A tanker’s black bow towers over the end of a street of brick terraced houses, in black and white

Wallsend · New York · Paris · Tuscany · Broadway

Sting

He grew up with a ship at the end of his street, and put it on Broadway. Launch it yourself.

World Unicorn ready for launch at Swan Hunter, Wallsend, 1973, filling the end of a terraced street (the street is not named). Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, DS.SWH/4/PH/5/28/2. Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, no restrictions. Portrait: U.S. Department of State, public domain.

Wallsend and Newcastle · 1951–1977

A ship at the end
of Gerald Street.

He remembers a huge ship always towering above the houses at the end of Gerald Street, where he grew up.

A grey aircraft carrier hull on the river beside shipyard cranes — HMS Ark Royal, launched by Swan Hunter at Wallsend, 1981. Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, ref. DS.SWH/4/PH/5/109/31. Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums · No restrictions

Swan Hunter shipyard, Wallsend

Swan Hunter was founded in 1880; its main yard was at Wallsend, on the north side of the Tyne. RMS Mauretania was launched from Wallsend on 20 September 1906.

In 1973 the tanker World Unicorn stood on the ways at Swan Hunter, ready for launch. HMS Ark Royal was launched by Swan Hunter in 1981.

In April 2007 the cranes, the floating dock and other equipment were sold to Bharati Shipyards in India, then dismantled and shipped out over six months.

A riverside industrial site; no public access is implied. Segedunum’s ninth-floor tower is next door, Monday to Saturday.

Sources

North East Museums

Segedunum Roman Fort and tower

Buddle Street, Wallsend · Mon–Sat 10am–3pm · adults £7.75 · NE28 residents and 21s and under free

Next door to the Swan Hunter yard in Wallsend. A glass lift runs to a ninth-floor viewing tower. Pictured: the yard’s cranes from its car park, 2004.

Plan a visit

Tall shipyard cranes against the sky above low buildings — The Swan Hunter cranes over Wallsend, seen from the Segedunum car park, 2004: the town Sting grew up in, not his street. Keith Edkins · CC BY-SA 2.0

Gerald Street, Wallsend · named, not mapped

Gordon Sumner was born in Wallsend on 2 October 1951, the eldest of four children.

His father was a milkman and a former fitter; the boy helped him with the milk round. He grew up near the shipyards, and they made an impression on him.

A street of private homes, named here and not mapped. See Wallsend and its riverside from the public streets and from the Segedunum tower.

Sources

A modern school building behind railings — St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School on Gretna Road, Newcastle, in July 2025. Anthony Foster · CC BY-SA 2.0

St Cuthbert’s, Gretna Road, Newcastle

He went to St Cuthbert’s Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne. Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys went there too.

The school opened in Elswick in 1881 and moved to its Gretna Road site in 1922. It is still a Catholic secondary school for boys, an academy since 2012; the 1922 block, built over the Vallum of Hadrian’s Wall, has been demolished.

After school he was a bus conductor, a building labourer and a tax officer, then qualified as a teacher in 1973 and taught for two years at St Paul’s First School in Cramlington.

He played in the Phoenix Jazzmen, the Newcastle Big Band and Last Exit. A black-and-yellow striped jumper made a bandleader say he looked like a wasp, and the name stuck.

A working school, not open to visitors. See it from Gretna Road.

Sources

New York and Paris · 1985

A new band,
on its own.

The Police years have their own World: follow the trio from a Paris hotel room to Shea Stadium. This one starts when he goes on alone.

A red-brick and terracotta hall with arched windows on a Manhattan street — Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, home of the Ritz from 1980 to 1989; photographed in October 2010. Beyond My Ken · CC BY-SA 4.0

Webster Hall, once the Ritz · 125 East 11th Street, East Village, Manhattan

In 1985 his new, jazz-leaning solo band made its first live appearance at the Ritz in New York, before recording The Dream of the Blue Turtles.

The Ritz opened inside Webster Hall on 1 May 1980 and moved out in 1989. Sting is among the acts who played there.

Webster Hall was made a New York City landmark on 18 March 2008; it closed for renovation in 2017 and reopened on 26 April 2019.

A working club and concert hall. Buy a ticket for any show.

