Notice Board.................................. 1
John Moreels.................................. 1
War Memorial................................1
Advisory Panel.............................. 1
Place-names................................... 2
News in brief..................................3
Local Plan....................................... 4
Bondgate Quarters........................ 6
Picture quiz.................................... 9
Old Post Office...............................9
William Robinson..........................9
School Travel............................... 10
Planning matters......................... 11
Friends of Column Field............ 11
About Alnwick Civic Society.... 12
Who's Who?................................. 12
Diary dates................................... 12
An exterior view of the Old Post Office, showing the front elevation from the north, with shops on either side and in the foreground and small groups of pedestrians by the shop fronts
Photographs from street survey
The building was originally constructed as a Georgian townhouse before being used as the town’s first post office. Its last permanent use was the office base for Alnwick District Council. The building has undergone a number of development phases leading to various additions and extensions at the rear and significant structural alterations to the original Georgian townhouse. The building was extended and modified when it was used by the Post Office and was then subject to a comprehensive re-fit when it was converted into Council Offices. As a result, many of the original internal walls, staircase, plasterwork, woodwork and fireplaces were removed. However, on a positive note at the same time the external structure of the building underwent extensive repairs including renovation of the main facade, including stonework repairs, new cast iron gutters and downpipes, and replacement sash windows.
The building was vacated 2013 when the District Offices were closed. Since then the building has largely been vacant except for a few
short-term tenants.
1 Clayport by Barbara Woodhouse. Title "The old post office"
No. 1 Clayport Street is a Grade II* Listed Building and lies within the historic core of Alnwick
Conservation Area. As many as 40 other listed buildings (including 2 x Grade II* and 2 x Grade I lie close-by.
2.3 This report examines the potential direct impact of the development on 1 Clayport Street as well as the
likely in-direct impact upon designated assets in the surrounding area in accordance with planning guidance
(PPG) and industry best practice. It comprises an examination of evidence in Historic England’s National
Heritage List for England which includes information regarding Scheduled Ancient Monuments, Registered
Parks and Gardens, Registered Battlefields and Listed Buildings and the local Historic Environment Record
(HER). Information on Conservation Areas was obtained from Northumberland County Council.
Historic England listing: The Old Post Office, 1, Clayport Street
Keys to the past: The Old Post Office, 1, Clayport Street
This thesis examines the emergence of the professional architect in the provinces of
eighteenth-century Britain, drawing upon new research into the career of William
Newton (1730-1798) of Newcastle upon Tyne. Section I assesses the growth of
professionalism, identifying the criteria that distinguished professions from other
occupations and their presence in architectural practitioners. It contrasts historians’
emphasis upon innovative designs by artist-architects, such as Sir John Vanbrugh and
Robert Adam, with their absence from the realisation of their designs. Clients had to
employ capable building craftsmen to supervise construction and this was an
opportunity for an alternative practitioner to emerge, the builder-architect exemplified
by Newton, offering clients proven practical experience, frequent supervision, peer
group recommendation and financial responsibility. Patronage networks were a critical
factor in securing commissions for provincial builder-architects, demonstrated here by a
reconstruction of Newton’s connections to the north-east élite. Section II reveals that the
coal-based north-east economy sustained architectural expenditure, despite national
fluctuations. A major proposal of this thesis is that, contrary to Borsay’s theory of an
‘English urban renaissance’, north-east towns showed continuity and slow development.
Instead, expenditure was focused upon élite social spaces and industrial infrastructure,
and by the extensive repurposing of the hinterlands around towns. This latter
development constituted a ‘rural renaissance’ as commercial wealth created country
estates for controlled access to social pursuits by élite families. Section III examines the
designs of architects practising in north-east England during the eighteenth century,
proposing that the martial history and cultural traditions of the region sustained the
appeal of castellated and Roman architecture (as interpreted in the publications of
Andrea Palladio) among its architectural patrons. The thesis concludes that concentration upon London-based artist-architects has obscured the contribution to British architecture of provincial builder-architects and the varied cultural aspirations of
their clients.