Overlooking Blandford Square, West Blandford Street, Newcastle, can be found Blandford House, presently the home of the city’s 'Discovery Museum'. Built in 1899 as the HQ for the Northern Region of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, it was as big a status symbol as could possibly have been dreamt up by its creators. Hosting offices, sale rooms, a function suite and, of course, expansive warehouse space, it was designed by Newcastle-based architects Oliver, Leeson & Wood. It cannot easily be categorised as conforming to a particular architectural style, but perhaps could be classed loosely as ‘Queen Anne’.
One of the city’s most striking, yet underrated, structures, it offers an attractively-ornate red brick demeanour, with sandstone and terracotta trimmings. The building has a Lakeland slate roof with copper domes/cupolas (now characteristically green), and comprises four floors and a two-storey attic. A high-level balcony neatly demarcates the upper floor from the distinctive attic/roofline - the very upper reaches housing the splendid Great Hall, which was restored to spectacular effect in 1999.
The Co-op moved out in 1977 and the building became a museum shortly thereafter - which was itself relaunched as the ‘Discovery Museum’ in 1993, followed by a multi-million pound facelift in the early 2000s. Originally, the structure had a large and deep central courtyard (now roofed), and had, quite obviously, a huge amount of warehouse space. It was a high-spec construction, with walnut panelling, marble staircases, a directors’ suite, Art Deco light fittings and the odd stained glass window. The original tiled toilets, too, were/are especially stunning, though are now, I think, closed to the public. Much of the existing internal decor dates from a 1930s revamp.
As well as being home to the large and rambling Discovery Museum (scattered over several floors!), Blandford House has for many years been the home of the Tyne & Wear Archives Service, and also houses the HQ of the Tyne & Wear Museum Service. There has been some speculation over the future of all the building’s current occupants, with a major move being mooted.
The future of Blandford House is seemingly guaranteed, though, as the building is Grade II Listed. Full ‘official’ details, complete with all the complex architectural terminology, can be found here.
For those of you who wish to learn more then you can find a few pages dedicated to the film in Chris Phipps' excellent book on Newcastle's role in TV and film entitled Forget Carter, which is widely available online.
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Despite the presence of gun batteries and watchtowers along the North-East coast, the German zeppelins still got through during the Great War of 1914-18. Though one airship was dramatically brought down off Hartlepool in November 1916, a few enemy raids did do some damage along the coast and a little way inland.
The three raids on Hartlepool are infamous, of course, but we have an actual German account of another attack on Tyneside and Wearside on the night of Saturday 1st April 1916, with, perhaps most notably, Monkwearmouth Railway Station losing its roof as a result!
The raid essentially began with a sweep over Tyneside. It was supposed to be heading for central or southern England, in fact, but weather conditions sent Viktor Schutze and his crew drifting over the North-East. The German chief didn’t fancy dropping his bombs across Tyneside as its defences had recently been strengthened, and, besides, the airship was too low and therefore prone to attack itself. So instead he manoeuvred towards Sunderland, which was less heavily defended.
At around 11pm the bombs started to fall in Millfield and Deptford. Then it moved onto Monkwearmouth, where the Goods Yard was hit and the roof over the railway lines (and the station) was badly damaged. There was a good deal of collateral damage in the surrounding streets, too, as a total of about twenty bombs were dropped. 22 people were killed, with several more later dying of their injuries. Wartime censorship of the press meant that a proper account of the raid was not published until December 1918.
Interestingly, Viktor Schutze himself reported on the raid as follows:
I decided not to cross the batteries on account of not being very high in relation to the firing, and also because of slow progress against the wind and the absolutely clear atmosphere up above. I fixed, therefore, on the town of Sunderland, with its extensive docks and the blast furnaces north-west of the town. Keeping on the weather side, the airships dropped explosive bombs on some works where one blast-furnace was blown up with a terrible detonation, sending out flames and smoke. The factories and dock buildings of Sunderland, now brightly illuminated, were then bombed with good results. The effect was grand; blocks of houses and rows of streets collapsed entirely; large fires broke out in places and a dense black cloud, from which bright sparks flew high, was caused by one bomb. A second explosive bomb was at once dropped at the same spot; judging from the situation, it may have been a railway station.
The zeppelin then came under fire from a gun at Fulwell, so turned to the south-east where it dropped more bombs on the docks, and then flew to Middlesbrough where it caused a good deal more damage before returning to base on the morning of 2nd April.
The all-embracing roof over the railway lines at Monkwearmouth was never repaired, and was removed completely in 1928. In its place, platform shelters were built.
