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Ellison Place, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, NE1 8XS

The concrete and glass, 5 storey, MEA House, inappropriately spans the old street. Owned by the MEA Trust it provides office accommodation to registered charities. The building was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen on 1st July 1974. Connected to the Bewick Court platform level by the pedestrian walkway seen on the right side which crosses the car park and Durant Road.

An original building, by local practice Ryder & Yates, 1974, "the first British building to be purpose-built to house many voluntary services". It is still connected to some of the few remaining fragments of elevated walkway planned as part of the city's 1963 development plan. Unusually, the listing spells out a number of reasons for its designation: engineering interest, architectural interest, accessibility, architects, degree of survival, and social context. Grade II listed. It is now an office block for the exclusive use of charities. See also Image

MEA House is owned by The MEA Trust, a registered charity; it is a five storey city centre office block which provides modern office accommodation to registered charities at rents below market rate http://www.meahouse.org.uk/about-us/ . The building was officially opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1974; it underwent a £4m refurbishment in 2000 and was re-opened in 2001 by HRH Princess Royal. Somewhat unbelievably, the building received a commendation from the RIBA in their national competition in 1976. Me, I think that it's pig-ugly and totally out of sympathy with the adjacent Image and the brick buildings of Northumbria University to the east. I'm sorry that the photo doesn't do full justice to the purple brick pill-box affair sticking out incongruously on the west (left) side of the building. Fully deserves inclusion with the other Masterpieces of Modern Architecture in Newcastle https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=109769006 .

Cardinal Basil Hume (1923-1999) was born in the house in the centre of the photo (there is a blue plaque on the wall). See also Image

Ellison Place was named after Cuthbert Ellison, Sheriff of Newcastle in 1544 and Mayor in 1549 and 1554. No. 1 Ellison Place was used as accommodation of visiting judges in 1866 and became the City's second Mansion House in 1886. No. 6 Ellison Place was the home of William Boutland Wilkinson (1819 - 1892) who was the inventor of reinforced-concrete building (using wire ropes to bind the concrete). A reinforced-concrete cottage was in this location until the 1950s. On the right, over the car park, is MEA House, built in 1974 using similar technology Image

Pedimented doorcase with fanlight and columns with fluted necking. A boot-scraper survives; the ironwork does not look original. Full view: Image

A Unitarian Church and attached meeting rooms including Durant Hall dating from 1938-40, designed by Cackett, Burns Dick & Mackellar. Probably the last Art Deco building to be built in Newcastle. Tyne and Wear HER (6245): Newcastle, Ellison Place, No. 30, Church of the Divine Unity http://www.twsitelines.info

By Cackett, Burns Dick & Mackellar, 1938-40. Showing much Dutch influence in its use of brick (which covers a concrete and steel frame), and hardly wearing its religion on its sleeve. Grade II listed.

A terrace of five houses dating from c1810. The first two have large stone porches which look as if they were brought from elsewhere; the others have more typical Georgian doorcases (Image]). Grade II listed. Now largely taken over by Northumbria University.