Newcastle, Barras Bridge, Hancock Museum

HER Number:
8013

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, Barras Bridge, Hancock Museum

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26NW

Class:
Education

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Museum

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Extant Building

Description:
Museum. 1878 by John Wardle for the Newcastle Natural History Society. Sandstone ashlar with plinth. Greek Revival style. Two storeys. Wide stone steps up to terrace with five double doors and overlights. Plain stone reveals to doors and to wood mullioned and transomed windows in end bays and on first floor. Square Doric attached columns. Entablature and parapet with raised panels over projecting wings and over central low relief THE HANCOCK MUSEUM on fascia. Square piers flanking lowest steps have cast iron urn-shaped supports to square gas lamps. Pevsner adds that "it is unbelievably Dobsonian for that date, with Dobson's beautiful ashlar, his Doric pilasters and heavy attic, and even the sans-serif capital letters of the pre-Victorian nineteenth century". The museum was named after renowned local naturalists John (d.1890) and Albany Hancock. Lord Armstrong made a generous contribution to its cost, and his statue now stands outside it (HER 5179). LISTED GRADE 2*

Easting:
2485

Northing:
6516

Grid Reference:
NZ24856516

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Department of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 14/83; N. Pevsner and I. Richmond, second edition revised by G. McCombie, P. Ryder and H. Welfare, 1992, The Buildings of England - Northumberland, p 452; Grace McCombie, 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead - Pevsner Architectural Guide, p. 23; Malcolm L Scaife, 1974, Newcastle Old and New