This is a drum clock manufactured by Potts for the concourse at Newcastle Station, where it still hangs today. It’s about 120 years old or thereabouts. For a long time after I first moved to Newcastle, this clock had no hands. I don’t know whether it was broken and later repaired, or whether the hands were removed for restoration. But after what seemed like years of it being a broken clock, I remember being somewhat surprised to find it in full working order one day.

One of the more widely circulated pictures from the large storms that have battered Tyneside in the last few months is this shot of the very same clock, in which the roof of the station is leaking to such a degree that it looks like it’s raining inside!