Nos. 1-63, With Attached Walls, Pergolas And Fences

Nos. 1-63, with attached walls, pergolas and fences

A small square and projecting terrace of houses and flats, with a detached house and one pair, designed and built 1979-82 by Ralph Erskine's Arkitektkontor, with Vernon Gracie as site architect and White, Young and Partners as structural engineer. The main contractor was Stanley Miller Ltd.

The buildings are constructed in pale brick metric modular construction with carefully toned mortar and concrete block internal walls, topped with Marley Modern tiled roofs. All are two storeys. The special brick unit, measuring 290mm x 90mm x 65mm, was developed by Crossley and Sons in County Durham in collaboration with the City of Newcastle and forms a 12-inch by 4-inch by 3-inch unit when mortared.

Nos. 1-13 form a terrace with a green and red first-floor balcony to no. 13, green end weatherboarding and a bird box; the rear features brown eaves weatherboarding. Nos. 11, 13, 17-27, 31-33, 51-61 (odd numbers) are flats. No. 15 is detached, with blue vertical weatherboarding, brick retaining walls and a brown fence. Nos. 17-27 have front ramps and brown bird boxes to the end walls of nos. 17-19 and nos. 25-27. The rear of these units has blue and brown vertical weatherboarding with double porches.

Nos. 29-57 form a square of three terraces with brown bird boxes and pergolas. Nos. 29, 31-45 feature blue vertical weatherboarding, an integral brick wall and a brown fence. No. 47 has a green bird box, green front fence and pergola. The frontage to the square is marked by a narrower band of blue weatherboarding at first-floor level and blue metal door hoods. Nos. 51-53 and 55-57 have rear vertical weatherboarding. A central shed between the lines of flats, with brown weatherboarding, forms part of the composition. No. 49 has a bird box and fence with a central entrance linking to no. 47. Nos. 59-63 comprise a house and two flats with green vertical weatherboarding, blue eaves, green fence and bird boxes to each side.

All units have timber windows in timber surrounds with aluminium opening lights and bright timber doors with glazed panels, some of which have been renewed in hardwood. The interiors are not of documented special interest.

The Byker area was first extensively developed in the 1890s and was earmarked for redevelopment from the late 1950s due to a planned new motorway to the north. In March 1967 the Housing Architect's Department proposed a barrier block to shelter the area, an idea supported by Ralph Erskine, who was invited in 1969 to develop the area for Newcastle Corporation. His Plan of Intent, published in 1970, promised a complete redevelopment programme of housing and landscaping while maintaining the neighbourhood's character and rehousing residents without breaking family and social ties. Erskine's achievement in rehousing 40 per cent of the original residents on the original site was exceptional, as were his methods of community consultation. The estate was redeveloped in a rolling programme of no more than 250 units at a time to maintain the community's infrastructure. The design exploits the south-facing sloping site with a system of pedestrian routes and provides specific local individuality to each group of houses. The concept was a sheltering perimeter block protecting the estate from traffic noise and creating a microclimate, with low-rise housing in its lee. The colourful design, developed following the relatively muted pilot scheme at Janet Square, brings the humane concepts of romantic pragmatism with neo-vernacular details and materials to public housing in a distinctive way, marking this as probably the greatest achievement of this important and idiosyncratic international architect.