Newcastle, Grey Street, Central Arcade

HER Number:
6843

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, Grey Street, Central Arcade

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE

Class:
Commercial

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Shopping Arcade

General Period:
Modern

Specific Period:
C20

Form of Evidence:
Extant Building

Description:
Architect J. Ordnance Survey mapwald and Son - within Exchange Buildings (which is separately listed). Nos 1 to 22 Grey Street (shops on west to rear of 120-150 grainger Street. Paving by Rust's Vitreous Mosaics of Battersea. The Exchange Buildings interior was gutted by fire 1901. Entirely reconstructed inside in 1905-6 to form hotel and arcade with 2 rows of shops. Original had Corinthian columns after Temple of Vesta at Tivoli. Domes at each corner of the triangle. The modern shop fronts at ground floor have now been replaced by copies of 19th century. Sash windows on upper floors without glazing bars. Cornice below attic floor. Entrance corridors - tiled double arches at Market Street and Grey Street entrances. Centre column, composite order, dated 1906 in cartouche in spandrel, gold Art Nouveau tiled shaft, lettered lintel. Ground floor shops original, plate glass, fine timber frames, shallow facia. Wrought iron balustrade to gallery. Upper floor not open to public. All upper floor elevations in dark brown and gold faience (by Burnmantofts). Rich Renaissance decoration, scalloped arched window heads. Ionic capitals, Venetian arches above entrances. Roof glazed barrel vault with ventilation lantern, supported by steel arches. Building completely restored 1980. Hotel now offices. Specialist shops at ground floor. LISTED GRADE 2*. Built in 1838 and intended for use as a corn market, but instead was used as a news room until 1867 when the arcade was ravaged by fire. It was rebuilt and opened as an art gallery and concert hall. It closed due to lack of visitors in 1869. In 1870 the building was leased by T.P. Barkas and T.H. Twedy and reopened as an art gallery and news room. In 1892 the Central Exchange News Room contained an art gallery and concert hall. The adjoining fifty bedroom Central Exchange Hotel was run by John Dykes. There was another fire in 1901 and the building was destroyed. The Central Arcade reopened in 1906 as a shopping centre. J.G. Windows music shop opened here in 1908, on the site of the former hotel. The shop is said to be haunted by the spirit of a young unmarried woman who worked at the hotel who threw herself down the lift shaft on finding that she was pregnant {Kirkup, 2009}.

Easting:
2486

Northing:
6434

Grid Reference:
NZ24866434

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 6843 >> I. Ayris, 1997, A City of Palaces, pp 38-39 and 81; M. MacKeith, 1985, Shopping Arcades 1817-1939, pp 105-6; N. Pevsner and I. Richmond, second edition revised by G. McCombie, P. Ryder and H. Welfare, 1992, The Buildings of England: Northumberland, p 490; Department of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest; Rob Kirkup, 2009, Ghostly Tyne and Wear, pages 52-54; Grace McCombie, 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead - Pevsner Architectural Guide, p. 23 and 156-8; David Lovie, 1997, The Buildings of Grainger Town, p 7