Blaydon, Shibdon Road, Bisley Hotel

HER Number:
7599

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Blaydon, Shibdon Road, Bisley Hotel

Place:
Blaydon

Map Sheet:
NZ16SE

Class:
Commercial

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Hotel

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Extant Building

Description:
This splendid establishment was erected for Edward Adams Esq. of Swalwell. Set over 3 full storeys with 2 half storeys, it provided the very latest facilities in the most modern taste at the time, with a large and airy public bar, sitting rooms, and a large clubroom, as well as generous accommodation. The pub was named for the National Shooting Centre at Bisley, home of the National Rifle Association, as the publican was a noted and successful rifle shot. The building is finely constructed in neat cyclopean rusticated sandstone, with smooth dressings. The degree of intactness of the composition is remarkable, with the single modern intrusion being floodlights to the front elevation, which are even then modest and discreet. It is beautifully detailed, with moulded stone stall riser, elaborately carved corbels with fluting and sweeping canopies, and solid window surrounds enfolding mainly tripartite windows, but some bipartite to the side. It is uncertain whether the form of the windows has been changed, or whether the detail of what was constructed strayed from the original plans, but certainly the ground floor windows are of a different form. The proposals involved a fairly conventional arrangement, dividing the windows in two with slender columns, but the present windows are unusual in form, divided both vertically and horizontally into 3 sections, with transoms of varying height. The upper windows also have this unusual 3 light form, with single pane sashes topped by fixed lights. The neat and cheerful dormers that animate the steeply pitched slate roof retain their timber sashes, terracotta ball finials and glazed cheeks. The timber fascia with raised lettering is absolutely in keeping, and even the cast iron rainwater goods and some of the vents below the windows are still in situ. This is a handsome building, remarkably complete, extending to the interior with attractive panelling, ceilings, and even decorative tiling to the gents toilets! MATERIALS Sandstone, slate, timber ARCHITECT T Leslie Anderson & Albert P Farthing (7 Royal Arcade, Newcastle) DATES 1892 LOCAL LIST

Easting:
1852

Northing:
6326

Grid Reference:
NZ18526326

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Gateshead Council Local List X20/LL/231; TWAS Archive Plans T282/