St Thomas' Newcastle — Attraction in Newcastle upon Tyne

A 19th-century Anglican re-foundation of a medieval chapel, traditionally said to have been created by one of the assassins of Thomas Becket. Revitalised and appointed as Resource Church for the Diocese of Newcastle in 2019, with a new minister and staff team, it has now become a popular church for students and young adults. After seeing the outside, we were quite surprised by the inside, and found this, Starting in 2019, plans were drawn up for a major renovation and reordering of the Church building, completed in 2022. As part of the work, the floors were removed and rebuilt, new partitions were inserted in order to create meeting rooms and other spaces in the former aisles of the church, and the 19th century bench seating was removed and replaced with standard stackable chairs. The galleries of 1837 have been enclosed in glass, and the raked seating has been floored over in order to create additional rooms. A full-immersion font was installed in the nave...

Perfect place to learn about the church's history and how, in its previous location centuries ago, it was an important pilgrimage location. I absolutely enjoyed walking around the premises seeing the memorials in honour of those who died during the world wars, and the coal tunnel built early in the 20th century and which would later serve as air-raid shelters for the locals. Inside the church, there are more physical reminders of the wars (banners especially) and stained-glass windows put up for some of the lost souls. There is a special on on the...

The exterior of the church looks old, built in gothic style during the first half of the 19th century. But the interior is very modern and has been redesigned to incorporate mezzanine galleries on either side for office/study space. I can see that they have effectively utilised the interior space, but in doing so the beautiful stained glass windows have been partially truncated by the...