Benwell Lane, Royal Victoria School for the Blind

HER Number:
6361

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Benwell Lane, Royal Victoria School for the Blind

Place:
Benwell

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Education

Site Type: Broad:
School

Site Type: Specific:
School for the Blind

General Period:
POST MEDIEVAL

Specific Period:
Victorian 1837 to 1901

Form of Evidence:
Extant Building

Description:
House, now school. 1865 by Alfred Waterhouse for Dr. Thomas Hodgkin. Hammer-dressed snecked sandstone with ashlar plinth and dressings; dark slate roof with serrated ridge tiles and stone gable copings. Irregular plan. Tudor-Gothic style. 2 storeys and attics. Range around a courtyard. Extruded 2 storey porch at left of courtyard contains boarded door; loggia now glazed. Scattered fenestration - mullioned and transomed stair window, others sashes. Left projection has niches with low-relief coat of arms. Ashlar-coped ridge chimneys with buttresses and square yellow pots. Interior - geometric-patterned tiled entrance hall and dog-leg stair with pierced balustrade and grip handrail. Stair window glass has coats of arms of Middlesex, Newcastle and Cornwall, initials TH and LAH and date 1865. Gothic cast-iron radiator cover in hall. Hodgkin was a notable local historian. He gave the house to the Royal Victoria Home in 1894 and gave its grounds to the Urban District of Benwell as a public park. LISTED GRADE 2

Easting:
421250

Northing:
564270

Grid Reference:
NZ421250564270

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Department of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest 11/98; M. Hopes Dodds, 1930, Northumberland County History, p 234; I Farrier, 2015, Title Deeds to Benwell Dene House - West Newcastle Picture History Collection