I first moved to Newcastle in 1994. I moved away again for about 5 years, but I’ve lived here again for 7. And I only found the vampire rabbit on Sunday.
It’s been posted here before (back in the days when this place had loads of comments, sigh) so I’ve including a bit more of the doorway.
A couple more shots will go onto flickr in the next day or two.
visits
since April 2006.
Cathedral Buildings?
this is spectacular. I love the architectural details. The gargoyle is quite fun!
I love the vampire rabbit! When I was in Newcastle in 2005, picking up leaflets and booklets at the travelshop I saw the rabbit for the first time. That yeat I didn’t have the chance to go around looking for it. But during my 2008 visit to Newcastle, my fiance and I had more time to go around the city. On a Sunday we went to the Quayside market. It was a sunny and warm summer day, really suiting for a walk ,so we headed our way up to the Cathedral, where I’d read you could find this rabbit. I was as happy as a dog with two tails! I find it fascinating and a bit creepy as well. I wonder if it was meant to be scary or if they just screwed it up when they were trying to make a hare or something!
I don’t think I’d want something like that staring at me as I go through a doorway ;)
Lovely details though!
Behind St Nicks cathedral, yes Mrs K.
It’s great isn’t it Julie?
Jorgelina it was the same on Sunday, gorgeous and sunny and lovely. I was really excited to find the rabbit too! I just don’t understand how noone seems to know why it has bloody fangs and claws!
Hilda, no me neither! Thanks :)
It’s such a shame I never saw it. Must go back looking for it some day.
This is a fantastic feature. Another must for my next NC visit. I don’t know why but it reminds me of the Stonegate Devil in York. Maybe because they are both black and red and devilish of course! Ciao. A.
At the Light Festival, December 2007 (or was it 6?), they lit the Vampire Rabbit up so that it glowed. They used it in the childrens’s guide around the rest of the light sculptures - you had to find a Vampire Rabbit stencil and if you were looking in the right place, you’d find a sculpture nearby.
That was the event with a giant lit-up chess piece - a knight; horse’s head - suspended inside one of the towers which hold up the Tyne Bridge. If you ever get a chance to see inside one of these, grab it! It’s cavernous!
I have never managed to find out the story behind the vampire rabbit, even on one of the guided walks on a cold winter’s evening, the guide who was an absolute minefield of information regarding legends and stories of Newcastle didn’t know anything about its origins or what the meaning of it is!
Elaine, neither has anybody else. Both the BBC, Newcaslte University and various historians have tried. Zilch.
Some say its a hare - gone wrong.
daniel, you should come back and have a tour :)
yes it’s worth going to find it antonella, it’s because it’s so well hidden that you get a sense of achievement from finding it :)
steve, i never got to the glow festival and i’m still sad about that. i’m hoping to get into one of the towers at the next heritage open day. i walked past one day when the doors were open and was amazed. it’s a shame they’re not used.
elaine and mrs k, i think that’s a story in itself that nobody knows the whys and wherefores. i can’t help but wonder if one day the truth will be found… but kinda hope that doesn’t happen.