Reasons for Designation
Part of the internationally celebrated Byker Estate, of 1970-82 by Ralph Erskine.
Details
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
NZ 2664 NE
DUNN TERRACE
Nos 1-75, including Graham House, Wolseley House, The Cabin and YMCA Byker Neighbourhood Youth Project.
Includes: Nos 1-66 NORTHUMBERLAND TERRACE, including Salisbury House. Attached brick walls, timber fencing and dustbin shelters, and covered timber shelters outside No 1 DUNN TERRACE
22-JAN-2007
Formerly Listed as:
NZ 2664 NE
1833/26/10118
BYKER BANK
Byker Estate (East,off)
1-75 DUNN TERRACE, INCLUDING GRAHAM HOUSE, WOLSELEY HOUSE, THE CABIN AND YMCA BYKER NEIGHBOURHOOD YOUTH PROJECT, AND 1-66 NORTHUMBERLAND TERRACE, INCLUDING SALISBURY HOUSE
CONYERS ROAD
Byker Estate (South,off)
1-75 DUNN TERRACE, INCLUDING GRAHAM HOUSE, WOLSELEY HOUSE, THE CABIN AND YMCA BYKER NEIGHBOURHOOD YOUTH PROJECT; AND 1-66 NORTHUMBERLAND TERRACE, INCLUDING SALISBURY HOUSE
BYKER BANK
Byker Estate (East,off)
ATTACHED BRICK WALLS, TIMBER FENCING AND DUSTBIN SHELTERS, AND COVERED TIMBER SHELTER OUTSIDE NO. 1 DUNN TERRACE
CONYERS ROAD
Byker Estate (South,off)
ATTACHED BRICK WALLS, TIMBER FENCING AND DUSTBIN SHELTERS, AND COVERED TIMBER SHELTER OUTSIDE NO. 1 DUNN TERRACE
CONYERS ROAD
Byker Estate (South,off) 1-75 DUNN TERRACE, INCLUDING GRAHAM HOUSE, WOLSELEY HOUSE, THE CABIN AND YMCA BYKER NEIGHBOURHOOD YOUTH PROJECT; AND 1-66 NORTHUMBERLAND TERRACE, INCLUDING SALISBURY HOUSE
22-JAN-2007
GV
II*
Flats and maisonettes. 1975-78 for the City of Newcastle upon Tyne by Ralph Erskine's Arkitektkontor; site architect Vernon Gracie; structural engineer, White, Young and Partners; main contractor, Shepherds Construction Ltd. In situ concrete cross wall construction, with concrete strip foundations and ground beams, clad in strong brown, orange and buff patterned metric modular brick patterning to road elevations, red and buff brick to inner face, with elaborate timber detailing and white eternit panels. Pale brick link block (Graham House) of concrete block construction, with red garden walls. Pre-cast cantilever brackets cast into cross walls. Pale blue sheet metal roofs, with projecting lift and stair towers rising to metal-clad points and forming important townscape features.
Two-eight storeys on sloping site. Perimeter wall block curving in gentle, rippling semi-circle from Byker Bank to the former railway cutting, and terminating in Tom Collins House (q.v.), but also incorporating a link block (Nos. 1-16 Dunn Terrace), which separates the Dunn Terrace area into two, of two-five storeys and which is joined at second floor level by a bridge connection to the main 'wall'. The neighbourhood shop is set on the ground floor under this junction. Two storey family maisonettes at ground floor level, set within walled gardens on inner face, with smaller maisonettes above accessed from balconies on every third level. These balconies are semi-independent structures to reduce noise, with a seat or planting box covering the gap between the balcony and the building. Living rooms and bedrooms are set above or below the entrance level, which has kitchen-diners with entrance doors set in pairs. Balconies to bedrooms double as fire escape routes.
Dunn Terrace and Northumberland Terrace are the most brilliantly patterned of all the Byker blocks, with rich diaper and chevron patterns over four entrances cut through the wall, and patterning in contrasting brick forming the letters BYKER in semi-abstract pattern. The inner lintels of some of these openings enriched with C19 sculptural ornament reused from demolished buildings. The north side is almost blind, save for tiny double-glazed small kitchen, bathroom and landing windows, with the only opening windows on the contrasting south face. Timber windows with sliding aluminium opening panels. All flats have timber doors with glazed panel, many renewed in hardwood, and built-in bench seat outside. Northumberland Terrace has red-brown timber doors, fencing, projecting ventilator covers, heating covers and dustbin covers, all of slatted timber. Brown timber balustraded access balconies face west over Byker Bank. Salisbury House, mainly of red/orange brick, steps down sharply to two storeys; where the roof drops sharply, south facing windows are incorporating. The inner face has soft green projecting individual balconies, and soft green fencing above garden walls. The rest of the perimeter block has the access balcony, with soft green painted timber balustrading and plastic sheet roofing, facing inwards. Ground floor units with projecting entrances under sloping metal roofs. The link block (Graham House) has access balconies facing east, with red-brown timber trimmings to this and to individual balconies set facing west. South-facing windows and balconies incorporated where roofline drops sharply. Covered car port outside No. 1 Dunn Terrace part of original construction, with corrugated plastic sheet canopy on steel posts. Wolseley House has red-brown balcony detailing. Erskine also designed the timber seating around the estate. The interiors of the maisonettes simple, with stairs leading up from kitchen/diner, still divided by original counter in some flats.
The site slopes to the south-west giving views over the Tyne to the centres of Newcastle and Gateshead, and the configuration of the wall and link, and the two groups of houses they shelter, is to maximise these views, at a high density. The design of the wall reflected Newcastle's policy by the late 1960s of not placing family units above the ground floor, while the small upper maisonettes reflected the large need for one-bedroomed accommodation to serve the high proportion of elderly people then forming the Byker community.
HISTORY: The Byker area, first extensively developed in the 1890s, was earmarked for redevelopment from the late 1950s, with a new motorway to the north. In March 1967 the Housing Architect's Department proposed the building of a barrier block to shelter the area, and this idea was supported by Ralph Erskine, who was invited to develop the area for Newcastle Corporation in 1969. His Plan of Intent, published in 1970, promised a complete redevelopment programme of housing and landscaping with cost yardsticks, while maintaining the traditions and character of the neighbourhood, and to rehouse the residents without breaking family and social ties. His achievement in rehousing 40% of the original residents on the original site was exceptional, as were his methods of keeping the community informed of development and seeking their support and suggestions for the low-rise housing. In achieving these goals Erskine sought to exploit the south-facing sloping site, to develop a system of pedestrian routes through the estate and to provide a `specific "local" individuality to each group of houses.' The estate was redeveloped in a rolling programme of no more than 250 units at a time, to try to maintain the community's infrastructure.The idea was a sheltering perimeter block, which protects the estate from traffic noise and creates a micro climate, with low-rise housing in its lee. The modular metric facing brick of 290mm x 90mm x 65mm was developed by Crossley and Sons in County Durham, in collaboration with the City of Newcastle. When mortared, it forms a 12" by 4" by 3" unit. The inventiveness of the decoration, developed following the relatively muted `pilot scheme' at Janet Square, marks Byker out from other post-war housing for bringing the humane concepts of `romantic pragmatism' with its neo-vernacular details and materials to public housing in a unique way. It is probably also the greatest achievement of this important and idiosyncratic international architect. `If there is something marvellously lighthearted about the design, this I would say is the topographical keynote of the new Byker' (Architectural Design, June 1975, p.333).
Sources:
Tyne and Wear Archives
Architectural Review, December 1974, pp.346-62
Mats Egelius, Ralph Erskine, Architect, Stockholm 1990, pp.148-60
