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“Newcastle is the star of the region for me. There’s a great history there and an energy like no other place.”
Donna Air
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“If I could find a way to make it work around my filming schedule we would move back to the North East in a heartbeat.”
Alexander Armstrong
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“I feel like I’m home when I see the Tyne Bridge. It’s especially striking at night when it’s all lit up.”
Peter Beardsley
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“I love the view from Eston Nab. It’s a rocky outcrop like a big chimney on top of Eston Hills and from the top you can see over all of Teesside.”
Mark Benton
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“The North East will always be home, no matter how long I spend away.”
Tony Blair
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“If my soul resides anywhere, it must be on the road from Newcastle to Lindisfarne. And there is the imagined fear of invasion. It’s truly Northumberland.”
Eric Burdon
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“We were very proud of that – two lads from Ashington in the England team that won the World Cup.”
Sir Bobby Charlton
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“Saltwell Park is a real hidden gem – it’s the finest example of a Victorian park in Britain. I adore it because it has everything you would want.”
Charlie Charlton
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“Bob and I loved going to St. James’ Park to watch Newcastle as kids and see our cousin Jackie Milburn play.”
Jack Charlton
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“Durham Cathedral was a massive inspiration. It is the best building in the world.”
George Clarke
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“I’ve moved to the Tyne valley and I love it round there, with places like Corbridge which is so beautiful.”
Paul Collingwood
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“I like the industrial landscape of the Stockton area. It may not be everybody’s idea of a great view, but the sight of all the big chimneys makes me feel at home.”
Kat Copeland
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“Whenever I’ve been away swimming abroad and I come back home and see the Tyne Bridge, I know I’m home. It just gleams and shines and I love it.”
Josef Craig
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“I have a particular soft spot for St Nicholas’ Cathedral in Newcastle. I was a boy chorister there at 10 years old – it cemented my love of singing and my admiration of cathedral acoustics.”
Graeme Danby
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“When I look back at my youth it feels like we really were in at the start of this vibrant regeneration of Newcastle Quayside.”
Simon Donald
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“My favourite North East view is Penshaw Monument which I used to see every day from my house in Washington where I grew up.”
Bryan Ferry
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“I still find myself drawn to Marsden Rock every time I’m home. It’s iconic for me because I grew up there, played on the beach there as a kid. I had my first camping holiday there as a teenager. I still love it up there. There are prettier places in the North East but it’s iconic for me.”
Peter Flannery
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“We moved around a lot in my childhood, to Warkworth, Alnwick, Witton Shields and Tynemouth. I was a free-range kid, spending all my time outside, free to run everywhere and play by rivers and lakes.”
Toby Flood
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“I love that whole Northumberland coastline around Embleton looking to Dunstanburgh Castle. It’s particularly special when the huge flocks of Arctic terns come in the spring.”
Brendan Foster
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“I’m just like the salmon that travels vast distances but returns to the very spot where it was born.”
“The North East is my sense of self, identity, family and belonging. That’s why I love this place. It’s who I am.”
Robson Green
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“Nothing has the magic for me of Westgate Road in Newcastle where the Tyne Theatre is. That’s where I spent years and years of my life rehearsing and performing. It’s my second home and I adore it.”
Jill Halfpenny
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“You can slip quietly into a place like Manchester through the suburbs, but arriving back in Newcastle is always a dramatic experience – crossing the river on the Tyne Bridge and St. James’ Park dominates the skyline. Although I live in London I always think of Newcastle as my home, especially emotionally. I never feel like I’ve entirely left.”
Lee Hall
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“The North East has got everything that you’d want. I love the Northumberland coast too and especially Bamburgh in the winter – windsurfing in the North Sea looking at the castle with that cold but bright winter light and the Farne Islands behind you.”
Brendan Healy
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“It’s a wonderful feeling being home. Since 1988 I’ve had a house in High Mickley in the Tyne Valley – or God’s allotment as I call it. It looks right across the Cheviots.”
Tim Healy
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“The place that has the best memories for me is the Cat and Dog Steps at Seaburn. They’re really steep steps that take you down to a lovely sheltered bay where I used to build sandcastles as a kid. I think it’s the most beautiful spot on the planet.”
