Scott, born in Edinburgh, resided at 14 St Thomas crescent for 21 years from 1843, as head of the Government Design School. He was also involved in the Pre-Raphaelite movement and contributed to The Germ. While in Newcastle, Scott published books on ornamental art as well as Antiquarian Gleanings in the North of England (1851). His painting prowess, particularly his celebrated Iron and Coal, can be seen in a famous set of pictures (1856-68) celebrating North East history at Wallington Hall. The Trevelyans appear in the pictures, as does Scott himself. At Wallington we also find a set of Scott panels illustrating the well-known ballad Chevy Chase.
Bell Scott tells us that he based Iron and Coal on what he had witnessed in Stephenson's locomotive factory on Forth Street:

Entire wheels of welded iron were lifted out of the furnace red-hot and four giants, 'strikers' as they were called, with mighty sledge-hammers strode round them, striking in succession.

The wielder of the hammer is actually a portrait of Charles Edward Trevelyan. The picture, one of the few Victorian paintings to celebrate the industrial revolution. shows a number of typical Tyneside manufactures: an anchor, a marine engine air-pump, a locomotive drawing (a Stephenson long-bodied engine is seen on the High Level bridge in the background) while a little girl is seen perched on an Armstrong gun near a pile of artillery shells picked out by a sunbeam. A newspaper reports Garibaldi's triumphant entry into Naples in 1861.
It was at Wallington that Scott first met Algernon Swinburne who became a lifelong friend and visitor to St Thomas Crescent - like the Rossettis. He dedicated two poems to Scott. Bell Scott's own poetry comprises odes, sonnets and mediaeval-style ballads. He is well represented in The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. His Autobiographical Notes of 1892 give an interesting sketch of Newcastle in the 1840s. Scott contrasts Christmas gatherings in Newcastle with the 'staid and frost-bitten London evening parties'. He quotes one of the uproarious rhymes everyone knew and performed in Newcastle. This is 'A Partridge in a Pear-tree' (a peacock in Newcastle) which Scott seems not to know at all.