Newcastle, Pilgrim Street, Nos. 60 to 68

HER Number:
13504

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, Pilgrim Street, Nos. 60 to 68

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE

Class:
Commercial

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Shop

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Extant Building

Description:
Typical early 19th century pinkish-brown hand-made brick in English bond with stone lintels and sills and Welsh slate roof. Plain sandstone string course at window sill level on northern building. Three broad chimney stacks of brick with clay pots. Two three-storey Georgian buildings, which until recently were divided into three properties (Nos. 60, 64 and 68). The buildings are shown on the OS first edition map of 1863 (1:500 scale) with a roofed passage between Nos. 64 and 68, which continued to the rear as Lloyds Court. This is the medieval burgage plot boundary. The buildings were commercial properties. Census returns show that they were occupied by grocers, chemists, booksellers, furniture dealers, fishmongers, a musical instrument seller, a cabinet maker and other trades in the 19th and 20th centuries. No. 68 was the auction house of Messrs Easton and Bell from 1910 to 1935. Their salesrooms ran south through the back parts of No. 70 (the Market Lane Hotel). The Pilgrim Street frontage is of four bays defined by windows (sash frames now removed) on first and second floors. The ground floor has a shop frontage now blocked, with all features removed. The two properties are similar but were separately constructed blocks. Nos. 60 and 64 are broader and have a higher hipped-roof. No. 68 uses the northern sandstone (possibly medieval) wall of No. 70 as its southern wall with a brick gable built above No. 70s's gable. The second bay of No. 60 is new build. The survival of internal fixtures is at most partial. The whole plot is cellared. The cellar walls are of sandstone rubble. They may be earlier than the brick superstructure. The central room in the cellar is built in the same brick with blocked entrances and a blocked fireplace set into the north chimney stack wall. The ground floor has been stripped of original features and is currently in use as a builder's store. All dividing walls have been removed to incorporate the whole block into one commercial property. All plasterwork has been removed with the ceiling laths. Shop fronts have been removed. Six of the 19th century cast-iron columns along the external walls remain. The ceiling joists and first floor floorboards appear to be original. The first floor has been extensively stripped, the window frames and fireplaces removed. Most wall plaster survives but the ceiling plaster and lath has been stripped, leaving only fragmentary portions of florid and ornate cornice mouldings. There is a wall cupboard in the south wall of the southern room and a blocked niche in the east wall. Much of the fabric on the second floor has been compromised due to construction works on the adjacent Bacchus block. Girders and props are required as the structure is poorly tied in to the adjacent block to the south. Wall cupboards survive in two rooms. A single room has been installed in the attic space in No. 64. The roof structure is original with modern reinforecements. Although in poor condition, the buildings represent a pleasantly restrained Georgian architecture and fit very easily with the earlier Market Lane Hotel to the south. There were planning applications in 1879 and 1900-2.

Easting:
2500

Northing:
6426

Grid Reference:
NZ25006426

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Grace McCombie, 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead - Pevsner Architectural Guide, p 144; Alan Williams Archaeology, 2005, 60-68 Pilgrim Street, City of Newcastle upon Tyne - Archaeological Assessment and Building Recording; The Archaeological Practice, 1994, 52-78 Grey Street and Adjoining Lands