Newcastle’s Oldest Restaurant: Blackfriars

National World - LocalTV

Over time, Blackfriars became one of the largest and most influential friaries in England, serving as a center for education and spiritual life. The friary’s legacy endures today, with its historic buildings housing a renowned restaurant and cookery school, offering a unique blend of culinary excellence and medieval heritage.

Transcript

00:00People often say to me, are you the oldest restaurant in the world?

00:04And I say, well, not quite. We're probably the oldest dining room in the UK.

00:09The dining room was, Blackfriars was established back in 1239,

00:14and it was established as a Dominican friary.

00:17So the Dominicans came up from Spain, arrived here, spread their wings,

00:21opened Blackfriars, probably, this one's probably the largest one in the UK.

00:26And they were here for like 300 years, up until the time of the Reformation.

00:31This foundation was made possible through the generosity of three anonymous sisters,

00:36and Sir Peter Scott, the town's first mayor,

00:39who provided land and funds for the friary's construction.

00:43Despite initial financial constraints, the friars' presence in the city

00:46was bolstered by additional donations and grants from King Henry III.

00:51Over time, Blackfriars became one of the largest and most influential friaries

00:55in England, serving as a centre for education and spiritual life.

00:59And then when Henry VIII fell out with the Pope and the Catholic Church

01:04and all the Catholic institutions were disbanded,

01:07then this ended up being let out or leased out to guilds,

01:11so like the tanners and the brewers and the bakers and those type of people,

01:15who were here for another 300 years.

01:17And then at the end of that, really the beginning of the 20th century,

01:20about 100 years ago, Blackfriars fell into kind of disrepair

01:24and was kind of condemned in the end.

01:27And it would have been bulldozed, but it was saved.

01:31And it was restored in the 1970s and reopened in the 1980s.

01:36And there was a little cafe, which we took over in 2001.

01:40So I've now been here for 25 years.

01:44We've had both Edward III and Henry III come and stay here.

01:51And probably a few royalty in between.

01:54So there's kind of various spaces that we've got,

01:57including our banquet hall,

01:59where we know that Edward III would have been here

02:03when Edward Balliol of Scotland came down to pay homage to him in 1334.

02:08So that was a big deal at the time.

02:11And they had their ceremony here in the church.

02:14So there's lots of kind of things linked to royalty here.

02:18Another thing is there's meant to be, it's haunted, obviously.

02:24I know all old places like this have a little haunted story.

02:27And there's a story here about a friar,

02:30a headless friar on a horse who just wanders across

02:34the remains of the church every so often at night.

02:37Some people have seen it.

02:38Some people come and do ghost tours.

02:40We do lots of history tours, heritage tours.

02:43And we sometimes do them at night.

02:46And, yeah, scare people.

02:47Yeah, which they seem to love.

02:50The friary's legacy endures today,

02:52with its historic buildings housing a renowned restaurant

02:55and cookery school,

02:56offering a unique blend of culinary excellence

02:58and medieval heritage.

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