Newcastle is full of so much history from old buildings to historic landmarks. But there is something in Newcastle that is a bit mysterious and people aren’t 100% sure why it’s there. So we visited the vampire rabbit to see if we could find out a bit more about it.
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00:00 Newcastle is full of so much history and you can normally find out a lot about it.
00:07 But there are some parts of Newcastle's history that are a bit mysterious.
00:11 Now this street probably looks very normal and many people in Newcastle probably walked past it
00:16 and not even realised the thing that we're actually going to talk about.
00:19 If you haven't spotted it already, it is quite small behind me, but it is the Vampire Rabbit
00:24 and it sits just on top of the archways on a building opposite Newcastle Cathedral.
00:30 The Vampire Rabbit is a strange creature that sits on the top of the archway of the Cathedral buildings.
00:35 It is painted black and has some very crazy looking eyes which are very hard not to look at.
00:41 Its bright red claws hang over the edge as it looks down at you
00:44 and if you look up you will be able to see its huge red fangs as well.
00:48 But why is such a strange animal statue placed on top of an entrance to a building?
00:53 As I look for the reasons why the Vampire Rabbit is there, a lot of the information was stories and myths.
00:59 Nobody really knows why the rabbit was added to the building which was built in 1901, but a lot of people have theories.
01:06 One of those theories was that grave robbers were active around the Cathedral back in the day
01:11 until one night the Vampire Rabbit rose above the graveyard to scare them off.
01:15 Another story linked to that is that the Vampire Rabbit had actually attacked the grave robbers and sucked their blood.
01:21 Another story is that the rabbit was actually meant to be a hare, but the ears were put on backwards which gave it its strange looks.
01:28 That story is based off Sir George Hare Phippsen who was a friend of William Wood
01:33 who was one of the architects to work on the Cathedral that sits on the other side of the small road.
01:38 It is a strange part of Newcastle's history but do any of the Geordies know about it?
01:43 If you know of a historic thing that's in Newcastle, the Vampire Rabbit, do you know what it is?
01:51 No.
01:52 You've never heard of the Vampire Rabbit?
01:54 No.
01:55 Apparently people know about it, but I'm assuming you've never heard of it before?
01:59 I know where the Vampire Rabbit is, it's on the Sundale facing J.D. Scott's, above J.D. Scott's barbershop on the Ayrmen Corner.
02:08 It's actually up one on the Sundale there. That is a Vampire Rabbit as well.
02:14 Do you know what the Vampire Rabbit is?
02:16 No.
02:17 Have you never heard of it before?
02:18 No.
02:19 Everyone calls it the Vampire Rabbit. Have you never heard of it before?
02:22 Is that by grown-ups who have been getting dressed up as rabbits and standing there?
02:26 Oh I'm not sure, I didn't know about that.
02:28 Yeah, so it was a group of adults dressed as rabbits or whatever standing under anything.
02:33 And have you never heard of anything like that?
02:35 No. And I was married to a J.D. for 23 years and she never knew.
02:42 No, because I've never been that far.
02:45 As we took a trip to see the Vampire Rabbit, a few people walked by to see it.
02:50 But even after talking to them, they didn't know the real reason why it was there.
02:54 So it looks like we may just have to see if anyone can find the real reason why the Vampire Rabbit sits on the archway.
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