Grey Street

The sweeping Georgian street voted England's best

A long curve of classical facades sweeping from Grey's Monument at the top down to the Tyne river bank, built between 1835 and 1839 by John Dobson and Richard Grainger. The proportions, the curve, and the consistency of the travertine-coloured stone make it more harmonious than almost any equivalent in Britain. The Theatre Royal at midway is the architectural focus of the lower stretch.

Walk it from the top down. The pubs and restaurants behind the Georgian frontages are mostly worth a stop; the upper storeys deserve more attention than they get from passers-by. After dark the street is floodlit and the curve becomes more pronounced.

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A story
William Gladstone called Grey Street the finest street in any city in Europe. CAMRA-style polls in the 1990s and a 2010 BBC Radio 4 vote both put it ahead of Bath, Edinburgh, and Bloomsbury as Britain's most handsome street.

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