Buildings
28-30 The Close
A Grade l listed former merchant’s house within the Newcastle Central Conservation Area, 28-30 The Close lies within Newcastle’s historic quayside. Whilst the building’s fabric is primarily from the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, there are structural elements dating all the way back to the thirteenth century.
At a glance
- Beneath the High Level Bridge, the Close gained its name through being an enclosed piece of land between the Tyne and the castle, just upstream from the medieval bridge.
- 28-30 The Close was once home to James Clavering (1565-1630), Newcastle’s Mayor from 1607.
- Decorative plasterwork at The Close dates to the seventeenth century and is inspired by engravings published only in France and Italy.
- In the nineteenth century, the wealthy mercantile families moved out of the area and the building was repurposed as warehouses and shopfronts.
- Today, the building provides a characterful home to the House of Tides restaurant, operated by Michelin Star Chef and Restauranteur Kenny Atkinson.
1983-2015
Our work
When the Trust acquired the building in 1983, we appointed Simpson and Brown architects to consolidate the structure, reconstruct the three rear wings and re-roof the whole building.
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28-30 The Close in the 1980s – notice the ground-floor parking!
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An interior shot before restoration.
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Ornate and rare sixteenth century plasterwork.
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The staircase during its restoration
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The buildings after the urgent restoration work was completed – notice ‘Buttress’, an older nickname for T+WBPT
Later, in 2001, we received planning permission to develop the site into a bar and restaurant with office accommodation on the upper floors. Working with the same architects, we were able to preserve the integrity of the building and its original features while giving it a new lease of life.
In 2008, Historic England tested samples of the oak and pine timbers in the building. By interpreting the sapwood on the oak samples and, using dendrochronology (analysis of the ring formation within tree trunks), they were able to indicate that the earliest tree was felled between 1407-1425, whilst other samples dated between 1557-1582 and 1616.
28-30 The Close is currently home to House of Tides, a Michelin Star restaurant and bar. House of Tides opened in February of 2014, and its team emphasise the historic setting used to provide ‘casual, informal fine dining’. Kenny Atkinson, the restaurant’s owner, has been a professional chef for over 29 years and is the first chef ever to hold 2 separate Michelin stars in the city of Newcastle.
It’s amazing to be a part of the project, especially because there is no other building like this in Newcastle; it’s very unique. Generally you think of restaurants as modern buildings with a cutting edge style whereas this one is bursting with history and character, we fell in love with it straight away.
kenny atkinson, owner of house of tides
1893 – 2015
History
Beneath the High Level Bridge, the Close gained its name through being an enclosed piece of land between the Tyne and the castle, just upstream from the medieval bridge. As it was beyond the reach of the larger ships coming into the town, it proved an appealing site for the wealthiest merchants to build their homes – with those on the south side even having their own private quays.
The most remarkable feature of the building is the plaster ceiling decoration which, on the first and second floors, filled each surface of the beams with repeated motifs with the characteristics of sixteenth century French and Italian decoration in which grotesques, swags, long necked birds and various flower-like motifs are used. The source of these has been identified as engravings first published in 1601 by Theodor Bang of Nuremberg. Neither these nor any other German engravings of that date are used anywhere else in England. A substantial part of the ceiling survives on the first floor of the building.
28-30 The Close was once home to James Clavering (1565-1630), Newcastle’s Mayor from 1607. It was in the early seventeenth century that the three tenements were amalgamated to provide a larger home fitting of Clavering’s status in the town. Clavering was a merchant-adventurer and lived here with his family until he purchased Axwell House, in Blaydon, in 1629. James would die just a year later and, in 1758, his descendant Sir Thomas Clavering replaced the original manor house with a Palladian mansion. Today, Axwell House overlooks the Derwent portion of the Tyne Derwent Way.
Between the building and the Cooperage are the Long or ‘Lang’ Stairs. The Lang Stairs feature in the eighteenth-century folk song ‘Adam Buckham’.
Oh, it’s doon the Lang Stairs, in an’ oot the Close;
All in Baker’s Entry, Adam Buckham knows.
Alongside hosting one of the area’s most prominent mercantile and political families, the building also contains the earliest surviving plasterwork in Newcastle. The examples at The Close date to the seventeenth century and are inspired by engravings published in the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg).
Reflecting the repurposing of the building throughout the centuries, the frontage of the building is 19th century stonework and wooden panelling from its use as warehouses and shops. These were the most recent features of the building prior to the Trust’s involvement.
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