Co-Operative Buildings

Co-operative Buildings, located on Durham Road in Birtley, is a building constructed between 1901 and 1903 by Liddle and Brown of Newcastle for the Birtley Co-operative Society. This structure serves as the headquarters for the society and is now used as shops and offices. It features a brick exterior with ashlar dressings and a roof covered in Welsh slate, complemented by stone gable copings and lead-covered ogee roofs on the towers.

The building has an L-shaped plan and consists of two storeys with a total of 22 windows on the main façade and 8 on the left return. The ground floor shops are defined by a cornice and rusticated pilasters, although later boards now cover the original fascia. The first floor showcases 8 central bays that are marked by Ionic pilasters, with sill and impost bands and keystoned arches above four pairs of round-headed windows that include glazing bars.

Flanking the central bays are two three-storey towers, each featuring a large round stone canopy supported by brackets over a chamfered and rusticated office entrance. The first-floor sash window is set within an architrave with a projecting sill, while the second floor has a keystoned ox-eye window beneath a string and eaves cornice. The outer bays, consisting of six windows on each side, are adorned with lugged architraves and projecting sills for double sashes, with the inner three windows placed under gables.

The eaves cornice is present along the top, and the peaks of the gables facing the street and on the returns contain three small windows set in architraves, with a conjoined sill between ball-finialled shafts on foliage-decorated brackets. Similar shafts are found on the foot stones, and a shell-ornamented segmental pediment sits at the apex on a brick panel featuring a blank shield. The pediment and gable coping are supported by consoles. The roof is topped with a balustrade that spans the eight central bays.