Industrial workers' dwellings

Industrial workers' dwellings with shop, numbered 1 to 60, located on the north side of Garth Heads. Built in 1869 with an extension dated 1878. Designed by John Johnstone for the Newcastle upon Tyne Improved Industrial Dwellings Co. Ltd., established 1869.

The building is constructed in polychrome English bond brick laid in a four-to-one pattern, with painted ashlar dressings. The rear gable to the right return range is of rubble. The roof is Welsh slate with stone gable coping, brick and rendered chimneys, and a brick and wrought iron parapet.

The main elevation rises 4, 5, and 4 storeys with 13, 5, and 13 windows respectively. A prominent five-bay, five-storey centrepiece is defined by angle pilasters. The entrance door is recessed in a surround with a moulded segmental stone head. Above the door is a segmental panel flanked by paired moulded brackets supporting a moulded first-floor balcony with patterned cast iron balustrade. Paired twentieth-century windows flank the door beneath wide rendered lintels, likely replacing original shop windows.

The first floor features paired narrow sashes of eight panes with fine glazing bars, projecting stone sills, and shallow segmental brick arches with stone keys. A polychrome brick impost band runs across the façade. Similar sashes with impost bands and keyed heads appear on higher floors—paired in the central bay and twelve-pane sashes in other bays. The fourth-floor impost band rises into a two-tiered brick cornice, the lower between the angle pilasters and the upper continuing above them and supporting an elaborately-patterned cast iron roof parapet.

The flanking lower thirteen-bay blocks, defined by full-height pilasters, are treated similarly, with 5, 5, and 3 windows, and paired windows above central doors of the five-bay blocks. These doors have moulded segmental heads set within stone lintels with label moulds, which also form shallow segmental heads over narrow long side lights (now blocked) with projecting stone sills. From the door lintel, a polychrome band continues to form impost and hood bands. Upper floors have sashes and bands matching those in the central block.

Three-bay end blocks have doors in canted corner shops. On the left, both the door and front window are now blocked. On the right, the shop remains active with a six-pane front window beneath an entablature partially obscured by a twentieth-century fascia.

To the right of the central block, the roof parapet is of brick with ashlar coping featuring four lowered sections and plain wrought iron railings with bombe outer stays.

The centrepiece features a mansard roof to the five-storey section with five round-headed dormers, the central one being the largest, constructed in ashlar with a wrought iron finial on a scrolled head. This dormer contains the bold date 1878 and a scroll reading "INDUSTRIAL DWELLINGS". The flanking sections have a flat roof to the right and a pitched roof to the left. Tall chimneys are present throughout: six rendered tall chimneys on the right flat roof, brick chimneys on the side eaves and ridge of the central block, and six on the left roof, all with cornices.

The left return to Tower Street has five windows and a segmental moulded painted-head door positioned to the right of the fourth window. Wide windows flanking this door have been removed and replaced with sashes in blocking. Narrow eight-pane sashes appear at the left of the central bay on the ground floor and paired on upper floors. The right return is similar except for painted brickwork at the left marking a shop with a blocked window and renewed door to the left of a moulded head.

The rear elevation shows projecting wings opposite the doors. Rear sash windows are mostly original with fine glazing bars; some have been replaced with horns. Small twentieth-century windows appear in the rear wings. Upper floors retain some wrought-iron balconies with rails and bombe stays.

Behind each door is a stone staircase contained within a closed stair well.

A commemorative bronze plaque in a wood frame on the right return elevation bears an inscription reading "NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE IMPROVED INDUSTRIAL DWELLINGS CO. LTD ESTABLISHED 1859" and names the original chairman, directors, and shareholders—many of whom were prominent local businessmen.

The building is important both for its townscape value and as probably the earliest surviving example in Newcastle of philanthropic housing provision for industrial workers. The building forms a significant feature within a historic setting on high ground. Immediately in front stands the Keelmen's Hospital of 1701, and immediately to the south-west is the Sallyport Tower with the Ships' Carpenters' Hall of 1716, both on the medieval Town Wall. All Saints' Church is prominent beyond the Sallyport Tower.