Blackett Street, Emerson Chambers

HER Number:
8869

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Blackett Street, Emerson Chambers

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Commercial

Site Type: Broad:
Shop

Site Type: Specific:
Shop

General Period:
20TH CENTURY

Specific Period:
Early 20th Century 1901 to 1932

Form of Evidence:
Extant Building

Description:
Shops and offices. Circa 1903 by Simpson, Lawson and Rayne. Sandstone ashlar with dark granite plinth and doorcases; Welsh slate roof with copper domes. Rich Art Nouveau/Baroque style. 5 storeys and attics; 3 wide bays and canted corner bays. Curved central section has double door between attached Jacobean Ionic columns with exaggerated entasis , side lights and fanlight with Art Nouveau glazing bars. Plainer Ionic cases to shop doors in corner bays; shops have slender pilasters, with long brackets to cornice, and top flowing glazing bars; that on right concealed by c.1970 fascia. Upper floors have shallow canted oriels at varying heights; keystones, scrolled cornices, balustrades, strapwork and top garlanded frieze; corners have bracketed balconies and round, corbelled-out turrets. Ornate copper dome over left turret, 2-tiered with oriental finial; right clock dome in similar style. High central gable, shaped and scrolled, with 2 round-headed windows and oculus; intermediate square-headed dormers each have 2 diagonally-placed high pyramidal roofs with swept eaves; similar roofs to tiers of small lights in high hipped roof. 2 high, corniced ashlar chimneys. LISTED GRADE 2*

Easting:
424820

Northing:
564460

Grid Reference:
NZ424820564460

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Department of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural and Historic Interest, 20/111; Grace McCombie, 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead - Pevsner Architectural Guide, p. 22 and 23 and 156