Newcastle Central in the 60s

[swt_passenger]

Back when I was a lad, I often exited the station via the suburban entrance aka “Tynemouth Square”, and I know it had a separate ticket office, because that’s where I got my first set of Decimal copper coins, on the Sunday before “D-day” in 1971. (BR were given a head start!) But I didn’t often buy tickets at Central, having arrived from home in Heaton.

So for my questions, was this a full service ticket office, was it open normal hours, and did it sell tickets to any destination, or just for the local electrified lines?

 

[marsker]

As far as remember it, the east end ticket office did only sell tickets for local journeys, including the South Shields and Blyth & Tyne lines. It used London Underground type machines, where the ticket seemed to arrive in a waft of air. As far as I can recall, it was open throughout service hours on the local lines.
There was a main ticket office about where Sainsburys is now, the end nearest the main arch that goes through to the portico was an enquiry office that also sold seat reservations and the ticket windows were at the other end. It's a;; a long time ago, so I hope my memory isn't letting me down.

 

[swt_passenger]

As far as remember it, the east end ticket office did only sell tickets for local journeys, including the South Shields and Blyth & Tyne lines. It used London Underground type machines, where the ticket seemed to arrive in a waft of air. As far as I can recall, it was open throughout service hours on the local lines.
There was a main ticket office about where Sainsburys is now, the end nearest the main arch that goes through to the portico was an enquiry office that also sold seat reservations and the ticket windows were at the other end. It's a;; a long time ago, so I hope my memory isn't letting me down.

Yes, I also remember the enquiries being on the right as you entered from the portico. For a few years in the early seventies I often used it, if only to get advanced warning of Sunday engineering works, but I’d nearly always arrived from elsewhere so still never needed to buy a ticket…