Monk Street, Blackfriars, south range

Listed building description - Blackfriars south range (formerly listed as Nos. 12 to 17 consecutive) G.V. I Dominican Friary, later Company Halls and almshouses, now restaurant and tourist information centre and exhibition space with Smiths' Company Hall. Medieval with C18 and C19 alterations; restored 1978-81. Coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings; Welsh slate roof at left to Cordwainers' hall, other roofs pantiles with 2 rows of stone slates at eaves. Cordwainers' Hall rebuilt 1843 by John Wardle (dated door head). 2 storeys; 4:3:3:3 windows. Slightly-projecting left bay has boarded, studded door in moulded Tudor-arched surround with date in spandrels and commemorative panel above; raised dripmould contains carved Cordwainers' arms. Single cusped window above. Plainer Tudor arch to a second door flanked by 3-light casements with rounded top corners; cusped 2-light windows above, all with label moulds. Eaves string and roll-moulded parapet. Butchers' hall: rebuilt 1739; renewed door at right and ground-floor horizontal sliding sashes under renewed stone lintels. Renewed cross windows with wedge stone lintels above, and small blocked rectangular window. Tanners' Hall: renewed chamfered 2-centred passage arch at right to cloister; 4 lancets with some renewed masonry and deep splayed reveals. 3 renewed cross windows with flat stone lintels above. Buttress with offsets between this and Smiths' Hall which has resited carved Company arms dated 1679 above studded boarded door in shaped, moulded surround; this bay, added in C19, has top window in gothic stone surround. 3 ground-floor lancets and 2 cross windows above, flanking commemorative panel dating repairs of 1770. Interior shows wall benches in position of medieval refectory benches. Upper floor has chimney piece dated 1739 in Butchers' Hall; oval table with benches and turned balustrades in Tanners' Hall; day stairs alongside passage; round table with benches and iron railings, wall benches, chimney piece with paired classical attached columns, in Smiths' Hall. Source: Barbara Harbottle "Black Friars, Newcastle upon Tyne" in Royal Archaeological Institute Proceedings 1976 pp 112-114. A scheduled ancient monument.
LISTED GRADE 1 AND SCHEDULED ANCIENT MONUMENT