Grainger Town is as much an idea as it is a place. It is an important phenomenon, both historically and in today's debate about conservation in our cities and towns. Richard Grainger, a native of Newcastle and a builder and speculator unparalleled in the region, in the middle decades of the 19th century co-ordinated a radical re-planning that turned the town of his birth from an already handsome regional capital to one which excited the admiration of visitors from far and wide. Grainger's particular achievement was to create a new commercial and residential heart within a historic town, a heart with consistent architectural quality starkly different from the piecemeal and eclectic character of most northern industrial cities. This book describes the evolution of the area and explains how recent planning initiatives have celebrated and exploited a unique urban landscape and injected new life into it.