Anderson Place

Anderson Place was Newcastle's most spectacular house, the largest, it is said, in the country within a city wall. Originally the land belonged to the church but became the property of the merchant Robert Anderson in 1580. Robert Anderson built the "Newe House" on the site of the old monastery of the Grey Friars. In 1646 Charles I was kept prisoner here. The house was purchased in 1675 by Sir William Blackett, MP for Newcastle and eventual owner of Wallington in Northumberland. Enriched through shipping, coal and lead, he added the vast brick-built wings to the house with modern sash windows. It was sold in 1782 to a builder, George Anderson, whose son named it Anderson Place. The house stood just off Pilgrim Street, approximately on the site of the present Lloyds Bank, in a 13 acre estate. The house was demolished in 1834 when Richard Grainger rebuilt the city centre.