Former Robert Stephenson And Company Fitting Shop

Former Robert Stephenson and Company Fitting Shop, Newcastle upon Tyne

This brick building with ashlar dressings was built between approximately 1867 and 1880 on the site of former structures that included a dwelling house, yard, shade and carpenters' shop dating from around 1826. From 1847, the northern part of the site was occupied by Robert Stephenson and Company as a tender shop, sawmill and frame shop. These were rebuilt between approximately 1849 and 1859 as a painters shop, engine shop, tender shop and yard, with the frame shop retained. The building underwent further alterations around 1867. It later served as machine and pattern departments before conversion to a builders merchant's warehouse.

The exterior is constructed in three distinct builds. It is two storeys high, with the ground floor being particularly tall. The fenestration comprises 3 windows on the upper floor and either 8 or 16 windows on the ground floor across different sections. Windows feature fine glazing bars and flat stone sills. Ground floor windows have round-arched brick heads, while first floor windows are topped with wedge stone lintels in the left 11 bays and segmental brick arches in the right 15 bays. A band runs across the first floor. The vehicle entrance on the left has painted iron posts and a beam supporting an overlight with 4 panels of 16 painted panes beneath a high wide metal beam resting on a post to the left and quoins to the right. Above this entrance are three openings: the first has glazing bars, the second is blocked, and the third has a boarded loading door. The next 8 bays feature left quoins to full height. Ground floor windows in this section have 2 top panes with most having 4:2:4 panes below, with the central pair being pivoting lights. The 6th and 8th windows are taller, extending to the first floor band with 6 panes in the lowest section. The right section contains 15 bays with full height ground floor windows and a sill band to the first floor windows, which have 20 panes with some central panels pivoting. A butt join to the right, positioned further right on the upper floor, separates these sections. Twentieth-century doors have been inserted in the left end window beside the vehicle arch and below windows 3 and 4 of the right 15 bays, probably replacing earlier doorways. Four rainwater pipes have their lowest sections recessed into the brickwork. The vehicle arch features central cast iron round posts with two tiers of flanges, the upper supporting a riveted bellied cast iron beam. The rear wall has been clad in twentieth-century brick and corrugated metal in its lower section, with painted render above.

The interior shows ground floor alterations including inserted partitions. The first floor is open to the roof, which spans double width. The south build at the left has a large-scantling spine beam supporting a full-width tie beam of queen post trusses. A higher spine beam rests on these tie beams and on short posts extending from the lower beam, with the tie beams clasped between the two spine beams. The north build roof is slightly raised, with cast iron piers supporting a deep steel spine girder and T-section steel queen post trusses. An electric lift has been inserted in the south-west corner of the building. The corrugated alloy roof is modern. Historical references document the site from 1826, with documentation of various configurations and uses through the nineteenth century.

This building represents an important survival from the pioneering Stephenson factory, which manufactured locomotive engines throughout the nineteenth century.