Melanie Hill
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“The people in the North East have such a passion for life – and especially football. I’m happy that I’m part of it.”
Steph Houghton
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“It’s great to see Lindisfarne gets half a million visitors a year these days. The view from St. Cuthbert’s statue near the Priory over to the castle is a favourite of mine. I still love the North East and I miss the rugged Northumberland coast, the unspoilt beaches and magnificent castles. I still visit the coast most summers.”
Ray Jackson
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“I love the statue of Andy Capp in Hartlepool. I’ve always been a big fan of cartoons and his creator Reg Smythe was a North East institution.”
Alfie Joey
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“One of my favourite drives is up near Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland and over to the Lakes. I love driving up the Military Road, going through Fourstones and Haydon Bridge up over Hartside pass on the A686 and stop at Melmerby for a cheese scone and a cup of tea. Bliss.”
Brian Johnson
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“The Transporter Bridge is such an iconic landmark on Teesside. I always wanted to walk over the top of it. People did it in those days. I was always a bit too frightened as a kid and promised myself I would one day when I had more bottle.”
Chris Kamara
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“Although I travel all over the world for work I live in the Tyne Valley and the North East is my home. This is where my moral compass is, my family, my friends and the people I love.”
Si King
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“I still fantasise about having a little cottage up in the Tyne Valley, maybe somewhere up on the tops near Allendale or Whitfield where the views are out of this world.”
Mark Knopfler
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“My fondest memories as a small boy were of fantastic holidays in the Borders. I spent every Easter and most of the summer in the village of Branxton, near Coldstream at the foot of Flodden Field, where my uncle lived.”
Ian La Frenais
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“On my CV for musical education I simply put: ‘Club A ‘Gogo’. It was the best venue going and it was our spiritual home.”
Ray Laidlaw
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“The Millennium Bridge just looms out of the ether and you can see the Sage and the Baltic rising up on the other side. World-class venues, both of them – and it’s a world-class view.”
Terry Laybourne
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“Life doesn’t get any better than being in the North East. I still love the walk along Tynemouth Longsands and up to the Priory because that’s home for me and I never tire of it. But I adore the Simonside hills.”
Carol Malia
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“I love being near the sea. When I’m away from it I’m like a caged animal. I have travelled to a lot of places with beautiful beaches but I have yet to find a coastline as unspoilt as what we have in the North East.”
Joe McElderry
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“Growing up, I spent many hours in Castle Eden Dene exploring and playing. I remember the overpowering aroma of the banks of wild garlic and the abundance of wild bluebells every spring.”
Gina McKee
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“I love the Tyne Valley and I still go back now and then. It’s great driving out of Newcastle on the A69 and up past Heddon-on-the-Wall and looking over the valley to West Wylam and Prudhoe.”
Billy Mitchell
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“I used to love sailing up to Amble and Alnmouth for the weekend, anchoring in the lovely little harbour at Craster or sailing up to Holy Island, anchoring off the Priory. Then get up early and have breakfast at the Farne Isles watching the seals playing in the crystal clear waters.”
Bob Moncur
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“I was born and bred in Sunderland and as a kid I used to go to Thompson Park just past Fulwell Mill after school at St Hilda’s and play football with my mates until dusk. I’d go to bed scruffy and shattered, and that’s the way it was in those days.”
Jimmy Montgomery
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“St James’ Park, in all its guises past and present, has figured large throughout my life: as a kid I would stand among the thousands of cloth-capped men crammed into the Leazes End, all of us cheering our beloved Magpies on.”
Jimmy Nail
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“The Alnwick Garden has been the major project of my lifetime and I know that it has brought pleasure to people of all ages, which makes me happy when I watch them.”
Her Grace the Duchess of Northumberland
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“I traced my family back to Prices who lived at Old Low Light – the old lighthouse in North Shields – in the early 1800s. So although I’ve been a Sunderland fan all my life I’m a Geordie with ancestors going back to the mouth of the Tyne.”
Alan Price
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“My parents used to take me to the Hancock Museum and the Science Museum in Newcastle. The Centre for Life opened too late for me to go as a kid but I bet it’s brilliant. They'd let me in to play with all the stuff now, right?”
