The Morden Tower in Back Stowell Street on the West Walls of

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade 1 listed building. Since June 1964, Connie Pickard has been custodian of Morden Tower, and has made it a key fixture of Newcastle's alternative cultural life, with the building hosting music and poetry events often funded by Pickard. Currently (October 2021), there are no cultural events running at the Morden Tower space, and the status of the custodianship is not known publicly. The official website is inactive.

History

The Tower was built about 1290. It is one of five Drum towers that remain of the sixteen that were built as part of the medieval town wall enclosing the city of Newcastle. The tower and wall were built on ground sloping towards the south, which formed part of the precinct of the Dominican Blackfriars, Newcastle, many of the buildings of which still survive. From the 16th century the Morden Tower housed the Company of Plumbers, Plasterers and Glaziers.

Poetry centre

The Morden Tower has been a major centre for poetry readings in the North East since 1964 when Tom Pickard and Connie Pickard took out the lease. It has developed a national and international reputation for attracting significant British and American literary figures working during this period. It has been particularly noted for its association with many

Beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...

and

Black Mountain poets The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called projectivist poets, were a group of mid-20th-century American ''avant-garde'' or postmodern poets centered on Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Background Although it lasted only twenty-three ...

. Tom and Connie Pickard were instrumental in bringing about the Newcastle's Poetry Revival. During this time they amassed a collection of books and pamphlets not obtainable in bookshops at the time. Using the Morden Tower as a venue for poetry readings and a book room they ensured Tower audiences were kept in touch with writing from Edinburgh, Paris, San-Francisco, Greenwich Village, Liverpool and Ladbroke Grove. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Tower was an inspiration and catalyst for other counter culture ventures, in particular an outpost for Alexander Trocchi project.

Basil Bunting Basil Cheesman Bunting (1 March 1900 – 17 April 1985) was a British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of '' Briggflatts'' in 1966, generally regarded as one of the major achievements of the modernist traditio ...

gave the first reading of ''

Briggflatts ''Briggflatts'' is a long poem by Basil Bunting published in 1966. The work is subtitled "An Autobiography." The title "Briggflatts" comes from the name of Brigflatts Meeting House (spelled with one "g" in Quaker circles), a Quaker Friends meet ...

'' in the Morden Tower, on 22 December 1965. The intimate, simple space of the Tower's upper room has been recognised by poets and audiences as an ideal location for voiced poetry, with

Bob Cobbing Bob Cobbing (30 July 1920 – 29 September 2002) was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival. Early life Cobbing was born in Enfield and grew up within the Plymouth Breth ...

describing it as "simply the most congenial place in the world in which to perform poetry". Other poets to have read there include

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

Gregory Corso Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 – January 17, 2001) was an American poet and a key member of the Beat movement. He was the youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burrou ...

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Tom Raworth Thomas Moore Raworth (19 July 1938 – 8 February 2017) was an English-Irish poet, publisher, editor, and teacher who published over 40 books of poetry and prose during his life. His work has been translated and published in many countries. Rawor ...

Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She was the first ...

Fleur Adcock Fleur Adcock (born 10 February 1934) is a New Zealand poet and editor, of English and Northern Irish ancestry, who has lived much of her life in England. She is well-represented in New Zealand poetry anthologies, was awarded an honorary doc ...

and

Liz Lochhead Liz Lochhead Hon FRSE (born 26 December 1947) is a Scottish poet, playwright, translator and broadcaster. Between 2011 and 2016 she was the Makar, or National Poet of Scotland, and served as Poet Laureate for Glasgow between 2005 and 2011. E ...

. Despite a lack of funding Morden Tower is still a popular venue for poets and experimental musicians, such as

John Hegley John Richard Hegley (born 1 October 1953) is an English performance poet, comedian, musician and songwriter. Early life He was born in the Newington Green area of Islington, London, England, into a Roman Catholic household. He was brought up i ...

and

A Hawk and a Hacksaw A Hawk and a Hacksaw is an American folk duo from Albuquerque, New Mexico, currently signed to L.M. Duplication. The band consists of accordionist Jeremy Barnes, who was previously the drummer for Neutral Milk Hotel and Bablicon, and violinist ...

