The Holy Jesus Hospital is a working office in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in the care of the National Trust.

[2] This project takes people of ages 12–25 and over 50 out to the countryside in order to increase appreciation of the city's natural surroundings.

The Augustinian Friars were originally an order of hermits in northern Italy who Pope Alexander IV first congregated into a single body in 1256.

Apparently some local people threw "excrements, filth, and garbage, in a certain way that led near to the house of the Austin Friars, to their great annoyance and peril.

Henry Bourne, an 18th-century historian of Newcastle upon Tyne wrote of the site: "the Kings of England since the Conquest, kept house in it, whence they came with an Army Royal against Scotland, and since the Suppression of the Monasteries, made a Magazine and Store-house for the North Parts.

He wrote, "the same authority tells us also, that there was an ancient Religious House founded by the Kings of Northumberland and that several of them were buried here; but it cannot be true that they built any Thing for the St Austin Fryers, for they came not into England 'till long after the Conquest, in the year 1252.

In 1537, Thomas Cromwell was asked if the Austin Priory site could be left intact after the dissolution, to be used as northern headquarters of the King's Council of the North when it was not sitting at York.

[8] All that remains of the priory is part of the sacristy wall, though a model in the interpretation room gives a possible layout of some of the friary buildings.

It was probably constructed as a strong room to store munitions or provide a secure location if the city walls were breached.

Bourne quotes one of his sources as saying, "a Scot did beg it (the Hospital) of King James; after that took the lead off it and sold it; but it was cast away before it came to its market.

Bourne wrote 'He (George Home) sold also some stones to Sir Peter Riddel, who with them built the south end of his fine house; but now it belongs to Captain Dykes, and his posterity hath no right.

The Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1681 by public subscription to house retired Freemen, their widows or unmarried sons or daughters.

[8] The Mayor, alderman and Common Council of Newcastle were appointed as visitors and charged with setting the rules for the hospital.

[15] Indeed, the structure is one of only two 17th-century brick buildings in Newcastle upon Tyne, the other being nearby Alderman Fenwick's House in Pilgrim Street.

Each year the residents would have been given a free suit of clothing, a measure of coal and, if the charity allowed it, some pocket money (Alms).

[8] The master's seal had a cross engraved on it and bore the words "Sigillum Hospitalis Sancti Jesu in Novo Castro.

On 2 January 1752, the council decreed that forty 'fothers' of coal be given to the hospital annually and, on 18 December 1769, the master was required to be paid £8, and each inmate sister £6 per annum.

[8] By the early 19th century this allowance had increased to £13 for each inmate per annum, four fothers of 'best Benwell' coals as well as providing clothing.

[8] In 1705, the inmates of the Newcastle House of Correction were commissioned to produce 'purple and grey cloth' for the uniforms of the widows of the Holy Jesus Hospital.

Roughly translated it reads; "Hospital for poor people by the expense of the citizens and leaders of Newcastle upon Tyne in the year of salvation 1683.

In 1648, the plot of land was leased to the barber surgeons on condition that they constructed their hall within two years and that part of the site was to be laid out as a garden for medicinal herbs.

The under story is adorned with piazzas, which are 91 feet in length, and make a very agreeable walk, a small field being in front, which is separated from the street by a low stone wall and a light iron paling.

At the foot of the stairs is a poor-box, and the figure of Charity; and, opposite to the entrance, an ornamented fountain for the use of the hospital.

Lynn Redhead, customer services administrator at the Holy Jesus Hospital, has described what the kitchen would have looked like in the following way: "People wanting soup came in through an 18-inch wide brick-lined corridor one at a time to be served from troughs.

[18] The People's Kitchen was founded by 76-year-old Alison Kay who was moved to help the homeless after finding an unidentified man dead under a bush in Newcastle.

First she held a "friendship picnic" attended by four homeless men in which she delivered flasks of tea and sandwiches prepared in her own kitchen.

[22] After occupying temporary premises in Blenheim Street, the people's hospital moved its headquarters to Bath Lane, Newcastle, in 1997 and distributes clothing and equipment to the homeless.

[27][29] The National Trust needed a central office to expand their work into other inner city areas, so a 25-year lease was negotiated with the council.

She argues that although the aim of introducing town dwellers to the countryside is "laudable", the "respectful and serious suggestion might be made, though, that a person or person's might be usefully employed also with the objective of raising National Trust people's understanding of and confidence in their ability to visit and enjoy, or at least encounter, the city.