1 - 9 and 2 - 10 Benson Place, Byker Wall

And No. 4 Old Vicarage Walk. Two mirrored terraces, each of five houses, forming formal square with end pergola. 1976-78 by Ralph Erskine's Arkitektkontor; site architect Vernon Gracie; structural engineer, White, Young and Partners; main contractor Shepherd Construction Limited. Pale modular metric brick on timber frame, with weatherboarding. Blue metal monopitch roofs with plywood box beam purlins. Two storeys, the end houses at right angles and entered from doors at side.

Nos. 1-9 (odd) Benson Place and no. 4 Old Vicarage Walk form the west side of the square. Book-ended composition to square, with brick end houses and weatherboarding to nos. 3-9 (odd), with green metal door hoods. Red metal door hoods to end units entered to side. Red weatherboarded eaves to rear (no. 9 brown), which continue through two-storey projections to nos. 1 Benson Place and 4 Old Vicarage Walk, . Nos. 2-10 (even) Benson Square and no. 2 Old Vicarage Walks have projecting single-storey catslide roofs at each end on outward sides away from square. Front to square with bright green eaves, soft blue weatherboarding to lower parts of nos. 2-10; green metal door hoods. All windows of timber in timber sub-frames with aluminium opening lights (mainly sliding). Red and blue doors, some renewed in hardwood. Interiors not inspected but understood not to be of special interest.

Attached fences to rear of houses, with spur walls at either end. Walls also round square. Outside nos. 1 and 2 Benson Place a square brown timber pergola or shelter, with brown timber pyramidal roof. At entrance to square a small timber pergola forms arch, with built-in seating.

Benson Place, with its fine planting and seats, is a key feature of the Chirton neighbourhood.

The Byker area, first extensively developed in the 1890s, was earmarked for redevelopment from the late 1950s, with a new motorway to the north. In March 1967 the Housing Architect's Department proposed the building of a barrier block to shelter the area, and this idea was supported by Ralph Erskine, who was invited to develop the area for Newcastle Corporation in 1969. His Plan of Intent, published in 1970, promised a complete redevelopment programme of housing and landscaping with cost yardsticks, while maintaining the traditions and character of the neighbourhood, and to rehouse the residents without breaking family and social ties. His achievement in rehousing 40% of the original residents on the original site was exceptional, as were his methods of keeping the community informed of development and seeking their support and suggestions for the low-rise housing. In achieving these goals Erskine sought to exploit the south-facing sloping site, to develop a system of pedestrian routes through the estate and to provide a `specific "local" individuality to each group of houses.' The estate was redeveloped in a rolling programme of no more than 250 units at a time, to try to maintain the community's infrastructure. The idea was a sheltering perimeter block, which protects the estate from traffic noise and creates a micro climate, with low-rise housing in its lee. The modular metric facing brick of 290mm x 90mm x 65mm was developed by Crossley and Sons in County Durham, in collaboration with the City of Newcastle. When mortared, it forms a 12" by 4" by 3" unit. The inventiveness of the decoration, developed following the relatively muted `pilot scheme' at Janet Square, marks Byker out from other post-war housing for bringing the humane concepts of `romantic pragmatism' with its neo-vernacular details and materials to public housing in a unique way. It is probably also the greatest achievement of this important and idiosyncratic international architect. `If there is something marvellously lighthearted about the design, this I would say is the topographical keynote of the new Byker' (Architectural Design, June 1975, p.333).

Sources
Tyne and Wear Archives
Architectural Review, December 1974, pp.346-62
Mats Egelius, Ralph Erskine, Architect, Stockholm 1990, pp.148-60 LISTED GRADE 2*