85 - 105 Raby Street, Byker Wall

Varied terrace of houses. 1979-82 by by Ralph Erskine's Arkitektkontor; site architect Vernon Gracie; structural engineer, White, Young and Partners; main contractor, Stanley Miller Ltd. Pale yellow metric modular brick on concrete block construction with weatherboard cladding; Marley Modern tiled roofs. Two and three storeys.

No. 85 is a house, of two storeys with brown and blue weatherboarding to first floor at window level under eaves, and projecting brown weatherboarded porch under sloping tiled roof. Nos 87-9 are three-storey houses, with green weatherboarding to first and second floor, with blue weatherboarding to eaves and projecting first-floor balconies with brown timber balustrades and planting boxes on green subframe. Blue doors. Green bird boxes at either end. Nos. 91-3 are also three storeys, but lower, with green weatherboarding, save for blue vertical strip and second-floor eaves, and a brown bird box to no. 93. Red doors and metal door hoods. Nos. 95-97 of two storeys, with brown and blue weatherboarding forming a strip between first floor windows, deep ground-floor windows painted blue. Projecting brick porches with brown weatherboarded fronts and sloping tiled roofs. Vertical brown weatherboarding to rear. No. 99 of three storeys, with green weatherboarding, save for blue weatherboarding around second-floor windows and eaves. Green timber to windows. Red door and red metal door hood. Triangular fencing to either side. High-level timber link via timber heating casing to nos. 101-5, which are three-storey, with brown weatherboarding and windows (blue eaves), and red door hoods. Distinctive white brickwork round the door to no. 105. All windows of timber in timber surrounds with aluminium opening lights; timber doors with glazed panel, some renewed in hardwood where not specifically noted as important to the composition.

This is a long and prominent group on the principal pedestrian route through the Byker estate.

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*