Industrial workers' dwellings

Details

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NZ 2564 SE-NZ 2564 SW
1833-0/21/10009

GARTH HEADS (north side)
Nos 1 to 60 Industrial workers' dwellings

GV
II
Industrial workers' dwellings with shop. 1869 and extension dated 1878. By John Johnstone for the Newcastle upon Tyne Improved Industrial Dwellings Co. Ltd., established 1869. Polychrome English bond brick (four and one) with painted ashlar dressings; rubble rear gable to right return range; Welsh slate roof with stone gable coping, brick and rendered chimneys, and brick and wrought iron parapet. 4:5:4 storeys, 13:5:13 windows. Angle pilasters to five bay, five storey centrepiece. Moulded segmental head to door recessed in surround with moulded segmental stone head. Segmental panel over door, flanked by paired moulded brackets to moulded first floor balcony with patterned cast iron balustrade. Paired C20 windows flanking door under wide rendered lintels probably replace shop windows. Paired narrow sashes on first floor have eight panes with fine glazing bars, projecting stone sills and shallow segmental brick arches with stone keys. Polychrome brick impost band. Similar sashes with impost bands and keyed heads on higher floors, paired in central bay and twelve-pane in others. Fourth floor impost band rises into two-tiered brick cornice, the lower between the angle pilasters and the upper continuing above them supporting elaborately-patterned cast iron roof parapet. Similar treatment to flanking lower thirteen bay blocks defined by full-height pilasters, with 5:5:3 windows, paired above central doors of five bay blocks. These doors have moulded segmental heads in stone lintels with label moulds, which also form shallow segmental heads over narrow long side lights (now blocked) with projecting stone sills. From the door lintel a polychrome band continues to form impost and hood bands; upper floors have sashes and bands similar to those in central block. Three bay end blocks have doors in canted corner shops, the left now blocked as is the front window, the right still a shop with six-pane front window under entablature partly obscured by C20 fascia. To right of central block a roof parapet of brick has ashlar coping with four lowered sections, and plain wrought iron railings with bombe outer stays. Mansard roof to five storey centre with five round-headed dormers, the central largest one ashlar with wrought iron finial on scrolled head containing bold date 1878 and scroll INDUSTRIAL DWELLINGS. Flat roof to right and pitched to left flanking sections. Tall chimneys, six rendered tall chimneys on right flat roof, and brick to chimneys on side eaves and ridge of central block, and six on left roof, all with cornices.

Left return to Tower Street has five windows, with segmental moulded painted head to door to right of fourth, with flanking wide windows removed and sashes inserted in blocking. Narrow eight-pane sashes at left of central bay on ground floor and paired on upper floors, the central paired. Right return is similar except for painted brickwork at left to shop with blocked window and renewed door, to left of door with moulded head. Rear shows projecting wings opposite doors. Rear sash windows mostly original with fine glazing bars; some replaced with horns. Some small C20 windows in rear wings. Upper floors have some wrought-iron balconies with rails and bombe stays. Stone staircase in closed stair well behind each door. Commemorative bronze plaque in wood frame on right return elevation has inscription 'NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE IMPROVED INDUSTRIAL DWELLINGS CO. LTD ESTABLISHED 1859' and names original chairman, directors and shareholders; many of these were prominent local businessmen.

The building is important both for its townscape value and as probably the earliest surviving example in Newcastle of philanthropic housing provision for industrial workers. The building is a significant feature in a historic setting on high ground; immediately in front is the Keelmen's Hospital of 1701; immediately to the south-west is the Sallyport Tower with the Ships' Carpenters' Hall of 1716 on the medieval Town Wall. All Saints' Church is prominent beyond the Sallyport Tower.

Listing NGR: NZ2553064198

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

305011

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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