A feasibility study into options for Jesmond Dene Banqueting Hall is well under way, sponsored by a generous grant from the Reece Founcation. The study is being led by Creative Services Scotland and Calum Duncan Architects, who will report later in the summer.
This comes on top of grants from Barbour Foundation and the Architectural Heritage Fund for vital building surveys and an architectural assessment.
After 50 years of neglect, this treasured heritage building in Jesmond Dene, a public park in Newcastle upon Tyne, is coming back to life. Talks are also taking place with Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The Banqueting Hall was given to the people, along with the Dene itself, in 1883, by Newcastle’s foremost benefactor, Sir William Armstrong. A century later, the roof of the original structure – the Dobson Hall – was removed, but other parts of the building remained intact.
The Banqueting Hall has been facing an increasingly uncertain fate, in spite of valiant efforts to maintain its fabric by a group of artists who have occupied the building for four decades.
Now, the Armstrong Project CIO has been set up to secure an exciting future for the Hall as a place of learning and discovery that will be open to everyone.
The trustees invite you to share practical and visionary ideas as the project evolves.
The Armstrong Project: a bright new future?
Banqueting Hall added to SAVE Buildings at Risk Register
SAVE Britain’s Heritage will announce the 2026 new entries in its Buildings at Risk register on Wednesday, 1 July – and Jesmond Dene Banqueting Hall is among them.
This adds to its listing in 2024 by the Victorian Society as one of the Top Ten most endangered buildings in England.
The Banqueting Hall is also on the local list in Newcastle upon Tyne of heritage buildings at risk.
However, under the auspices of The Armstrong Project work to save the building and give it an exciting new life is now well advanced.
Lit & Phil bicentenary in its magnificent library building
Work goes on to clear the ground at the Banqueting Hall
Armstrong crane in Venice: work starts on restoration
In the media
See Eddy Hope’s take on Jesmond Dene in Tyneside Life
Lit & Phil reaches a milestone. The view from The Yard
Listen to Henrietta Heald talking to Lucinda Hawksley on Inside Story
Experience Jesmond Dene in the 1950s. Watch the film here
Discover Armstrong’s Elswick Works in World War One. Learn more
Armstrong and shipbuilding: an article in Maritime Foundation
‘Armstrong’s Admirable Speech’, as Charles Darwin called it, was delivered in 1863 to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. It was re-enacted 150 years later at the British Science Festival, with Chris Connell in the role of Armstrong, and introduced by Chi Onwurah MP .
With more that 50 five-star reviews on Amazon, William Armstrong, Magician of the North is also available from Waterstones, Bookshop.org, Booksetc. and other online outlets.
‘The tendency of progress is to quicken progress … We may expect therefore to increase our speed as we struggle forward; but however high we climb in the pursuit of knowledge we shall still see heights above us, and the more conscious we shall be of the immensity that lies beyond.’
Armstrong’s Admirable Speech, 1863
‘They used to call me the Kingfisher.’