For most of their history, the ancient streets of Framwellgate and Millburngate were part of the main road from London to Edinburgh, known as the Great North Road.

The two streets formed an area known in medieval times as the "Old Borough" and traced their origin to the construction of Framwellgate Bridge by Bishop Flambard in 1121.

Framwellgate took its name from an ancient well that stood nearby and Millburngate from a stream that now flows in a culvert beneath North Road.

Millburngate has gone altogether, with its site now occupied by the Millburngate Shopping Centre. It was a short street terminating near the river, where an offshoot called Horse Hole led down to a ford across the Wear.

The continuation of the road to the north was simply called Framwellgate. Historic houses could be found along the entire length of this street until it started to climb into steeper open country, roughly where the railway viaduct is situated today.

From this point Framwellgate was called Framwellgate Peth, from a northern word meaning climbing hill or street.

Millburngate and Framwellgate streets were home to wealthy Durham merchants until the 17th Century. Its workers included tinsmiths, silversmiths, brewers, and tanners.

The leather tanning trade was remembered in the name of the Tanners Arms that stood in Framwellgate until the 1960s. Indeed, one 19th Century remnant of this trade, Blagdon's Leather Works, remained until the late 1960s.

The two streets had fallen out of favour in the early 19th Century and were notorious for their slums. In 1831, they were overshadowed by the construction of a new road called King Street (now North Road), which provided a new main route north to Newcastle. However, King Street was itself eclipsed by the construction of the Great North Road bypass to the west of the city that is now the A167. All of the houses in Millburngate and Framwellgate were demolished in the late 1930s, despite outcries from building conservationists concerned with their preservation.

There was special concern over two small half-timbered 16th Century cottages, but they were condemned and demolished with the rest.

The two streets were no longer fit for human habitation and the novelist Joan Conquest, who visited the area in 1933, described them as the worst slums she had seen in Britain.

Some of the residents would be relocated to new council houses built in the street and others were re-housed in new accommodation in Sherburn Road in the Gilesgate area of the city. The council houses in Framwellgate were demolished in the 1960s.

A housing development for 60 up-market homes, called Highgate, is now being built in this area. Designed in the style of traditional Durham town houses, they overlook the site of Framwellgate, now the A691.

In the view of the Millburngate riverside, left, taken in October 1960, we can see the rather dark-looking Blagdon's Leather Works at the centre. To the right, near the bus, is Hanratty's scrapyard and beneath the leather works is the Riverside Caf.

The long single-storey white building was a short-lived nursery school. The white buildings in the foreground next to the river were known as Lambton Walk and were among the last parts of Millburngate to be demolished.

The road at the centre is Framwellgate and alongside are some of the council houses built just after the Second World War. In the top left hand corner of the picture can be seen the railway station, St Godric's Church and a neighbouring school. These are the only buildings in the picture that remain today.

Published: 14/03/2003

If you have any memories of Durham City, Chester-le-Street, Derwentside or the Durham coast, including old photos or stories of people and places you would like to share with readers of The Northern Echo, write to David Simpson, Durham Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF or email David.Simpson@nne.co.uk. All photos will be returned.