Description

NZ 26 SW NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE BENWELL LANE (south side)

11/98 Royal Victoria School for the
Blind. Benwell Dene
17.12.71

G.V. II

House, now school. 1865 by Alfred Waterhouse for Dr. Thomas Hodgkin. Hammer-
dressed snecked sandstone with ashlar plinth and dressings; graduated dark slate
roof with serrated ridge tiles and stone gable copings. Irregular plan. Tudor-
Gothic style. 2 storeys and attics; entrance front of 6 bays, with one at left
and 2 at right gabled and breaking forward to range round courtyard; 2 bays set
back at left, 4 bays extending to right from gabled end of right wing. Extruded
2 storey porch at left of courtyard contains boarded door; loggia, now glazed,
in inner right return, has 2 paired openings, central octagonal columns with
cushion capitals, and low walls except in right entrance bay which has panelled
door with etched glazing under 2-centred arch. Scattered fenestration. 3-light
stone-mullioned-and-transomed stair window at right of central section. All
other windows sashes with flat stone lintels, alternate-block jambs with
shouldered chamfers, and sloping sills. Left projection has rounded ground floor
corners corbelled out to first floor continuous string; above this are 3
elliptical-headed niches containing low-relief coats of arms. Central section
has 3 high-gabled dormers with bargeboards and clove finials. Many ashlar-coped
ridge chimneys with buttresses and square yellow pots. Interior shows geometric-
patterned tiled entrance hall and dog-leg stair with pierced balustrade and grip
handrail. Stair window glass has coats of arms of Middlesex, Newcastle and
Cornwall, initials TH and LAH and date 1865. Gothic cast-iron radiator cover
in hall. Historical note: Hodgkin was a notable local historian. He gave the
house to the Royal Victoria Home in 1894, and at the same time gave its grounds
to the then Urban District of Benwell as a public park. Source: M. Hope Dodds,
Northumberland County History, 1930, p.234.

Listing NGR: NZ2125264273

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Royal Victoria School For The Blind at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26275799

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)