Home  |  Find Your Euro Hostel  |  Newcastle  |  The Ware Rooms  |  Henry Cunningham

Euro Hostel Newcastle and The Ware Rooms are proud sponsors of Oliver! which appears from 12 September 2012 in an epic 8 week run at the Theatre Royal.

 If you’re going, spare a thought for Newcastle’s own Fagin – a man called Henry Cunningham who is historically documented as being one of the city’s most infamous rogues. Want to know more? Find the story here:

The description in the Newcastle Courant of January 10, 1782, seems a familiar one. The ringleader of a gang of prolific thieves has just become an inmate of the Newcastle House of Correction, paying the price for his ill-gotten gains.

“He appears to be about 30 years of age, 5 feet 9 inches high, of a dark swarthy complexion, thin faced, has black dull eyes, long black rough hair, a small scar of a slight wound under his left eye, lately healed, a scar on his right jaw, and wants the first joints of the thumb and two first fingers of his right hand.

“His present dress is an old coarse slouched hat, a black silk neckcloth, a coarse blue half-wide coat, a fine light blue coat and waistcoat, and dirty buck or doe skin breeches.”

Like something straight from the pages of Charles Dickens’ ‘Oliver!’ the detail of this shady underworld figure is vivid. Indeed, it could almost be a description of Fagin himself, a character whose appearance seems chillingly similar to the House of Correction’s newest inmate.

But instead, this is a man named Henry Cunningham, whose reputation for leading a gang of eighteenth-century pickpockets and petty criminals in the North East pervades even to this day.

Given that, it becomes easy to see why he is often referred to as Newcastle’s equivalent to Fagin. Both in terms of criminal deeds and physical appearance, the association is undeniable.  And it is something that has made him into a almost a legendary figure in his home region, thanks in no small part to the loveable Dickensian rogue to whom he bears so many similarities.

Euro Hostel Newcastle is proud to help keep the legend of Henry Cunningham alive. Its building, in Carliol Square, occupies part of the site of the House of Correction – Cunningham’s former home, for a time, at least – which was to be the last of the city’s prisons, before it closed in 1925. Despite being home to a jail, and also the site of some executions, its proximity to the river and transient seafaring population meant it became known as much for its ill-repute as its attempts at correction.

Court records from Cunningham’s heyday show that criminals were known to hide their loot in large storage buildings, which became known as ‘ware houses’ and ‘ware rooms,’ around the site of the prison. Euro Hostel Newcastle’s accompanying bar and restaurant, The Ware Rooms, pays homage to that through its very name, and an interpretation of the gang leader’s shady figure even forms part of the venue’s logo, ensuring Cunningham remains a talking point even over a family meal or quiet pint.

According to the Courant, and prison records, Cunningham is thought to have been born in Wigton, in Cumberland, and was brought up as a pitman, but was known to have lived in Bishop Auckland and Barlow, near Winlaton, around the time of his imprisonment. From circa 1772 – ten years prior to him being apprehended – he travelled the country, selling earthen pots and mugs in summer, and coopering and mending lanthorns in winter.

Something is also known of his private life too, again, thanks to the very vivid description of Cunningham and his associates from official records. His common law wife, to whom he was never legally married, was Ann Hamilton – also known as Ann Brown – who lived with him for about five years.  Known to have been born in Dalkeith, in Scotland, it is not clear how she met Cunningham, but they lived together in the North East.

The Newcastle Courant portrays a smartly-dressed woman, although one who also found herself becoming part of the House of Correction’s newest residents in January 1782.

“She appears to be about 35 years of age, has light coloured hair, a fair complexion, a small round face, a slight squint with her right eye; her present dress is a black silk bonnet, a silk handkerchief about her head, a short red cloak, a remarkable beautiful flowered chintz gown, and a black quilted petticoat.”

The image of Ann is also something that could have come straight from the pages of Oliver, a novel, and of course production, known for its colourful portrayal of Nancy and her fellow beautifully-attired female criminal companions.

 

Haggis Adventures - Book Here Now!