Byker Wall

Coordinates: 54°58′30″N 1°34′41″W / 54.975°N 1.578°W / 54.975; -1.578

The Byker Wall is the name given to a long unbroken block of 620 maisonettes in the Byker district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. They were designed by architect Ralph Erskine and constructed in the 1970s. The wall is just part of the estate which covers 200 acres.

Design and construction

The Wall, along with the low rise dwellings built to its south, replaced Victorian slum terraced housing. There were nearly 1200 houses on the site at Byker. They had been condemned as unfit for human habitation in 1953, but demolition did not begin until 1966.

The new housing block was designed by the notable architect Ralph Erskine assisted by executive architect Vernon Gracie. Design began in 1968 and construction took place between 1969 and 1982. The architects opened an office on site to develop communication and trust between the existing residents. Existing buildings were to be demolished as the new accommodation was built.

Byker

Coordinates: 54°58′30″N 1°34′41″W / 54.975°N 1.578°W / 54.975; -1.578

Byker is an inner city electoral ward in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England. It is in the east of the city, south of the Heaton area and north of St Peter's. Byker Metro station serves the area. The area also contains the Byker Wall estate. The population of the ward is 11,339, increasing to 12,206 at the 2011 Census, which is 4.4% of the city's total. Car ownership stands at 35.4%, much lower than the city average of 54.7%.

Byker has suffered the kinds of the social problems common to other inner-city urban housing areas, including juvenile crime and vandalism. In parts of Byker turnover of tenancies has been high. Families have moved away - particularly those in employment. Some shops and services have been abandoned and boarded up. In the mid-1990s it was estimated one in three of Byker's adult inhabitants was unemployed.

Byker is well known as the setting of the former BBC TV series Byker Grove and although set in the ward, the youth club featured in the series was filmed at The Mitre in the Benwell area in the west end of Newcastle.