Chris Ramsey
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“I like to walk along the beach and look out at Dunstanburgh Castle – it’s where I proposed to my wife.”
Alan Reed
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“I live in Kent now but I really miss the North East – I love the bleakness and how dramatic the landscape is. My work is around London so it would be difficult to move back to the North East. But I’m always checking out the prices of holiday cottages. It would be nice to have a little bolt-hole up there.”
Vic Reeves
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“I’ve seen Northumberlandia in full sun, fog, snow and sleet, reflected in water, and, as time goes on, she will only get better as she becomes more and more part of the landscape. Other places have their chalk horses and other figures – we’ve got our Lady of the North.”
Viscount Ridley
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“My favourite view isn’t a castle, or a spectacular coastline or an ancient, historic monument: it’s the view of Langley Park where I grew up.”
Sir Bobby Robson
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“When I was six we moved to South Pelaw, in Chester-le-Street and I still love that terrific view from the top of the hill looking over the town towards Lambton Castle with the River Wear down in the dip then back up the valley to the other side.”
Bryan Robson
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“On Boxing Day it was a hangover cure to walk to the top of Roseberry Topping in the snow. Another Teesside landmark that always intrigued me was the Transporter Bridge. It has a natural beauty about it, framed against the skyline. And the scale of it was awe-inspiring as a child. I love the Angel of the North for the same reason. It has a powerful quality.”
Franc Roddam
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“I’m stamped through with the North East just like you are when you come off the assembly line – and it’s never going to go away.”
Paul Rodgers
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“For me, there is nowhere else like the North East. People here can laugh at themselves: they have a great sense of humour and there is tremendous resilience about them, no matter what is thrown at them.”
Pam Royle
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“I vividly remember watching Newcastle at a young age. I was there for Kevin Keegan's debut and I was a ball boy for his last game at St James’ Park. It was then that I decided that one day I wanted to play in front of that crowd.”
Alan Shearer
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“I still feel the North East is home – I miss the football club, the beaches but most of all the people. When I do come home total strangers, taxi drivers and barmen treat me like their best friends – I love the fact that though I live a long way away I am still one of them and always will be.”
Jeff Stelling
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“The North East will always feel like home, and I always enjoy coming back to visit. It is a unique place with a great creative atmosphere and legacy. Music is alive and it’s part of people’s lives.”
Sting
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“I stayed in London for 22 years, but all the time I was there I knew it was temporary – I was always going to move back to the North East.”
Paul Thompson
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“I love my Tyne Valley home – it’s an old mill house. We’ve been doing it up for seven years now, but I think it will be a lifetime project. It’s fantastic because it’s exactly where my mum’s family have been for hundreds of years and my dad’s family have been here for a couple of generations.”
Kathryn Tickell
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“I love the Grand Hotel in Tynemouth. I’m a huge fan of Stan and Ollie so that’s a favourite place of mine because they stayed there and the place always gives me a warm feeling.”
Stephen Tompkinson
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“In Newcastle, one of my favourite things to do is walk from Grey’s Monument, down past all those grand buildings to the Quayside.”
Becky Unthank
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“One of my favourite views in the world is when you walk down the hill towards Newton-by-the Sea and the coastal sweep opens up before you, with Dunstanburgh Castle on the horizon.”
Rachel Unthank
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“My favourite view has to be Alnwick Castle. I once scored both goals in the annual Shrove Tuesday football match played in the shadow of Alnwick Castle. It was in 1956 when I was 16 years old.”
Sid Waddell
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“I walk on the beach by Bamburgh Castle with my dogs every morning and I think how lucky I am.”
Francis Watson-Armstrong
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“I’m a fully paid-up member of the Geordie Mafia – we all still look out for each other. Some people apologise for where they’re from, but we’re proud of our roots.”
Denise Welch
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“My favourite view on the Northumberland coast has to be from the 15th tee on Bamburgh golf course. It’s an absolutely stunning panorama. You can see for miles and miles in different directions. You can look back inland to the Cheviots and over to Bamburgh Castle or out to the Farne Islands and beyond to Lindisfarne Castle.”
Kevin Whately
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