The Armstrong Project in Jesmond Dene
The spectacular Banqueting Hall has been named by the Victorian Society as a Top Ten Endangered Building.
A much loved building in Newcastle upon Tyne is set for an exciting renaissance. The Banqueting Hall in Jesmond Dene, sadly neglected for more than 50 years, was identified in May 2024 by the Victorian Society as one of the Top Ten most endangered buildings in England.
The Banqueting Hall was built in the 1860s by the inventor and industrialist Sir William Armstrong as a place to entertain his employees from the Elswick Works in the west end of the city. It stands on the west bank of the River Ouseburn in Jesmond Dene, a beautiful and unique urban park.
In 1884, in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales (the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra), the building and the park were handed over to the people of Newcastle in perpetuity. Armstrong knew that the building could not survive as a banqueting hall and decreed that it should be devoted to 'arts, science, literature or education'.
However, the Corporation of Newcastle, later Newcastle City Council, entrusted to care for the building, failed to find a sustainable use. In the 1970s the roof of the main hall, designed by John Dobson, was removed, and the building was declared 'a controlled ruin'.
For almost 40 years, the part of the Banqueting Hall that retained its roof has been used as studio space, and maintained, by the artists of Armstrong Studio Trust. They have prepared the ground for its current transformation into the Armstrong Centre for Arts and Innovation.
This process – under the banner of the Armstrong Project – has been spearheaded by Jesmond Heritage, an organisation committed to upholding and honouring Armstrong's legacy. The Armstrong Project is supported by a wide range of organisations and individuals in northeast England and beyond.
An international collaboration
On the international front, Jesmond Heritage and Armstrong Studio Trust have joined forces with the Friends of Czech Heritage and the Squero San Isepo restoration project in Venice, a city that has strong links with Armstrong and Newcastle, to pursue common interests in the regeneration of heritage, the promotion of innovative enterprise and the revival of artisan building skills.
Jesmond Heritage and Armstrong Studio Trust are also working with Italian architectural students on the GeM programme, set up in memory of two young architects who died in the Grenfell fire.
The story of Jesmond Dene and the Banqueting Hall
William Armstrong spent part of his childhood in Jesmond Dene, and after his marriage in 1835 he and his wife, Margaret, created a house and garden for themselves there. They acquired more land in the dene, which was farmed or laid out as pleasure grounds. The success of Armstrong's Elswick Works, which produced ships, guns and hydraulic machinery, had made him one of the richest men in Europe, but his instincts were always to share his wealth and good fortune with others.
With Norman Shaw as chief architect, Armstrong built Cragside in Northumberland, the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. Shaw also worked on Jesmond Dene Banqueting Hall.
When the Armstrongs formally handed over Jesmond Dene to the people, in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the building of Cragside was almost complete – and it was at Cragside that they entertained the Royal Family in August 1884. Three years later, Sir William Armstrong was raised to the peerage as Baron Armstrong of Cragside, becoming the first engineer to join the House of Lords.
A passion for arts and education
The Armstrongs’ love of Jesmond Dene never left them, however, and they continued to stay often at the home they had created there 50 years earlier. As well as sharing a love of the arts, Margaret and William Armstrong had always taken a keen interest in education, founding the Elswick Mechanics' Institute and Newcastle's College of Science (which evolved into Newcastle University).
It was natural that the Armstrongs’ should have ambitious ideas for the Banqueting Hall. They stipulated that it should be devoted to ‘lectures, recitals, concerts, banquets and meetings connected with arts, literature, science or education’. Armstrong also endowed four properties to fund the unkeep of the dene and the hall, among them Deep Dene House (Fisherman’s Lodge).
Well kept for many years, the Banqueting Hall fell on hard times in the 1970s, when the roof of the oldest and largest section was removed. In 1985, Armstrong Studio Trust, an independent arts organisation, moved into the building and has pursued studio practice there ever since, while working to stem the decline in its physical fabric. A larger initiative has now begun to secure a creative and productive future for the Hall within the wider context of a regenerated Dene.
Jesmond Dene in 1883 (with Banqueting Hall bottom row, centre) as depicted in the Illustrated London News.