This picture shows Dovecot Street around the middle of the Victorian era. The building that was later to be called Lit & Phil is named Mechanics Institute, this was originally the Corporation Hall built around 1840, it was sold on around 1850 and became the Mechanics Institute, it had another change of name around about 1880, this points to a date of around 1860 for the picture.
The buildings are of a Georgian style possibly early Georgian, mid 1700s, The Alma Hotel may be named after the Crimean battle of the same name in 1854, of course it may have had its name changed at some time so it doesn’t date it accurately. The Telegraph Office points to there being no telephones at the time, they arrived in late Victorian times. An interesting view of a long lost street.
Image and details courtesy of Anon.
Picture Stockton Archive 
My earliest memories of Dovecot Street seem to recall that the Northern Echo occupied some offices in the Mechanics Institute building and there used to be a barbers in the basement. Of course, one of my first legal pints was in the Spread Eagle.
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As a young lad in the late 1940’s and a keen fisherman on the River Tees I seem to remember there being a fishing tackle shop on Dovecot Street can anyone confirm this?
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Had a few pints in the Alma in the 50s
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