Architect in the Wall!

On Thursday 2nd April 2009 the Ralph Erskine Society had a small meeting with Roger Tillotson. Roger is one of the Byker Team architects and led on the design of Rabygate in the Wall. So we invited him round to have a look and catch up with the locals. He came and showed us a video made of Ralph Erskine at the age of 80 about him and his work. It was a great opportunity to ask questions and hear stories. Hopefully we will arrange further meetings and talks this year.

Latest news from the Society...

Sorry I have been away a long time but life is hectic in Byker!

We have organised another series of events down at Bolam Coyne which were great fun, popular and inspiring. The latest one was Byker Lights which was organised by Andy McD - a lantern making workshop followed by a clean up afternoon, food, digging, planting, eating soup and then lighting the lights. Exhausting but FUN! Roll on the next one. Watch this space. Any has mentioned something about eggs and hens...

Dalton Crescent, Winter sunset

It's fantastic how the sun highlights the brickwork on Dalton Crescent. The windows were really shining too.

Saturday 1st November 2008

This is the date for our next event - tidying up, weeding and planting a garden at Bolam Coyne. Hopefully some leaf collection too for our allotments!

Saturday 1st November 2008

This is the date for the next event organised by us in the Estate. We are heading to Bolam Coyne (a fantastic group of houses and flats) that has been left empty and derelict since 2000. We are going to do some tidying up and planting up of one of the gardens. It really is a fantastic piece of urban design and with a cultivated garden it will just be amazing! Watch out for the photographs...

Things are hotting up in October!

Plans and strategies are really coming along grand with the Society. We are running an event at Bolam Coyne in November to get us locals involved in looking after the place - one of the finest pieces of 20th century housing in Europe.

Watch this space!

Byker Redevelopment Walk: Trees

Today we had our first walkabout. It was arranged to coincide with the superb cherry blossom display we have at this time of year. Seamus Tollitt, Walker Park Manager and myself led the walk: I did a bit on the architectural context and Seamus give us all sorts of information about trees and how to identify them.

We covered a tiny section of the estate and the walk took 1.5 hours! We identified: Scots pine, beech, ash, holly, poplar, cherry, silver birch, leylandii, acers, lime, alder and elm.

About 12 people came along and joined in. It rained just before the start, dried up and the last part was in glorious sunshine - which sets Byker off to perfection!

A success!