While the current market may not be as big a feature in Newcastle life as it once was, the Sunday market has survived changes for hundreds of years and the ’Geordies have long been known for invention and innovation so who knows how the market might develop in the future.