Accumulator Tower In Albert Edward Dock

The accumulator tower in Albert Edward Dock is a Grade II* listed hydraulic accumulator tower built in 1882 for the Tyne Improvement Commissioners, designed by engineers Ure and Messent. It is constructed from rock-faced sandstone with quoins, an ashlar plinth, coping, and dressings, topped with a Welsh slate roof. The tower features two high storeys and one bay. There is a partly-glazed door beneath a rock-faced elliptical arch, with similar arches and projecting stone sills for the windows, although the windows on the east face are blocked up. The roof is swept pyramidal, featuring a railed lookout on top and a bargeboarded gable above star-patterned panels, which are said to have contained clock faces. Inside, the tower showcases high-quality sandstone ashlar, an iron stair leading to the machinery, and hydraulic machinery. This structure is historically significant as the only surviving example of hydraulic machinery on the Tyne, which was first developed in Newcastle by William Armstrong in the 1840s. At the time of the survey, the tower was unused.