Spark of ingenuity set to revive iconic building
CREATIVE EXHIBITION TO BRING LANDMARK BACK TO LIFE
Heritage Reporter POWER to the people – that was the mission behind a building which was a landmark inter-war addition to Newcastle’s cityscape.
Carliol House, built between 1924-28, was the headquarters of the North Eastern Electricity Supply Company (NESCo), which later became Northern Electric.
It set out to persuade households almost a century ago to plug into the wonders of electricity and the labour-saving appliances.
Described as ‘monumental’ and one of the city’s finest inter-war buildings, Carliol House is sited prominently on the corner of Pilgrim Street and Market Street.
Named after the Carliol family of rich merchants, it was built with Portland stone to reflect the modern, efficient and clean properties of electricity.
But the listed building has sat empty for years – and that sparked an idea from the Architecture Research Collaborative (ARC) at Newcastle University’s School of Architecture Planning and Landscape.
As part of the national Being Human 2017 festival, the researchers decided to use Carliol House as the setting to explore how buildings and city centres can be given new life and revitalised once their original uses have lapsed.
Having changed the time in which it was built by driving forward the use of electricity, from today until Saturday, Carliol House will be the base for public events which ask how buildings and cities can be adapted to the modern world.
And with the buzzwords of electricity and new life, the organisers have recruited Frankenstein to highlight the debate. The project has been called
in what is the bicentennial year of the completion of Mary Shelley’s book.
Over three days, architect Simone Ferracina is staging a Frankensteinthemed exhibition titled opening at 5.30pm.
On Saturday at 3.30pm there will be a screening of the classic 1931 film
All events are in the faded – and unheated – Art Deco foyer of Carliol House, except for an exhibition in the basement by ARC member Ed Wainwright on the background to the move into part of the building earlier this year of the Newbridge Project, an artist-led community.
In October 2016, they were given six months’ notice on their nearby previous base, Norham House, after it was scheduled for demolition.
The artists’ collective was able to move into the basement and first floor of Carliol House for two years.
After its 5.30pm opening and an exhibition introduction from Ed Wainwright today, there will be a debate on the long-stalled regeneration of the East Pilgrim Street area.
And tomorrow, from 5:30pm7:30pm, the theme is
with talks by Tom McGovern of Newcastle University Business School, Katie Lloyd Thomas, co-director of ARC and Newcastle University professor of architectural theory and history on NESCo, Women and Electrification in the 1930, and civil engineer Carlos Calderon on The Future of Domestic Electrification in Newcastle.
On Saturday the exhibitions will be open from noon-6pm.
Booking for events is on http:// www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/events/ eventitems/beinghuman23rd26thnov2017.html
Prof Lloyd Thomas said: “I am interested in the roles played by women in the 1920s-30s when the industry was trying to sell electricity for domestic use.”
It targeted women as consumers but believed that they had to be