Plummer House Demolition reveals new vista of Plummer Tower

18th century annex to Plummer Tower

Back in 2008, Newcastle City Council revealed plans and a public consultation on the redevelopment of the East Pilgrim Street Area of the City Centre - an area stretching eastwards from Pilgrim Street to the Central motorway, bordered by Durrant Street to the north and Swan House roundabout to the south.

This area had been identified by the council as a preferred location for the extension of the core shopping area of the City Centre. One of the objectives of the redevelopment was to improve the visibility and the setting of the many historic buildings in the area. I presume this would involve getting rid of a number of low quality, and lacking in merit, buildings dating from the back-end of the 20th Centurym, which tend to dominate and overshadow the historic buildings.

Plummer Tower is no exception. Hidden down a side street, jammed between Plummer House and New Croft Centre, Plummer Tower has been almost completely obscured by the surrounding buildings. Now that the rear block of Plummer House has been demolished, the 18th Century Annex to Plummer Tower can now be seen from Carliol Square.

I suspect, unfortunately, that this vista will be short-lived.  I think that the plans to build student accommodation on this site will again obscure this historic site.  The plans for the East Pilgrim Street development hit the buffers years ago, but its a shame if the vision for enhancing this visual setting of the historic buildings has been forgotten in the process.

John Dobson Street Improvements to Start in August

The transformation of John Dobson Street into a tree-lined boulevard is set to commence from 3 August 2015 and is expected to be completed by Spring 2016.

The project which I described here back in February: http://novumcastellum.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/john-dobson-street-to-become-tree-lined.html will see pavements widened, new seating areas installed, new pedestrian crossings, and a segregated two-way cycle track.  The new layout will employ new traffic light technology which will make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as deterring motorists from using the street as an alternative route through the city (rather than using it merely for access to local premises).

Plummer House Demolition - more photos

I took some more photos yesterday of the demolition in progress of Plummer House.

http://novumcastellum.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/chapmans-plummer-house-demolition.html

oh, and apparently, Gareth is a C**T

Chapman's Plummer House Demolition

I love demolitions, me! You would think so, given the number of posts and photos I publish here, or perhaps that it is just the sheer number of buildings that have been demolished in recent years in Newcastle City Centre and Gateshead.  But there is something fascinating about watching the progress of a building being demolished - seeing a building being ripped apart by the pincer movements of a giant set of pliers, on the outstretched arm of a Thomson's of Prudhoe crane (or rather, the  Komatsu 450 high reach excavator machine with a grab attachment).

There is the thrill of destruction, the dramatic transformation of a building and its surroundings.  It is the odd perspective you get from peering into the innards of a building, the fabric and make up of a building; and the evidence of previous lives - a bit like seeing the personal effects of left behind in deserted towns such as the Belorussian town of Pripyat following the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986.  And then, post-demolition, there is the emptiness, the gap, new views of the surrounding buildings are revealed; the landscape is changed, sight lines and perspectives are altered.

The latest one to have grabbed my attention is the part-demolition of Plummer House, the former Chapman's furniture store on the corner of Market Street, Carliol Square and John Dobson Street. Plummer House was built in 1910, and was home to Tilley's dance hall before Chapman's Furniture Store moved here from its Prudhoe Street location (where Prudhoe Chare is now - up the side of Marksies on Northumberland Street). Chapman's closed in 2012, and the building is to be converted into student flats.  Part of the building is listed (Market Street block) to it is the rear extension to the building on Carliol Square which is getting demolished.

Plans to demolish Liquid/Envy/Ritzy/Ikon/Studio/Tiffanys/Oxford

Last year, plans were submitted for the demolition of the Liquid / Envy nightclub on New Bridge Street, (but preserving the listed John Dobson House and portico) and replacing it with student flats, as I described here in more detail: http://novumcastellum.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/end-of-era-for-newcastle-city-night-spot.html.

I thought that work had commenced on this project last month, as there was a lot of activity around the area with construction workers eyeing up the entire structure with theodolites.  There also appeared to be some drilling going on.  But now its all gone quiet again.  It was obviously an in depth structural survey prior to new plans for the site being submitted to the council at the back end of June.

The plans appear to be very similar to the ones last year (although there are no artist impressions like those which accompanied the previous planning application).  There are fewer flats to be built, but they are to be housed in taller blocks than those shown above.