Woodbine Villa/Cottage, Villa Place

A house with fine architectural detail. When it was built, this was a select and semi-rural suburb with dispersed villa housing often built and occupied by wealthy merchants from Newcastle. Woodbine Cottage had landscaped gardens {1}. A detached house built by 1836. The columnar portico and canted bays are mid-Victorian additions. Restoration has altered the roof, side and rear {2}. The setting of this imposing villa has changed dramatically since it was built in the first half of the 19th century, when it was ‘pleasantly situated at Windmill Hills’ with a stable, coach house and large garden. It is double fronted with a Welsh slate roof, later embellished by canted bays flanking a quasi-classical porch. Since then, many other buildings have grown up around all 4 sides, leaving the only curtilage as a tiny yard to the rear. The building itself has been altered – the gable apexes being rebuilt in brick, the interior gutted, the basements removed and the rooflights inserted during conversion to flats in approximately 1980. However, it retains a grand and commanding presence with its ashlar frontage, adding refinement and contrasting with the brick terraces. Its position at the terminus of Vila Place makes it highly visible from the main highway (Coatsworth Road), and therefore makes a valuable contribution to the street scene. The retention of the timber sash windows to the front elevation (multi-pane to upper storey and late single-pane sashes to lower storey currently painted deep blue) is important for the architectural integrity of the building, as is the balanced composition of the central porch with solid bays to e internal features remain. First mention in Gateshead Observer 16th March 1844 'To let with stable, coach house and large garden'. MATERIALS Sandstone, slate, timber LOCAL LIST