2 - 44 Raby Street, Byker Wall

Includes No. 26A, Byker Photographic Workshop. Five short terraces of houses, and two individual houses (nos. 2 and 20). 1978-9 by Ralph Erskine's Arkitektkontor; site architect Vernon Gracie; structural engineer, White, Young and Partners; main contractor, Shepherd Construction. Pale brick metric modular brick construction on timber frame, partly clad in weatherboarding, low-pitched metal roofs on plywood box beam purlins. Two storeys. The terraces provide incident by being set at right angles to the street, with side doors and linking fences. No. 2 has green timber windows and green weatherboarded eaves, green fence link to no. 4. Nos. 4-10 with green and red weatherboarding, and green weatherboarding to rear. Projecting brick porches all of brick with blue roofs, and prominent red door to side of no. 4. Nos. 12-18 with green and red weatherboarded eaves, and green weatherboarding to rear; green door hoods. Green bird boxes to either end. No. 20 has green weatherboarding to front and rear, with round bastion garden feature wall to rear behind green fences. Fence link to nos. 12-18. Nos. 22-26 and 26a (the Byker Photographic Workshop) has green weatherboarding, with a red vertical band between units. Green weatherboarding to single-storey workshop, which has a red door; blue roofs to brick porches on nos. 24 and 26. Nos. 28-34 have green and brown weatherboarding with red vertical bands between units; sloping roof over end garage to no. 26; blue door hoods. Green bird box to no. 34. Pergola link between no. 34 and no. 36, with have green weatherboarded flank walls. Nos. 36-44 form an `L'-shaped terrace, with black bird boxes to nos. 40 and 42. Weatherboarded eaves of green with red vertical stripes to nos. 36-40, blue first-floor weatherboarding to nos. 42 and 44. Red and blue doors with horizontal panels under blue hoods. Windows of timber in timber surrounds with aluminium opening lights. Timber doors, of special interest where noted, otherwise with some replacements in hardwood. Interiors not inspected but understood not to be of special interest. This is a particularly charming group for the incidence of decorative detailing such as linking walls and fences, with bird boxes to many end walls providing accents to the street.

The Byker area, first extensively developed in the 1890s, was earmarked for redevelopment from the late 1950s, with a new motorway to the north. In March 1967 the Housing Architect's Department proposed the building of a barrier block to shelter the area, and this idea was supported by Ralph Erskine, who was invited to develop the area for Newcastle Corporation in 1969. His Plan of Intent, published in 1970, promised a complete redevelopment programme of housing and landscaping with cost yardsticks, while maintaining the traditions and character of the neighbourhood, and to rehouse the residents without breaking family and social ties. His achievement in rehousing 40% of the original residents on the original site was exceptional, as were his methods of keeping the community informed of development and seeking their support and suggestions for the low-rise housing. In achieving these goals Erskine sought to exploit the south-facing sloping site, to develop a system of pedestrian routes through the estate and to provide a `specific "local" individuality to each group of houses.' The estate was redeveloped in a rolling programme of no more than 250 units at a time, to try to maintain the community's infrastructure. The idea was a sheltering perimeter block, which protects the estate from traffic noise and creates a micro climate, with low-rise housing in its lee. The modular metric facing brick of 290mm x 90mm x 65mm was developed by Crossley and Sons in County Durham, in collaboration with the City of Newcastle. When mortared, it forms a 12" by 4" by 3" unit. The inventiveness of the decoration, developed following the relatively muted `pilot scheme' at Janet Square, marks Byker out from other post-war housing for bringing the humane concepts of `romantic pragmatism' with its neo-vernacular details and materials to public housing in a unique way. It is probably also the greatest achievement of this important and idiosyncratic international architect. `If there is something marvellously lighthearted about the design, this I would say is the topographical keynote of the new Byker' (Architectural Design, June 1975, p.333).

Sources
Tyne and Wear Archives
Architectural Review, December 1974, pp.346-62
Mats Egelius, Ralph Erskine, Architect, Stockholm 1990, pp.148-60 LISTED GRADE 2*