Sources

Sting on stage singing into a microphone, short fair hair, in stage light — Sting on the Dream of the Blue Turtles tour at Drammenshallen, Norway, 21 November 1985. Helge Øverås · CC BY-SA 4.0

The tall stone front of a Paris theatre with a lit canopy — The Théâtre Mogador, 25 rue de Mogador, Paris, in January 2019. Celette · CC BY-SA 4.0

Théâtre Mogador, Paris

Michael Apted’s film Bring On the Night (1985) follows the new band through nine days of living and rehearsing at the Château de Courson, outside Paris, to its first concert at the Mogador.

On screen: Omar Hakim on drums, Darryl Jones on bass, Kenny Kirkland on keyboards and Branford Marsalis on saxophone, with Dolette McDonald and Janice Pendarvis singing. The film won the Grammy for Best Music Video, Long Form, in 1987.

The theatre began as the Palace Theatre and was inaugurated in 1919; Stage Entertainment has owned it since 2005, and it plays musicals.

A working musical theatre. Buy a ticket for the current show.

Sources

Paris, the Xingu and Carnegie Hall · 1989–1991

Then,
the rainforest.

Sting and Trudie Styler founded the Rainforest Foundation in 1989. It was founded with Raoni Metuktire, a Kayapo leader in Brazil; in 1989 Sting flew to the Altamira Gathering in support.

Raoni, wearing a lip plate and feather headdress, beside Sting in a dark jacket — Raoni Metuktire and Sting in Paris, April 1989, on the tour for the rainforest. Gert-Peter Bruch · CC BY-SA 3.0

In 1993 its first campaign won protection for 27,359 km² of indigenous peoples’ land.

Carnegie Hall

The first benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, in 1991, raised $250,000. Raoni spoke for ten minutes in his own language, and his words were translated for the hall.

Sting and Trudie Styler hosted 17 of these concerts at Carnegie Hall between 1991 and 2016.

A working concert hall: see a concert, or check carnegiehall.org for tours.

Sources

1989–1991

Nothing would come.
Then the ship did.

His father died in 1989. Sting has said he felt creatively paralysed and unable to mourn, and for a long time nothing would come.

He turned to his earliest memory, the shipyard; once he had that down, The Soul Cages was written in two or three weeks.

Sources

Sting on a large outdoor stage in Madrid, lit by stage lights — Sting in Madrid, 8 June 1991, on the Soul Cages tour. Artekolor · CC BY 4.0

A stone Victorian school building with tall gables and windows — The Buddle Arts Centre, Station Road, Wallsend, in August 2005. Christine Westerback · CC BY-SA 2.0

The Buddle, Wallsend · 20 April 1991

On 20 April 1991 he played an invitation-only acoustic concert here, released as Acoustic Live in Newcastle.

The building was finished in 1876 for the Wallsend School Board and opened as the Buddle Board Schools on 30 July 1877. The school closed in 1974. It was the Buddle Arts Centre from 1977 until 2008.

The arts centre closed in 2008 and the building is not open. See it from the street.

Sources

The Last Ship · 1989–2014

Knock out the shores.
Let her go.

The Last Ship is set in Wallsend and deals with the closure of the Swan Hunter yard. Chalked on the shores: the steps from his father’s death to a Broadway opening.

Five shores hold her on the ways. Knock them out, one true date at a time.

Sources

A long Tuscan villa with terracotta roofs among trees — Villa Il Palagio, Figline e Incisa Valdarno, September 2026. Fabioarg · CC BY-SA 4.0

Figline Valdarno, Tuscany

A concert
at home.

On 11 September 2001 he recorded a concert at his home, Villa Il Palagio in Tuscany, for a small audience drawn from his fan club.

The attacks in the United States happened that day. The band played as planned, but Sting said the evening felt very different, and a performance with Cheb Mami was dropped.

It came out as …All This Time on 5 November 2001.

Sources

The Tyne · 2015–2019

Home water.

A curved glass and steel concert hall beside the River Tyne — The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, formerly Sage Gateshead, on the Gateshead Quays, July 2026. Benjamin Smith · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Glasshouse, Gateshead · April 2015

In April 2015 he brought The Last Ship home, with benefit performances of its songs on 24 and 25 April at Sage Gateshead, rooted in Wallsend’s shipbuilding community.

