Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne

Walker is a residential suburb and electoral ward just east of the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Walker's name is a hybrid of Old English and Viking Norse, "Wall-kjerr", where "kjerr" is Norse for "marshy woodland". The name therefore means "marshy woodland by the wall", where the wall in question is of course Hadrian's Wall.

Generally speaking Walker is an area between Welbeck Road and the banks of the River Tyne, although the modern city ward of Walker incorporates Pottery Bank & St Anthony's. When most Geordies refer to Walker they also incorporate the areas of Daisy Hill & Eastfield. Walkergate, Walkerdene and Walkerville, which are located between Welbeck Road and the Network rail line are sometimes considered parts of Walker. These two areas, along with Daisy Hill & Eastfield make up the city Ward of Walkergate.

The residents of Walker are type 51 on the ACORN classification and tend to be low income families, single parents and pensioners. There is an extremely low level of home ownership in Walker with most households being council homes, there are few privately rented homes in Walker.

Walker used to have a large shipbuilding industry, particularly the yard of Armstrong Whitworth at High Walker, but this has declined over the past 50 years and now much of the population is chronically unemployed. The area has suffered as a result and tends to be ignored in the city councils regeneration plans. This means that Walker is subjected to a large amount of vandalism and crime by residents which can make law abiding resisdents, in extreme cases, afraid to leave the house alone. The council have looked to address this in the past few years and plan to demolish much of the older and run-down houseing stock along Walker Road and replace it with new homes which will be a mixture of council and private houseing, two show homes similar to those planned opened to the viewing public in the spring of 2005 on Walker Road.

The area is notable for Walker Park, the Walker Riverside Park, and the Lady Armstrong Library.

Walker is also the birthplace of Eric Burdon lead singer of The Animals & later War. The Animals recorded a song called "Gonna Send You Back To Walker"

Another Walkerite, the author, journalist and broadcaster Keith Topping, titled one of the chapter's in his novel "The Hollow Men", "The St. Anthony's Chinese Takeaway Massacre".

The Newcastle striker Shola Ameobi grew up in Walker.

Walker is served by the Tyne and Wear Metro, with a station at Walkergate, and has a main bus terminus on Walker Road, although this is quite delapitated and badly serviced.

Most children attend the five primary schools in Walker before transferring to Benfield School, a specialist Sports College, or to Walker Technology College [http://www.walker.newcastle.sch.uk] , a high performing specialist technology and visual arts school for 11-18 year olds.

Whilst she was Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Ruth Kelly approved plans for more affordable housing and businesses to built in the area in a regeneration programme of this district.

References

External links

* [http://www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk Tyne and Wear Archives Service: historical information on Walker]
* [http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/wardinfowalker Newcastle Council Ward Info: Walker]