Significant literary events

* Pete Brown gave the first reading on 16 June 1964: ''

Bloomsday Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June, the day his 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' takes place in 1904, the date of his first sexual encounter with his ...

'' *

gave his first public reading of ''

'' in 1965 *

gave his first European reading of ''Kaddish'' *

Ed Dorn Edward Merton Dorn (April 2, 1929 – December 10, 1999, aged 70) was an American poet and teacher often associated with the Black Mountain poets. His most famous work is '' ''Gunslinger'. Overview Dorn was born in Villa Grove, Illinois. ...

gave his first European Reading of ''

Gunslinger Gunfighters, also called gunslingers (), or in the 19th and early 20th centuries gunmen, were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and participated in gunfights and shootouts. Today, the t ...

Publications

*''King Ida's Watch Chain - 1965: A collection of Poems by Basil Bunting''. A new format magazine designed by Richard Hamilton *''The Spoils – Basil Bunting 1965'': Cover design and photographs by Richard Hamilton, distributed by Migrant Press *''High on the Wall: a Morden Tower Anthology'', published by Morden Tower in association with Bloodaxe Books to commemorate the tower's first 25 years in 1990. Edited by Gordon Brown.

Music at Morden Tower

Morden Tower has a history of providing a platform for new and experimental music. Musicians who have played at the Tower include

Alan Hull James Alan Hull (20 February 1945 – 17 November 1995) was an English singer-songwriter and founding member of the Tyneside folk rock band Lindisfarne. Career Hull was born at 68 Sutton's Dwellings, Adelaide Terrace, Benwell, Newcastle upon ...

of Lindisfarne, Grayson Capps, Les Cox Sportifs, Paul Smith of

Maxïmo Park Maxïmo Park are an English alternative rock band, formed in 2000 in Newcastle upon Tyne. The band consists of Paul Smith (vocals), Duncan Lloyd (guitar), and Tom English (drums). The band have released seven studio albums: '' A Certain Trigge ...

, Richard Dawson, Teitur, John Power, Chris Corsano, Mecca Normal, Sir Richard Bishop, Jack Rose, Cath & Phil Tyler,

Burning Star Core Burning Star Core is the experimental music project of violinist C. Spencer Yeh. Originally conceived 1993 in Cincinnati, the project is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Composing music that's driven by his violin, Yeh's Burning Star Core ...

, Prurient, Jakob Olausson, Mama Baer & Kommissar Hjuler, Jozef Van Wissem, C Joynes, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Jazzfinger, Peter Walker, Alasdair Roberts, James Ferraro, Monopoly Child Star Searchers,

Calvin Johnson Calvin Johnson Jr., (born September 29, 1985) is an American former football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons with the Detroit Lions. He played college football at Georgia Tech, where he twice ...

, Tonstartssbandht, Silver Fox, Rachel Lancaster, Viv Albertine, Stuart Moxham, Wrest, Funeral Dance Party, Morgellons, Big Fail and Matt "Black Pudding" Bovingdon on knife and fork. A Better Noise, Subterranean, Jumpin' Hot Club, NO-FI and A Glimpse of Paradise have all promoted semi regular gigs at Morden Tower over the last ten years. The band

Whitehouse Whitehouse may refer to: People * Charles S. Whitehouse (1921-2001), American diplomat * Cornelius Whitehouse (1796–1883), English engineer and inventor * E. Sheldon Whitehouse (1883-1965), American diplomat * Elliott Whitehouse (born 1993), ...

performed at the Tower in 1983, supported by Ramleh and The New Blockaders. Whitehouse's set has become notorious because William Bennett slapped a female audience member in the face which caused most of the audience to leave in protest.

References

Notes

Bibliography

*''High on the Walls: an Anthology celebrating twenty-five years of Poetry Readings at Morden Tower'', Gordon Brown, Bloodaxe Books,

External links

Morden Tower article at guardian.co.uk, 2011
{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1290 Towers completed in the 13th century Buildings and structures in Newcastle upon Tyne Towers in Tyne and Wear Modernist poetry in English Tourist attractions in Newcastle upon Tyne