Modern building, Eslington Terrace / Clayton Road, NE2

Image: © Mike Quinn Taken: 2 May 2013

Observe how the architect has carefully deployed a plethora of design features to ensure that this building merges harmoniously with the adjacent, rather ugly, late Victorian terrace that occupies the remaining part of Eslington Terrace south of Clayton Road Image First, the bright orange/brown bricks provide a welcome contrast to the dull, boring yellow/grey bricks and stone bays of the terrace. Then, homage is paid to the terrace’s prominent ground and first floor bay windows, which have angled sides, first by making the bays of the new building rectangular in cross-section, and second by starting them at the first floor (above the gaping black entrance to the new block’s car park) and extending them to the top of the front wall - thereby cleverly not aligning with the terrace’s bays at either the top or the bottom. At the same time, the faux-castellated effect neatly breaks what would otherwise have been the mundane continuation of the terrace’s gutter line. The architect has also skilfully avoided what would have been a humdrum extension of the window lines from the terrace by overlapping the tops and bottoms of the windows of the block with those of the terrace in a totally irregular fashion. Additional visual interest is provided by the block’s bay windows having horizontal dividing bars that have been carefully positioned above-centre so as to avoid slavishly copying the equally divided windows in the terrace. The dark brown frames also make a pleasing contrast to the traditional white of those in the terrace. To create yet further visual interest, the slope of the roof is less steep than that of the terrace, so the ridges are not quite at the same level. This nuance isn’t visible from street level in front of the block, but it can (just) be seen from the Eslington Terrace/Clayton Road corner https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Eslington+Terrace,+Newcastle+upon+Tyne&hl=en&ll=54.985919,-1.606128&spn=0.000006,0.004517&sll=55.00418,-1.467898&sspn=0.008627,0.018067&oq=eslington&hnear=Eslington+Terrace,+Newcastle+upon+Tyne,+United+Kingdom&t=m&layer=c&cbll=54.985919,-1.606128&panoid=_qkMFBQ8a1e9JuFq6ziSlA&cbp=12,201.44,,2,-4.23&z=18 . From Osborne Road, this feature is unfortunately obscured by foliage for much of the year https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Eslington+Terrace,+Newcastle+upon+Tyne&hl=en&ll=54.985655,-1.605474&spn=0.001376,0.004517&sll=55.00418,-1.467898&sspn=0.008627,0.018067&oq=eslington&hnear=Eslington+Terrace,+Newcastle+upon+Tyne,+United+Kingdom&t=h&layer=c&cbll=54.985656,-1.605473&panoid=ElcSwcBTmtjzUF1GzLtM0A&cbp=11,262.27,,0,-10.88&z=18 . I omitted mentioning earlier that the photo shows only the south wing of a much larger building. The whole of the structure, which extends northwards to the SW corner of the Eslington Terrace/Clayton Road junction, is shown in the two Streetview images https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Eslington+Terrace,+Newcastle+upon+Tyne&hl=en&ll=54.985556,-1.606107&spn=0.000025,0.018067&sll=55.00418,-1.467898&sspn=0.008627,0.018067&oq=eslington&hnear=Eslington+Terrace,+Newcastle+upon+Tyne,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=54.985451,-1.606068&panoid=8ILv-9e_Wv9R6sumP2FLNw&cbp=12,292.7,,0,-1.74 and https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Eslington+Terrace,+Newcastle+upon+Tyne&hl=en&ll=54.985679,-1.606128&spn=0.000025,0.018067&sll=55.00418,-1.467898&sspn=0.008627,0.018067&oq=eslington&hnear=Eslington+Terrace,+Newcastle+upon+Tyne,+United+Kingdom&t=m&layer=c&cbll=54.985793,-1.606158&panoid=jUQJhy02YSKLtweESsC9UQ&cbp=12,233.43,,0,-7.02&z=16 . The overall impression is that a Vogon spaceship has landed on top of the northern end of the terrace, crushing beneath it whatever was there before. Altogether, an outstanding achievement. Two questions come to mind. First, why has this building not won an award for outstanding architectural merit? And second, how the **** did it get planning permission - especially as it is in the South Jesmond Conservation Area?

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