We step back albeit briefly to the Newcastle city centre of 1970 in our latest video offering, courtesy of the North East Film Archive.
The two-and-a-half minute clip is an extract from a longer piece called Northumberland: A New Life, a promotional film made for Northumberland County Council encouraging people to move to the county, and charting the experiences of three families who had recently relocated there.
In our Newcastle extract, we see the main shopping thoroughfare Northumberland Street as it was 50 years ago, decades before pedestrianisation, and still the main North-South route for traffic rumbling through the city. Cultural venues such as the Theatre Royal and City Hall come into view, before the film turns its attention to the city's renowned nightlife.
READ MORE: The Gate, Newcastle, opened 20 years ago - 10 photos from its early years
We see the famous Oxford Galleries dance hall, and Billy Botto's club, and then one of Newcastle's most iconic nightspots from the era, La Dolce Vita, where the punters are enjoying a night out watching live entertainment, strutting their stuff on the dance floor, and chancing their hand at roulette.
La Dolce Vita opened on Low Friar Street in 1963, instantly becoming a hot spot of glamour and sophistication with the pulling power to attract some of the biggest names in showbusiness. Shirley Bassey, Diana Dors, Adam Faith, Tom Jones, Tommy Cooper, Cilla Black and Bob Monkhouse, among many others, trod the boards there.
The venue would undergo a series of reincarnations and attract new generations of funseekers in the 80s and 90s. In 1984, La Dolce Vita became Walkers, then in 1993 Planet Earth. It was given a final short-lived lease of life in 2001 as The Playrooms before closing a year later. Today, the site is home to luxury flats.
If you would like to watch more archive footage like this, but in DVD form, Newcastle On Film has been specially produced by NEFA. Presented and narrated by Pam Royle - latterly of ITV Tyne Tees News fame - it pays homage to life on Tyneside and features lots of wonderful archive film footage.
The DVD, which would make an ideal Christmas gift, is priced at £12 (including postage and packing), and all profits from the sale go back into the valuable work of the North East Film Archive. Buy it here. See more from the North East Film Archive at www.yfanefa.com
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