The Byker Wall is the name given to a long unbroken block of 620 maisonettes in the Byker district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The block was designed by the notable architect Ralph Erskine assisted by Vernon Gracie, and was built in the mid-1970s. The Wall, along with the low rise dwellings built to its south, replaced pre war slum back-to-back housing. Its Functionalist Romantic styling with textured, complex facades, colourful brick, wood and plastic panels, attention to context and relatively low-rise construction represented a major break with the Brutalist high-rise architectural orthodoxy of the time.[1]
Its innovative and visionary design has earned it many awards notably the Civic Trust Award, the Eternit Award, the Ambrose Congreve Award for Housing (in 1980) and the Veronica Rudge Green Prize for Urban Design from Harvard University. The Wall has also been placed on UNESCO's list of outstanding twentieth century buildings.
In 2003 the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced a proposal to award the Byker Estate, of which the Wall forms a part, a Grade II listed rating as an example of outstanding architecture. In 2007 the Estate became a grade II* listed building (grade two star).
The Byker Wall was infamous as the home of "Ratboy" a juvenile delinquent who hid in its heating shafts when running from police during the 1990s. (Go Ratboy!!)
Uploaded by fragglerocks on 17 Feb 11, 9.39PM GMT.
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