I’ve been to the Tyne & Wear archives today to have a root about, and I still find can’t anything conclusive. Among the maps I looked at, J. Roper’s from 1808 shows an area called ‘New Egpyt’, while on John Wood’s 1827 map it’s known simply as ‘Egypt’. The Directory of Newcastle, by M.A.Richardson, from 1838, lists an “Egypt Cottage, John Bell, New Road”. I think this is the earliest positive dating of the pub so far.
I also looked at the plans for the 1873 rebuild. I was asked for a five-quid fee to use my own camera and photograph it, but I declined this so I’ll describe it instead. There was a horseshoe-shaped building behind it at the time, marked as “Egypt Court”. Part of this was also marked as a “cooperage”. I also found some plans for the conversion of this cooperage dated 1869, and on these the existing horseshoe building to the rear of the pub is called “Egypt Square”. The Egypt Cottage is also marked on these plans.
So, to summarise so far: The 1736 map posted by NH shows neither an inn nor an area called ‘Egpyt’.
The 1802 map shows a cluster of buildings and the area is marked as “Egypt”. These buildings have gone on the 1808 map, but reappear as a different shape on the 1827 map. They are also there on Oliver’s map of 1831, and the area is again marked as ‘Egypt’.
The pub is first listed in a directory from 1838 as the Egypt Cottage – which would stillmake it a contender for Newcastle’s oldest pub, but I think the Duke of Wellington pips it. It’s listed in a directory from 1822, when a Mary Ann Johnson held the license.
The rebuilding plans from 1873 show an Egypt Court/Square behind the pub.
So there’s still no sign of the “Egypt Inn” that Brian Bennison says was certainly there in the early eighteenth century. But more annoyingly, I can’t recall how I verified this, twenty-five years ago. It doesn’t help that the Central Library no longer have any references in their index system to either the pub or the area. But I used to have a ‘Northumbria Room’ ticket back then, so it’s likely I had a good rummage around behind the scenes myself, as Brian would have been able to do. Sadly, you can’t do this any more.
I’ve run out of ideas, and may have to concede that on the evidence in front of me, the pub dates from around 1838. This still doesn’t explain how it or the area got its name, the waters having been muddied by NP’s discovery of a source that disputes Charleton’s claim that it was named after some temporary granaries built in 1796.
hno: 
