55 Westgate Road was the home of Newcastle Arts Centre’s office, Details art material’s store, and a picture framing department from 1982 until 2000. In 2001 the building became vacant except for the office of Newcastle Arts Centre Trust awaiting a complete overhaul and restoration. A little further up the street is a group of buildings that now house Newcastle Arts Centre, and which date back to the construction of a Milecastle on the Roman Wall, upon which Westgate Road is built.

The Assembly House as site of the present 55/57 Westgate Road has seen a wide range of occupants, and this stretch of Westgate Street was certainly occupied from the 16th Century. The building has been rebuilt at least once and ‘re-cased’ twice. The early cellars are built from stone and provided the foundations for a timber framed building with brick infill. The house was re-cased in brick in the late 17th Century and re-cased in stone in the mid 18th Century. The front wall is 3 walls thick faced with a grey millstone grit that is much harder than the local dune sandstone. By contrast the delicate doorway is made from a very fine sandstone which suggests that it may have been a special commission or salvaged from another building. In the 1680’s it was the home of an Irish Roman Catholic, Sir William Creagh. He was made Mayor and Freeman of the City by Royal Mandate, this being part of James II’s efforts to assert the power of the Crown – at the expense of Newcastle’s privileges and independence. The King removed the incumbent Mayor and officials, ordering the electors to choose Creagh and other Royal nominees. The electors refused, on the grounds that they were “papists and persons not qualified”. This action had no effect, Creagh and his cronies simply assumed office. However, his period of power was short lived. Resentment at royal interference in the city’s politics, Creagh’s religious sympathies and factional rivalry among the ruling elite combined to remove him. Thus, when William of Orange landed in England in October 1688, Creagh was removed from office and his political career came to an end.

From 1716 to 1736 this was know as the Assembly House (at the same time playing host to a school, for young ladies!). These public assemblies for dancing and card playing were a new feature of northern society and at first appear to have encountered considerable opposition – as objectionable on moral grounds. The Newcastle Courant advertised “Plays, Masquerades and Assemblies – every night during the races” and “a raffle for 12 fine fans… at half a crown a ticket”. These were, no doubt, occasions when the habitual peace and tranquillity of the street were somewhat disturbed…” a fit of dissipation seized it, and instead of the usual sleepy repose, there was a clattering of carriages, and flaring on links and sounds of music and revelry upon the midnight air” (Charlton). In 1735 the celebrated Newcastle Composer Charles Avison performed his first subscription concert here and the building now has a City plaque to commemorate this event.

The building was named The Assembly House on the Corbridge Map of 1723.

Meanwhile it had a more conventional role as the home of leaders of the community. Next door is Lady Jane Clavering’s House who had an outstanding role is the development of the Newcastle Coal Trade and Railways.

It became the home of Christopher Fawcett who acquired the house in 1777. He was Recorder of Newcastle 1746 until 1753 when he lost his post because of reported Jacobite sympathies,( as a student he had toasted the Jacobite’s) He later regained the post in 1769 and lived here as Recorder until his death in 1794. During this time the south side took on the form of a grand country house. The interior in particular contains some rare and elaborate “Imperial” plasterwork in a Northern version of the Italian style. Inspired by the fact that it stands on the line of the Hadrian’s Wall and that the City was a key border town of the English monarchy thereby reflecting the owners homage to both Empires. This decoration may well have been a statement of loyalty to the Crown by Christopher Fawcett. He was a Trustee of the new Infirmary built nearby and may have used the same craftsmen to decorate the staircase and insert the Venetian window.

It is notable that the eminent Newcastle architect William Newton, lived nearby. Newton was a much sought after Newcastle Architect who designed Howick Hall and would have worked for Fawcett on the completion of the Newcastle Infirmary. Newton was also responsible for the nearby Charlotte Square and lived at Number 1.

After 1736 Assemblies met at the Groat Market and other locations up to the opening of the Assembly Rooms in 1776 that were designed by William Newton and stand opposite 55 & 57 Westgate Road. Most of the internal fabric of this house dates to before the 1780’s and still remains above and behind the Victorian shop front, and is reflected in the fact that it is a Grade II Star listed building.

On the Venetian window, which on the North side of 55 Westgate Road, is an inscription that tells a story: ‘Zachriah Tyzack August 8 1780’

In 1737 Zachariah Tyzack is described as a ‘glass man’ at North Shields (Buckley F. Glasshouses on the Tyne in the 18th century. Transactions of the Society of Glass Technology 1926 Vol. 10, 44.) Cited in the Rush, J., A Beilby Oddessy from the Newcastle Advertiser, 27th December 1753: ‘Yesterday in the afternoon, a man going accidentally the Mushroom Glasshouse near this town with a charged fowling-piece in his hand, carelessly laid it down, when Zachary Tyzack, one of the workmen taking it up, mortally wounded William Randal another of the said workmen’.

The house became the home of William Peters, an eminent lawyer active at the time of the ‘Great Reform Bill’1832, and the last man but one in Newcastle to wear a “pigtail” , a copy of the Magna Carta once owned by him is now in Harvard University Law Library. Subsequently, the Misses Clayton, sisters of the celebrated John Clayton, lived here. In the 1870’s it was divided and renumbered for No 55 to house the Northumberland Club, while No 57 reverted to a private home and became the birthplace of Sir William Hume ( July 1879), a leading heart specialist and father of Cardinal Basil Hume.

In 1885 Henry Walker & Son converted the ground floor of 55 Westgate Road into a shop, and this was followed by the addition of workshops over the courtyard and garden to the rear, which have since been demolished to reveal the original elevation (1987). Walker & Son were Hardware manufacturers and inventors of the pneumatic cash transit system used extensively in early department stores. About 1904, 57 Westgate also had a shop front cut into the street elevation and from about 1924 was trading as Woolfe’s picture framers and art dealers. A photograph shows that both were still trading in 1956 at this house while Westgate Road was still a busy street. Henry Walker & Son invited Architects to visit this building at the time of the 1925 Exhibition. Pevsner recorded the house. In 1957 the ground floor of 55 suffered a ‘make over’ by the Northern Gas Board with chimneys cut through and suspended ceilings installed.

The attempt to modernize Newcastle in the 1960’s with a massive redevelopment plan that stalled with the property crash of 1974, placed much of Westgate Road under severe planning blight which, together with the building of Eldon Square Shopping Centre, moved the focus of the City north. The result was a period of rapid decline and the accidental preservation of many historic buildings which are now regarded as a valuable heritage.

By the 1990’s the area is a focus for inner city restoration and development, with a potentially prosperous future.

Newcastle Arts Centre was at tenant from 1982 and bought the freehold in 1987. The Art Centre’s office and trading activities were rehoused at the Centre in 2000. The building had a major overhaul in 2009 with the help of English Heritage and won a Georgian Society Award for this work.

Today the building is in a sound condition awaiting internal restoration of the revealed historic fabric and careful conversion to bring the building alive.

Architects:
GWK
David Cansfield

Consultant:
Cyril Winskell

Archaeologists:
Northern Counties Archaeological Services
John Nolan

Main Contractor:
Quadriga

Main Roof Timber repairs and treatment:
Peter Cox

Plaster work:
Decorative Plaster Co Newcastle

Restoration Carpentry and decoration:
Newcastle Arts Centre

Stone Mason:
Phil Mason