North East attractions get their grade card
Mr Turner proves a tonic for a North East gallery. Tony Henderson reports on the region’s visitor haul over the past year
The outstanding talents of Mr Turner powered a North East gallery to a table topping visitor performance last year.
Figures from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) saw the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle post a 57% increase in people through the door - the best percentage rise in the region.
The 2024 exhibition of works by JMW Turner, including one of his most popular paintings in The Fighting Temeraire, boosted the Gallery’s visitor total for the year to 192,103, moving it 43 places up the national league table to 188th position.
Another major venture also worked wonders for the Locomotion railway attraction in Shildon in County Durham.
Locomotion saw a 31% increase with 164,486 visits which was attributed to the opening of its New Hall in May 2024 - creating the largest collection of heritage rail vehicles under cover and on public display in Europe.
Beamish Museum in County Durham saw a 5% increase to 838,632 visits and the highest national league table position of 39th for a North East location.
It was the most visited attraction in the region - credited in part to the Remaking Beamish project, the biggest capital development in the museum’s history, that included the opening of a 1950s cinema, toy shop, electrical shop and STEM learning space, as well as developments in the site’s 1820s landscape, such as the introduction of a Georgian tavern and pottery.
Beamish is celebrating its 55th anniversary this year and will open its first overnight accommodation – self-catering cottages in the Georgian landscape.
Durham Cathedral; recorded the second highest visitor figure in the region with 393,690, an increase of 5%.
There were significantly improved totals for English Heritage’s Belsay Hall and Gardens, with a 24% rise to 102,156 visitors and a 26% increase to 79,985 for Housesteads Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall.
The National Trust’s Gibside estate also posted an 11% increase with 232,065 visitors, while Cragside totalled 256,150, up 5%, as did Hamsterley Forest on 176,163. Wallington had 261,508 visitors, up 4%.
There were 9% jumps for both Kielder, on 60,568 visitors and WWT Washington with 66,492.
The historic parkland at Hardwick in County Durham also recorded an 18% improvement to 305,111 visitors.
Seven North East Museums venues saw falls in visitor numbers. They were Great North Museum (234,447, -4%);.Discovery Museum (176, 163 -9%); South Shields Museum 78,284 -12%); Segedunum (28,102 -13%); Arbeia (19,494 – 3%); Stephenson Railway Museum (19,418 -12% ); and Shipley Art Gallery 18,400 – 10%).
Lindisfarne Priory had 67,257 visitors (down 1%) and the National Museum Royal Navy Hartlepool was down 13% with 28,102 visitors
Bernard Donoghue, director of ALVA, said: “The long economic recovery from lockdown during COVID, the effects of the cost-of-living crisis on consumer spending, increasing business costs and modest inbound visitor numbers to the UK mean that 2024 was a financially challenging year for visitor attractions.
“The recovery of visitor attractions and the broader cultural and heritage economies remains fragile, but visitors have shown that in their leisure spending they still prioritise day trips to loved attractions, and they are keeping up their memberships of favourite organisations.”