Head of Grey Street
From here the street so often called Britain's finest sweeps downhill between its 1830s neoclassical facades.
The man standing on top of this column since 1838 is the same one whose name is on the tea tin: Charles Grey, prime minister from 1830 to 1834 and the politician who forced through the Great Reform Act of 1832 and widened the vote. The people of Newcastle raised the money themselves for a Roman Doric column of roughly 41 metres in his honour, designed by local architect Benjamin Green, with a statue by Edward Hodges Baily, the sculptor who also carved Nelson for Trafalgar Square. It is Grade I listed, and today it is less a monument people come to look at than the beating heart of the city. Said plainly, the column alone does not justify a special trip. Its real worth is where it stands, at the head of Grey Street, so often called the finest street in Britain, which sweeps downhill in one graceful curve between honey-coloured neoclassical facades from the 1830s and, with the surrounding Grainger Town, makes up the handsomest piece of townscape in Newcastle. Start at the Monument, walk down to the Theatre Royal, cut one minute across to the covered Grainger Market or the tiled Central Arcade, and you will have seen the best of central Newcastle in about an hour. The pedestrianised base is the city's best-known meeting point: buskers, petitioners, the occasional seasonal market stalls, and Monument Metro station directly underneath connects you to the airport and the coast. Looking is free at any hour, and the flat paving suits families and pushchairs, though there is little seating and no shelter, and in a wet Newcastle winter the wind here bites. Inside is a spiral staircase of 164 steps that opens to the public only on limited days, usually the first and third Saturday of the month from April to September, on tours run by Newcastle City Guides at £7 a head in half-hour slots between 10am and 3.30pm. Tickets go live at 9am two weeks before each date and sell out quickly, because each slot takes only eight people. The stair is narrow and dark in places, under-fives are not admitted, and the view over the Georgian rooftops is pleasant but not life-changing, so do not rearrange your itinerary around it.
From here the street so often called Britain's finest sweeps downhill between its 1830s neoclassical facades.
The statue on top is the prime minister the tea is named after, carved by the sculptor of Nelson in Trafalgar Square.
164 steps to the top on only a handful of open days between April and September, eight people per slot.
Junction of Grey Street, Grainger Street and Blackett Street, Newcastle city centre NE1
Just pass it on the way. The column itself takes two minutes, but use it as the start of a half-hour stroll down Grey Street and into Grainger Market and the Central Arcade, which is the real experience. The climb to the top needs advance booking on rare open days, and if it does not line up with your dates you are not missing much.
Children aged 5 to 16 can climb with an adult and a pre-booked ticket; under-fives are not admitted at all. The staircase is narrow and dark in places and not for anyone uneasy in confined spaces or with heights, and pushchairs naturally stay at the bottom.