The Dangar Grid is the layout of the streets in the centre of the central business district of

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

, Australia. Named after its designer,

Henry Dangar Henry Dangar (1796 - 1861) was a surveyor and explorer of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He became a successful pastoralist and businessman, and also served as a magistrate and politician. He was born on 18 November 179 ...

, the Grid was designed in 1823 and implemented sometime thereafter. It covers the area from Brown Street to Pacific Street, and from Church Street to Hunter Street.

History

Newcastle was in a state of decline when Governor

Lachlan Macquarie Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Lachlan Macquarie, Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (; gd, Lachann MacGuaire; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie se ...

commissioned Government Surveyor

to design a compact town plan for the city. This enabled Dangar to reinvent the colony's second-oldest settlement, providing it with a structural heart that still functions as Newcastle's central business district. When Governor Macquarie opened up the

Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...

for settlement he preserved Dangar's Grid by giving the newly formed

Australian Agricultural Company The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) () is a public-listed Australian company that, as at 2018, owned and operated feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's la ...

of land immediately west of Brown Street (now the Civic precinct and

Newcastle West Newcastle West () or simply Newcastle (''An Caisleán Nua'', formerly anglicized Castlenoe) is a town in west County Limerick, Ireland. It is the largest town in the county, excluding Limerick city, It is also the county town, and sits on the ...

), preventing Newcastle from spreading westward until 1837. In the meantime, the city grew southward on a plateau.MacMahon, B 2001, The architecture of East Australia, Axel Menges, Stuttgart/London, p. 107. Dangar's Grid is unique in that it is situated on sloping ground between Christ Church Cathedral and the harbour. Rather than take advantage of the aforementioned plateau that is now The Hill, Dangar's Grid is "hill-draped between ocean and estuary", creating what

Elizabeth Farrelly Dr Elizabeth Margaret Farrelly (born Dunedin, New Zealand), is a Sydney-based author, architecture critic, essayist, columnist and speaker who was born in New Zealand but later became an Australian citizen. She has contributed to current debates ...

, the Sydney-based architecture critic, has described as "one of the country's – maybe the world's – most spectacularly sited towns".

Street names

South-North streets

*Brown Street, named after Alexander Brown, Colliery Manager of the

*Perkin Street (now Perkins Street), named after Jacob Perkin, engineer *Wolffe Street, then Woolf Street (now Wolfe Street), named after

Arthur Woolf Arthur Woolf (1766, Camborne, Cornwall – 16 October 1837, Guernsey) was a Cornish engineer, most famous for inventing a high-pressure compound steam engine. As such he made an outstanding contribution to the development and perfection of the ...

, engineer *Newcomen Street named after

Thomas Newcomen Thomas Newcomen (; February 1664 – 5 August 1729) was an English inventor who created the atmospheric engine, the first practical fuel-burning engine in 1712. He was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling. He ...

, mechanic *Boulton Street (now Bolton Street) named after

Matthew Boulton Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engine ...

, engineer *Watt Street (first street in Newcastle, originally called High Street) renamed after

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fun ...

, engineer *Pacific Street, overlooking the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

West-East streets

* Hunter Street, named after the

Hunter River Hunter River may refer to: *Hunter River (New South Wales), Australia *Hunter River (Western Australia) *Hunter River, New Zealand *Hunter River (Prince Edward Island), Canada **Hunter River, Prince Edward Island, community on Hunter River, Canada ...

, along which it runs parallel *King Street, named after the NSW Governor, Captain

Philip Gidley King Captain Philip Gidley King (23 April 1758 – 3 September 1808) was a British politician who was the third Governor of New South Wales. When the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, King was detailed to colonise Norfolk Island for defence an ...

*Church Street is in reference to the original Christ Church (now Cathedral), built in 1817

References

{{reflist History of Newcastle, New South Wales Urban planning in Australia