Old Assembly Rooms

The Old Assembly Rooms, built between 1774 and 1776 by William Newton and financed by public subscription, is a Grade II* listed building located on Fenkle Street in Newcastle upon Tyne. Constructed from sandstone ashlar with a Welsh slate roof, it showcases a Classical style. The building features a three-storey, three-bay central section flanked by two-storey, one-bay wings.

A rearrangement around 1900 altered the entrance, which now has doors on either side of the central bay set within a rusticated ground floor. The main block is adorned with a Giant Ionic Order, with capitals inspired by the Erectheion, paired at the ends and topped with a pediment. The first-floor center window is round-headed, while the side windows are pedimented, all framed in architraves. The second-floor windows are smaller sashes, and the wings contain sash windows with glazing bars set in plain reveals, with the upper windows in arched recesses. The building also features floor bands and impost bands on the wings, with hipped roofs above them.

Inside, the Old Assembly Rooms display high-quality classical decorative work in the main rooms on both floors, characterized by a sensitive use of architectural Orders and delicate plasterwork on the ceilings, along with carved chimney-pieces and enriched doorcases.