Nos 1-18 (Link Blocks) With Attached Garden Walls

Details

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

NZ 2664 NE BRINKBURN COURT 1833/26/10119 BYKER 22-JAN-07 Nos 1-18 (LINK BLOCKS) WITH ATTACHED G ARDEN WALLS GORDON HOUSE BYKER 1-21 KENDAL HOUSE BYKER 1-17 DALTON CRESCENT BYKER 1-47 SHIPLEY WALK BYKER 1-58 (Formerly listed as: CONYERS ROAD BYKER 1-21 GORDON HOUSE) (Formerly listed as: CONYERS ROAD BYKER 1-47 DALTON CRESCENT) (Formerly listed as: CONYERS ROAD BYKER 1-58 SHIPLEY WALK (PERIMETER BLOCK OR BYKER WALL)) (Formerly listed as: CONYERS ROAD BYKER 1-17 KENDAL HOUSE) (Formerly listed as: DALTON STREET BYKER 1-18 BRINKBURN COURT (LINK BLOCKS) WITH ATT ACHED GARDEN WALLS)

II* Perimeter block of 161 flats and maisonettes, with two projecting link blocks. 1971-74 by Ralph Erskine's Arkitektkontor; site architect Vernon Gracie; structural engineer, White, Young and Partners; main contractor, Stanley Miller Ltd. In situ reinforced concrete cross-walls, with concrete strip foundations to each cross wall and ground beams to support external walls. Pre-cast concrete cantilever brackets cast into cross walls. The roadside (predominantly north) wall clad in brown, orange and red metric modular brick to road, with pale brick on inner face. Prominent blue metal roofs supported on plywood box beam purlins, rising to points over lift towers. Link blocks (Kendal House and Brinkburn Court) have concrete block work cross-walls with pre-cast concrete cantilevers for balconies and access decks built into them, and are clad in pale brick, with blue metal roofs supported on plywood box beam purlins. Three-eight storeys. 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. Tiny windows to north and west sides, fronting main road and metro, double glazed and lighting only kitchens, bathrooms and landings. Prominent and brightly coloured ventilator boxes on this elevation. Prominent boiler flue to end of main range. Decorative square patterning to carriageway in Shipley Walk, with decorative stone detailing to inner face taken from C19 building. The inner face with timber windows, with aluminium opening lights. Timber doors with glazed panel, many renewed in hardwood, with built-in seat to side. End carriageway giving on to Gordon Road has Gordon House, of three-four storeys, with brown timber balconies with doors on to them. Carriageway with winged figure, perhaps of Mercury and said to be from Newcastle's Old Town Hall, in end wall. Long red-brown balconies to external face. Gardens to ground floor sheltered by brick walls and timber fences on brick plinth. Dalton Crescent rises in steps to eight storeys with blue balconies to inner face and individual red and blue balconies to external face. Shipley Walk begins with carriageway opening to Kendal Street, rising from five to eight storeys, with blue balconies and enclosed red-brown end balconies by lifts and stairs. Kendal House is three-five storeys, linked to perimeter block at second-floor, and with second-floor walkway; blue balconies and blue and brown linking balcony walkway. Brinkburn Court is a similar three-five storey link block with shop (no.8) at end, blue balconies on concrete cantilevers and red service gates. The interiors of the maisonettes simple, with stairs leading up from kitchen/diner, still divided by original counter in some flats. Dalton Crescent and Shipley Walk form the first part of the perimeter block to be built, and form one of the most distinctive and eloquent parts of the Byker complex. In March 1967 the Housing Architect's Department proposed the building of a barrier block to shelter the area from a proposed inner motorway to be built along the line of the present relief road and the metro, and this was revised by May 1968 after a Conservative majority had come to power. In 1969 Ralph Erskine was recommended by the Housing Design and Programme Working Group to undertake responsibility for the Byker Redevelopment, initially to reappraise the proposals made by the Housing Architect's Department the previous year. He endorsed the building of a barrier block, and based his design on that for his uncompleted mining town of Svappavaara, Sweden (1963), where a barrier block was conceived as way of creating a microclimate in its south-facing lee. Something of the same effect is achieved here, and the south-facing balconies and flats also make the most of the remarkable views. `Lack of windows on the outer side, and the forest of red and yellow ventilators, make it look very strong, yet the decorative style appears casual ... 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). The modular metric 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 achieves a module of 12" by 4" by 3". 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-bed roomed accommodation to serve the high proportion of elderly people then forming the Byker community. Sources: Architectural Design, June 1975, p.333-8, Northern Architect, no. 3, January 1975, pp.30-3, Ralph Erskine's Arkitektkontor, Summary of Architectural and Planning Aspects of the Byker Development, nd c.1976, Architecture d'Aujourd'hui, no. 187, October/November 1976, pp.51-5, Architectural Review, December 1974, pp.346-62, Mats Egelius, Ralph Erskine, Architect, Stockholm 1990, pp.148-60.

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