Nos 239-251 With Attached Steps, Walls And Fences Nos. 1-13, With Attached Steps, Ramps, Walls And Fences Nos. 187-205 With Attached Steps, Ramps, Walls And Fences Nos. 2-18, With Attached Steps, Ramps, Walls And Fences Nos. 228-252 With Attached Ste

A group of 46 houses and some flats arranged in terraces centred on a square, located on a steeply sloping site in Byker. Built in 1970–1 by Ralph Erskine's Arkitektkontor, with Vernon Gracie as site architect, White, Young and Partners as structural engineer, and Stanley Miller Ltd as main contractor.

The buildings are constructed with dark beige brick metric modular brick cladding to a timber frame, with green and blue weatherboarding and cream eternit panels. Monopitch metal roofs are supported on plywood box beam purlins that follow the line of the slope. The scheme comprises two and three-storey accommodation on the sloping site. The composition is dominated by the pedestrian Janet Square itself, reached by low ground-floor entrance openings in the terraces. Timber windows are set in timber surrounds with aluminium opening lights (many sliding). Timber doors with glazed panels, many renewed in hardwood, are fitted throughout. All houses have blue metal door hoods. Balconies with brown and blue timber balustrades are supported on steel poles.

Janet Square contains all two-storey buildings, though nos. 14–16 are flats with the upper flat entered via external timber stair. Nos. 9–11 feature green weatherboarding. Nos. 191–193 and 228–230 Kirk Street and 241–243 Janet Street are flats with upper flats accessed by external timber stairs. Nos. 228–230 Kirk Street and nos. 9–13 (odd) and 18 Janet Square have green weatherboarding with eternit eaves panels. Nos. 201–205 Kirk Street comprise three-storey houses. First-floor flats with balconies on their outer faces are fronted by brown and green timber fences; the steps and ramps through the square are integral to the overall composition.

Janet Square was the Pilot Scheme for the wider Byker redevelopment. In 1969 Ralph Erskine was recommended by the Housing Design and Programme Working Group to undertake responsibility for the Byker Redevelopment, initially to reappraise proposals made by the Housing Architect's Department in March 1967. Working from offices in Brinkburn Street, Erskine and his team identified 46 families willing to participate as the "guinea pigs" for a pilot project on cleared land between Kirk Street and Janet Street. The design was developed through a series of meetings with these families in early 1970. Their preferences for semi-open plan ground floors and a pedestrianised square informed the design, and their experiences shaped the subsequent low-rise housing, with its brighter colours, greater privacy of internal courtyards, and provision of children's playspaces. Their involvement extended to detailed design matters, including the position of plug sockets. Although Erskine and his office retained full design control, this method of consultation with the actual residents was innovative in 1970 and led to the establishment of a "drop-in" centre to disseminate information and hold meetings with prospective tenants and the city council thereafter. The scheme demonstrates what Erskine described as "a strong, albeit informal, aesthetic of nooks, crannies and permutations of single house types". Erskine and his team saw the Pilot Scheme as having continued significance for demonstrating the full potential of the physical design, though he acknowledged that the subsequent redevelopment could not be carried out along the same social lines due to time and resource constraints, despite the design philosophy continuing to develop from these original houses.