City Road, Keelmen's Hospital

Built in 1701 of brick with a central frontispiece with octagonal lantern above, square clock tower and Dutch gables, the building encloses a central courtyard. The hospital provided accomodation for widows and children of deceased keelmen, or for those who were ill or destitute. The money for the Hospital was raised by a levy of 4d (2p) a tide on the keelmen themselves. It cost £2000. Scene of a violent murder on New Year's Day 1829, when Jane Jameson, a fishwife, murdered her mother in a drunken rage, Jameson's trial and execution drew huge crowds, because she was the first woman to be publicly hanged in Newcastle for 71 years. The building is now used as student accomodation. Thomas Oliver (1844) reports that the keelmen had a charitable fund in 1697 and in 1788 an act was passed for establishing a permanent fund for those Tyneside keelmen unable to maintain themselves. In 1729 about 200 keelmen formed themselves into a benefit society to regulate the hospital and keep it in repair. On the ground floor there was a central door from which two passages led. At the end of the passages were 4 staircases, each with 17 steps and 28 rooms. On the first floor there were another 26 rooms and a club room. There were conveniences adjoining the boundary walls of the site. MCCombie - architect unknown. Plain brick quadrangle of 1701-4. It was paid for by levying a penny a tide on the keelmen who lived in crowded Sandgate. In the centre of the south range is a square, domed tower with sundial and clock (HER 12218). Pilasters in three orders flank the pedimented plain doorcase and at the angles of the tower, which has a commemorative panel. Dormers with shaped gables, slightly clumsy scroll decoration and central lozenges, all brick. The whole has been much repaired and restored: no visible evidence of the rear tower of C18 illustrations. The retaining wall was recorded in 2009 by TWM.