Summary
House and attached garden wall, 1820s.
Reasons for Designation
Number 33 Brandling Park is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* a largely intact Regency town house which falls within the 1700-1840 time-frame when there is a presumption in favour of listing;
* the articulation of the principal elevation and the good use of materials, combine to produce an elegant composition;
* the possession of a virtually intact plan-form and a wealth of Regency plasterwork, joinery and chimneypieces.
Group value:
* it benefits from a spatial, historic and functional group value with a number of other listed houses and terraces in the locality of a similar style and date.
History
Brandling Village developed from 1820 in what was then a largely rural area with coal mines. Terraced cottages were built for employees of the Jesmond coal mines along either side of the High Street, south of Clayton Park Square and along South and East Front. To the west and south a pair of polite terraces were constructed overlooking Newcastle's town moor, comprising numbers 14 to 33 Brandling Park (formerly Brandling Place and Brandling Place South). Both terraces are present on Thomas Oliver’s map of 1830 including number 33 Brandling Park and the attached curving boundary wall. From the mid-C19, the area was further developed by the construction of planned terraces for the middle classes, and was complete by the end of the C19.
The first edition 1:10,560 Ordnance Survey map of the area published in 1864 depicts the building as a rectangular structure with a rear projecting range to each corner; this footprint is retained down to the present day (2018), although the more northerly rear projection has been raised by the addition of an upper storey.
Details
House and attached garden wall, 1820s.
MATERIALS: English bond hand-made brick with ashlar dressings and plinth; Welsh slate roof with flat stone gable coping.
PLAN: end of terrace house with a central staircase plan.
EXTERIOR: the main west-facing elevation has two storeys plus attic and a partial basement, and three bays beneath a pitched roof with a renewed left end brick chimneystack and three velux windows. There is a stone eaves cornice, sill band and plinth. Window openings have early C21 uPVC horned sash frames. The central six-panelled door and fanlight with glazing bars has deep reveals beneath a round-headed brick arch. There are wedge stone lintels and a sill band to the flanking wide sash windows; that to the left has been enlarged to two-lights, each fitted with six-over-six sashes. That to the right has an eight-over-eight sash. The three irregularly-spaced first floor windows have wedge stone lintels and projecting stone sills and six-over-six sash windows. The left return forming the end of terrace is blind, with the exception of a second floor window. The rear elevation has scattered fenestration including a stair window: all openings have wedge lintels, projecting sills and early C21 uPVC horned sash window frames. An original ground floor window has been enlarged to two lights, and there is a pair of C21 roof dormers with uPVC window frames. To the left end there is an original early C19 projecting two-storey range with a pitched roof of slate (the ground floor converted to a garage) and to the right end a two-storey, flat-roofed range, original to the ground floor with a later C20 first floor. The later C20 first floor of the right end range, the early C21 single-storey extensions to both the left and right ranges, the linking modern brick walling forming a series of garages and the C21 porch are not of special interest and are not included in the listing.
INTERIOR: doors throughout are mostly original six-panel with original door furniture, exposed floors have wide floor boards and chimney pieces are mostly simple early C19 forms with blocks to the angles and rectangular headed, cast-iron hob grates. The main entrance leads to a small vestibule opening, through a four-panel door (upper parts glazed) with rectangular fanlight, into a short hall, both with simple plaster cornices. To either side are two principal reception rooms entered through six-panel doors with reeded architraves and block angles. The front, south, room has an identical architrave to the inner side of the door and also to the window, a panelled dado with a fluted cornice, a moulded plaster cornice and a later C19 chimney piece. The front north room has an original early C19 timber fireplace with arched hob grate and a moulded plaster cornice. The enlarged window overlooking the garden has a replacement plain architrave. The east wall of this room has been pierced by a substantial arch, opening into the rear north room, with modern kitchen fittings, which opens into the ground floor of the rear range, now utility room. The rear south room opens off a small stair hall, and retains an early C19 timber chimney piece with reeded jambs and lintel, and to the right a round-headed alcove. The ceiling rose and cornice are modern.
The simple stair hall has a timber stair arch supported on slim pilasters and a door giving access to the cellar; the latter reached by stone steps (clad with plywood), is divided into compartments, one with stone cellar shelving. The dog-leg open-string stair has simple stick balusters, turned newel posts (some double) and a mahogany hand rail and panelled dado. The stair rises through the first floor to the attic. The principal bedroom retains a moulded cornice, three-panel shutters to the windows and a marble chimney piece with arched hob grate. The second bedroom retains a simple early C19 wooden chimney piece and similar shutters; a modern ensuite bathroom occupies the first floor of the original rear range. A third bedroom retains a similar chimney piece and a reeded architrave with block angles. There is a further bedroom and two further bathrooms to this floor. The attic retains a cast-iron chimney piece, and partially exposed roof trusses with single purlins.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached to the north-west corner of the house is a boundary wall enclosing the garden of number 33, and which extends partially around the adjacent garden of number 32. It is ramped to the front part with an outer face of coursed squared sandstone and an inner face of hand-made brick in English bond. It has flat coping stones and there is a bricked-up door in the higher left section with a flat stone lintel and large alternate-block jambs. The modern summer house attached to the inner face of this wall is not of special interest and is not included in the listing.
