Answer August 2021
Click on the images above to see a full-sized image.
The clue is of a stonework feature on the Eastgate side of the Tap & Spile pub. The centre image shows more of that side of the building.
The pub was originally called the Criterion Inn/Hotel. The right-hand picture, a postcard from 1925, shows the building as the Criterion Hotel.
Anyone know who “JG 1882” was? Use the comments feature below if you do.
Thanks to Stefan for the two modern photos.
As in: “Mr J. Guthrie, Painter and Glazier, who established his business in 1850, which business was in place on the corner site in 1874 (from a photo taken at the time).”
So if it was he (i.e. his initals), he had a very successful business, because the whole of the corner site was knocked down and rebuilt, to house the Post Office, and also the Criterion Hotel, which later took over the whole site. (And it’s now The Tap, of course.)
“It is said that Mr Guthrie died suddenly, and in 1890 two of his staff, Mr Ainsley and Mr Graham, took over the business and moved to other premises in Eastgate. Mt Guthrie would be the father of the Courant reporter who is seen [in another photograph]”.
All of the text quoted comes from “Old Hexham – a Pictorial Record” by Morton Charlton, published 1987. (Obviously!) I have a copy, but I’m afraid the quality of reproduction is rather poor, and the arrangement of the c.150 photos confuses me a little.
Now: what was it that I was going to do before I saw this Picture Quiz, (and your comment, Lin)?
Could it be a member of the Guthrie family?