11 - 19 Benson Place, Byker Wall

And Nos. 12-18 Benson Place, No. 3 Old Vicarage Walk and Nos. 20 & 1 Benson Place. Two mirrored terraces forming a square, with two bungalows and pergolas marking end. 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. Stone to nos. 20 and 21. Blue metal monopitch roofs with plywood box beam purlins. All of two storeys, save for nos. 20 and 21 Benson Place, which are bungalows. All windows of timber in timber subframes with aluminium opening lights. Some doors renewed in hardwood.

Nos. 11-19 (odd) have flat front to square, with brick ends and blue weatherboarding to the central three units (nos. 13-17). Green metal door hoods Bird box at each end. Rear elevation with red eaves weatherboarding, brown weatherboarding around windows forming first-floor strip, and blue weatherboarding to nos. 17 and 19. Nos. 12-18, with no. 3 Old Vicarage Walk have plain brick backs, but are brightly coloured to square, with bright green eaves and blue weatherboarding, save to slightly projecting no. 3 Old Vicarage Walk. Prominent green bird boxes at end. Low walls at each end, and some low fences. Central timber shelter in square, of timber, with blue polygonal metal sheet roof.

Nos. 20 and 21 are a pair of bungalows at end, incorporating wall from building previously on the site as rear elevation. The other three sides of pale modular metric brick, with bright green eaves over, and blue doors and windows. Pergola to front. Wall extends to either side of bungalows, linking them to west with blue fence, fixed seating and tables, and to east with brown shelter with blue pyramidal metal roof, a part of the group, as is the old stone wall with brick opening which bounds this attractively planted square from the parkland to the north. Chirton is one of the most imaginatively detailed, small scale and well-planted neighbourhoods.

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*