Lord Armstrong: Newcastle's City Father
EducationLord Armstrong: Newcastle's City Father
W.G. Armstrong and Co. built bridges using innovative hydraulic mechanisms and one of these had a transformative impact on Newcastle. By the 1870s a new low level bridge was needed to communicate between Gateshead and the quayside. It was imperative that the bridge did not restrict traffic on the Tyne and this was particularly vital to Armstrong, whose Elswick Works were located up river. Armstrong’s radical solution was to design a bridge that rotated on a mechanism powered by hydraulic engines. The Swing Bridge was opened on the 15th July 1876 and the swinging mechanism was first used two days later. The event was depicted in the Illustrated London News. In 1894 Armstrong’s firm supplied the hydraulic engines and accumulators for London’s Tower Bridge.
Armstrong’s success depended not only on technological innovations, but on business acumen. The firm diversified into other areas and expanded via strategic mergers. In 1867 Armstrong reached an informal agreement with the shipbuilder Charles Mitchell that Armstrong would arm the ships built at Mitchell’s Low Walker yard. For example, in 1883 Mitchell’s yard launched the Esmeralda, an armoured cruiser intended for the Chilean navy, which was then armed at Elswick. Armstrong amalgamated with Mitchell in 1882 and the firm of W.G. Armstrong, Mitchell and Co. was launched with a capital of £1,575,000. Armstrong, Mitchell and Co. was regarded as the only firm in the world able to build and fully arm a battleship. Many such vessels were built and sold to the navies of Argentina, Brazil, Russia and the USA. The firm established particularly strong connections with Japan, building a total of sixteen warships for the Japanese navy. Japanese ambassadors visited Newcastle on 21 October 1872 and stayed at the Royal Station Hotel. Here they were met by Armstrong, who took them on a tour of Tyneside. During a dinner at the County Hotel, Armstrong entertained Prince Yamashino and stated that ‘the ship that had been launched was for the service of a country which was never likely to come into collision with our own peace-loving country.’
Armstrong wielded almost unparalleled influence and his activities helped to shape Newcastle’s cultural sphere. His father had joined the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne at the age of twenty and was a founder of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne. This paved the way for Armstrong’s entrance into Newcastle’s intellectual culture. He joined the Natural History Society in 1846, becoming Vice President in 1861 and President in 1893. He donated £11,500 towards the cost of building the Hancock Natural History Museum. Armstrong had demonstrated many of his early inventions at the Literary and Philosophical Society and in 1860 he succeeded Robert Stephenson as President. In 1889 he funded the building of a new west wing and installed electric lighting. When fire broke out on 7 February 1893 – the night of the Society’s centenary celebrations – Armstrong funded the repairs. Frank W. Rich carried out the alterations, fireproofing the building by adding concrete floors reinforced with steel beams. He installed new glazed roofs in the library and committee room.
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