Newcastle Packet Inn

Public house on Sandside, dating to 1898-9, designed by local architect Frank Tugwell. The building is notable for incorporating substantial timber framing fragments from a high-status late medieval house of around 1500, and was extended around 1920.

The medieval timber framing survives as the principal structural elements on the left side of the building, visible from a narrow private alleyway. Six posts are embedded in the later wall, four of which support a jetty plate with joists and jetty bressumer above, fitted with downward sloping braces, posts and a wall plate at first floor level. The front corner posts are heavily carved with figures and incised writing that has been the subject of academic research. The original medieval house is believed to have been H-plan with jettied gabled wings facing the street, dated to the late 15th or early 16th century based on similarities to York buildings of around 1500. The carved timbers appear to derive from prints by German engraver "bxg" in circulation from the 1470s, some redrawn by Hans Schaufelein in the 1520s.

The public house structure itself is built of brick and stucco with applied mock timber framing, beneath a tiled roof with tall diagonally set brick chimney stacks. The main section features a pair of gables facing the harbour front with deeply overhanging verges and mock timber framing. The first floor windows are unusual, each featuring an outward bowed central light supported by a timber bracket. The ground floor frontage is almost entirely glazed with first floor mullions. The right-hand extension, dating to around 1920, has less convincing mock timber framing at first floor level and a splayed gable with a flush verge. The ground floor comprises brick with a tall stuccoed plinth and a broad doorway with stone surround, now blocked and converted to a window.

The interior of the public area has been opened out and is not of special architectural interest.

The medieval house is believed to have survived intact until around 1725 when a new front was added to the centre and west wing, at which time it served as the Post House. From around 1830 this section became a public house, with the eastern part refronted as a shop. In 1898-9 Tugwell rebuilt the centre and west wings while incorporating the surviving medieval timbers. Around 1920 the east wing was rebuilt and incorporated into the public house use.