35. Fells Heights

Wear Street may be where the exciting new clubs make their brief, scintillating appearance, but that’s where they also meet their unfashionable demises, as well. The Fells Heights neighborhood apart from Wear Street is home to the many tenured bars and clubs, whether due to their long-standing traditions (The Lion Rampant), perennially popular low concept (The Quarter Pitcher Room), nigh-fetishistic specialty (Carousel — “Newcastle’s Fattest Strippers”) or underground appeal (Mistress Catherine’s). The neighborhood also includes a variety of unremarkable apartments that were probably once dazzling and new but are now just way stations where residents can go fuck or puke before heading out on another bender.

Background

Fells Heights was “the strip” before Wear Street became included in the general neighborhood by consensus when its backers put the money into it. In its heyday, Fells Heights housed the notorious Pussy Cat Lounge brothel, punk-bar legend Overkill and the disco Snowflake. Over time, nightlife beat down the once-new club spaces, and leases grew cheaper and cheaper for new promoters to open their clubs. Every now and then, an old club makes a “resurgence” after several years or even decades of hiatus, which is always an easy way to get the front page in the newspaper’s Style section.

Alternative Name(s)

Nightclub Circuit

Type

District

Location under

New Castle