1 - 17 Bolam Coyne, Byker Wall

Block of seventeen flats and houses. 1976-8 by Ralph Erskine's Arkitektkontor; site architect Vernon Gracie; structural engineer, White, Young and Partners; main contractor, Shepherd Construction. Concrete block cross-wall construction, clad on external faces with brown, red, orange and buff patterned brickwork, internally to courtyard with buff brick and white weatherboarding. Some dark blue weatherboarding to nos. 16 and 17. Blue metal monopitch roofs supported on plywood box beam purlins. High brick parapets with steel restraints. One-four storeys. Horseshoe-shaped block. Entrance to most flats from Raby Street, but dark blue staircases and balconies lead to nos. 3 and 14 from inside. No. 15 is a three-storey house, no. 16 a two-storey house, and no. 17 a single-storey bungalow. They are all entered over a dark green timber walkway, with brick retaining walls forming circular bastions around nos. 13, 16 and 17. Timber windows in timber surrounds with aluminium opening lights; timber doors with glazed panel, some renewed in hardwood.

In December 1975 Erskine wrote that the Bolam Street site was unique in Byker for its long, narrow shape and relative flatness. Because of the home for the elderly and handicapped being built separately there (Byker Lodge, not recommended), most of the other accommodation was to be houses. The smaller units were thus grouped in this irregularly shaped block with a central courtyard which was to `provide a quiet area for the residents'. The block was made up to three storeys to make the most of the splendid views over the Tyne, and to act as a terminating feature to Ayton Park, which is counterbalanced by The Brow (q.v.) found at the eastern end. In 1999 Erskine wrote that he `knew that the area south of Commercial Road was looked upon as less desirable than upper Byker.

`In an attempt to raise its status I placed the commercial and service centre and also a large park in this area. I designed Bolam Coyne ... [with] some of the characteristics of the actual Byker wall in the hope that also this might contribute to my efforts to create something of the higher status of upper Byker in this area.' Bolam Coyne is the more highly coloured and textured of the two landscaped developments, with the most complex integration of architectural and landscape features. It is one of the most imaginative and remarkable single developments of the estate, a testament to Erskine's inventiveness and sense of adventure in design. LISTED GRADE 2*

Sources
Tyne and Wear Archives, MD/NC/106/28
Fax from Ralph Erskine to English Heritage, 3 December 1999
Building Design, 30 March 1979, pp.16-18
Architectural Review, December 1974, pp.346-62
Mats Egelius, Ralph Erskine, Architect, Stockholm 1990, pp.148-60 LISTED GRADE 2*