Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead was a c and spectacular series of events starting on Friday 6 October 1854, in which a substantial amount of property in the two North East of England towns was destroyed in a series of fires and an explosion which killed 53 and injured hundreds. The towns of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead sit opposite each other, on relatively steep slopes leading down to the River Tyne.