The hall opened in December 2004, designed by Foster and Partners, on the Gateshead bank of the Tyne. Its new name, the Glasshouse International Centre for Music, was announced on 13 September 2023.

A working concert hall. Check its site for building hours and backstage tours.

Sources

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

Glasshouse building tours

Gateshead Quays · Book on its site · times and prices not published on the visit page

Backstage, the orchestra’s rehearsal space and the halls’ acoustics, in the building where The Last Ship came home in 2015.

See tours

A modern theatre building with a glass front on a Newcastle street — Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle, in March 2010. Andrew Curtis · CC BY-SA 2.0

Northern Stage, Newcastle · March 2018

The UK and Ireland tour of The Last Ship opened at Northern Stage on 12 March 2018, with a book revised by Lorne Campbell.

Joe McGann played Jackie White; the tour closed at the Lowry in Salford on 7 July 2018.

In Toronto, from 9 February to 24 March 2019, Sting played Jackie White himself at the Princess of Wales Theatre.

A working theatre. Buy a ticket for the current show.

Sources

Viator · Ad / affiliate

Newcastle and the Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Live marketplace results for walks and river trips round Newcastle and Gateshead. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

Where it is now

From the slipway,
10 places.

The yard, the Buddle and Segedunum are a short walk apart in Wallsend; Webster Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Neil Simon are a subway ride apart in Manhattan.

Where it is now

10 places you can visit, from Station Road in Wallsend to West 52nd Street. Gerald Street is a street of private homes, so it is named and not mapped.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

Site reference · Restricted access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A riverside industrial site; no public access is implied. Segedunum’s ninth-floor tower is next door, Monday to Saturday.
Site reference · Restricted access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working school, not open to visitors. See it from Gretna Road.
Site reference · Restricted access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The arts centre closed in 2008 and the building is not open. See it from the street.
Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working concert hall. Check its site for building hours and backstage tours.
Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working theatre. Buy a ticket for the current show.

World Unicorn ready for launch at Swan Hunter, Wallsend, 1973, filling the end of a terraced street (the street is not named). Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, DS.SWH/4/PH/5/28/2. Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums · No restrictions
Wallsend, on the north bank of the Tyne
Swan Hunter shipyard, Wallsend
Swan Hunter was founded in 1880; its main yard was at Wallsend, on the north side of the Tyne.
A riverside industrial site; no public access is implied. Segedunum’s ninth-floor tower is next door, Monday to Saturday.
Sources
St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School on Gretna Road, Newcastle, in July 2025. Anthony Foster · CC BY-SA 2.0
Gretna Road, Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne
St Cuthbert’s, Gretna Road, Newcastle
He went to St Cuthbert’s Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne.
A working school, not open to visitors. See it from Gretna Road.
Sources
The Buddle Arts Centre, Station Road, Wallsend, in August 2005. Christine Westerback · CC BY-SA 2.0
Station Road, Wallsend
The Buddle, Wallsend
On 20 April 1991 he played an invitation-only acoustic concert here, released as Acoustic Live in Newcastle.
The arts centre closed in 2008 and the building is not open. See it from the street.
Sources
The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, formerly Sage Gateshead, on the Gateshead Quays, July 2026. Benjamin Smith · CC BY-SA 4.0
St Mary’s Square, Gateshead Quays
The Glasshouse, Gateshead
In April 2015 he brought The Last Ship home, with benefit performances of its songs on 24 and 25 April at Sage Gateshead, rooted in Wallsend’s shipbuilding community.
A working concert hall. Check its site for building hours and backstage tours.
Sources
Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle, in March 2010. Andrew Curtis · CC BY-SA 2.0
Barras Bridge, Haymarket, Newcastle upon Tyne
Northern Stage, Newcastle
The UK and Ireland tour of The Last Ship opened at Northern Stage on 12 March 2018, with a book revised by Lorne Campbell.
A working theatre. Buy a ticket for the current show.
Sources

Stay

A villa in Tuscany.

Il Palagio, where …All This Time was recorded, lets its villa and guesthouses by enquiry.

Tenuta Il Palagio

Figline e Incisa Valdarno, Tuscany · By email enquiry · no prices published

Sting and Trudie Styler’s sixteenth-century estate south of Florence, where …All This Time was recorded. From mid-May to mid-September the villa and three guesthouses are let together, sleeping up to 32.

Ask about a stay

Go there