Whilst Newcastle upon Tyne has served as an important regional centre from medieval times, its rise to national dominance was particularly significant during the nineteenth century. As the coal exporting, heavy engineering, chemical and shipbuilding industries expanded, Newcastle became the commercial and social hub of Tyneside and its hinterland. Most of the immediate industrial development was along the banks of the River Tyne in the suburbs of Scotswood, Benwell, Elswick, Byker and Walker, and in the surrounding coalfield. Like many northern manufacturing complexes, there was also a dramatic population influx particularly in these industrial suburbs. Indeed for the whole of Newcastle there was an increase from 70,504 in 1841 to over 274,900 by 1921, although in the last decades of the twentieth century there was a steady population decrease despite boundary changes. Likewise Tyneside's heavy industry fell away rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s, a decline that can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century, although there was some short-term revival during the two World Wars.

1850–1900

Newcastle's nineteenth-century industrial prominence was matched by civil and social change as the city was replanned and a wide range of Victorian social reforms were implemented. Much of this applied only to the more prosperous city centre and to middle-class suburbs, with the working-class areas having to rely on charitable and religious organisations for their initial social infrastructure. Library provision in 1850 in Newcastle was no exception in this regard.