It was dinner time 45 years ago at the Royal Turk's Head hotel on Newcastle's Grey Street.
Even the most renowned of venues need an upgrade now and again, and the venerable city centre hotel had recently re-launched in September 1977 after an "extensive modernisation programme brought it in step with modern times", the Chronicle reported. All the bedrooms now had telephone, radio and TV; the Green Lounge Bar guaranteed "comfortable seating, good service and a pleasant atmosphere"; and in the Red Rover Bar - "a favourite meeting place for locals" - you could enjoy a quick lunch from around 50p.
Our main image shows the Bewick Restaurant which, "with its plush surroundings and air conditioning is the ideal situation for turning a quiet meal into a memorable occasion". Otherwise, it was business as usual at the long-standing Royal Turk's which had earned a reputation as one of the best hotels in the city.
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Situated in a fine building dating from around 1837, the hotel at 69-73 Grey Street sat opposite the Theatre Royal and was popular with theatre-goers as well as the actors and musicians who performed there. Built by Richard Grainger, and part of the radical redevelopment of Newcastle town centre in the early 19th century, the four-storey sandstone ashlar building with its Welsh slate roof was constructed in a classical style.
The Royal Turk's, meanwhile, is central to a much-debated piece of pop music folklore. It’s where The Beatles, quite possibly, wrote their early anthem, She Loves You. It was 1963 and the Fab Four were in the midst of a sprawling UK tour alongside Gerry And The Pacemakers and Roy Orbison.
After a show at the Majestic Ballroom on Westgate Road (today it’s the 02 Academy), it is claimed John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the future worldwide smash hit in their hotel room. Years later, McCartney recalled: “We were in a van up in Newcastle. I’d planned an ‘answering song’ where a couple of us would sing ‘she loves you’ and the other ones would answer ‘yeah yeah’.
“We decided that was a crummy idea, but at least we then had the idea of a song called She Loves You. So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it — John and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars.”
Others claim She Loves You was actually written at the Imperial Hotel in Jesmond, but the Chronicle later ran a story quoting a local taxi driver who clearly remembered dropping off The Beatles at the Royal Turk's in 1963. The jury remains out!
A trawl through the Chronicle archive recalls some of the other showbiz stars who stayed at the Royal Turk's Head hotel. Big names in the late 1940s and early 1950s included Tessie O’Shea, Deborah Kerr and Cavan O’Connor.
Later, Dickie Valentine and Dora Bryan stayed there, while the notorious London gangsters, the Kray Twins, were said to have visited the place. Then there were the likes of Kathy Kirby, Del Shannon, Johnny Cash, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Tom Jones - to name a few.
Over its lifetime, the address - which was Grade II-listed in 1965 - would play host to houses and shops, as well as the Royal Turk's - and later a grand branch of Barlcays Bank. Today it’s a mix of offices and apartments. More then 180 years after it was built, it remains a fine building on Newcastle’s smartest street.
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