Phillipson Memorial Orphanage for Boys. Newcastle-upon-Tyne

THE PHILLIPSON MEMORIAL ORPHANAGE is to provide a home and education for 100 boys, without teaching them a trade. It forms one of a series of similar institutions for the northern counties, and is neighbour to a sister building, " The Abbott Memorial," an orphanage for girls, the two being under one government. Referring to the ground plan, over the schools, dining hall and matron's room are the dormitories, on first and second floors, where the beds are arranged with 2 feet 3 inches spaces between them and 2 feet 9 inches for width of bed; the dormitories average 12 feet high from floor to ceiling. Masters' bedrooms occur between the boys" rooms, and communicate with them for supervision. Over the committee room is the matron's bedroom, and above it a spare room; over the kitchen are the servants' rooms, and above the scullery and pantry is a spare room, useful on account of its distance from the boys' quarters for the reception of cases of doubtful health, until it be decided that the case is one to be handed over to his friends or to the infirmary, as it is not intended to keep up a regular infirmary department in the building for so small a number. Baths and wc's, with cisterns and lumber room over, are placed in the tower for the use of the domestic part of the household. The boys are to use the lavatories and bath on the ground floor: this bath is in communication with the boiler in a chamber under the staircase, which heats water coils for airing the corridor and passages above, and will provide a tepid bath for eight or nine boys at a time. Only small wash house accommodation is needed, as the laundry work will be done at the girls' orphanage hard by. For simplicity of management but one staircase has been provided ; it is of stone, wide, well lighted, and central. All the dormitories are provided with open fireplaces, and are arranged to be aired at ordinary times from the corridors, through gratings over the doors. An effort has been made to keep the architecture - if indeed it is worthy of the term - of the building of the simplest character. The materials are the common grey bricks of the district, with a slightly red brick used every four courses in the lower stage, and in voussoirs of arches and quoins of chief windows. The dressings are of a hard white stone, from the Ellswick Quarries. The roofs are to be covered with Westmoreland slates. The walls are 20 inches thick, with a 2 inch cavity, bonded with glazed brick ties; internally they are plastered, having in the schools and corridors pine wall boarding 4 feet high. The floor joists are laid on moulded brick corbel courses, forming cornices to the rooms below.  The contract is being carried out by Messrs J & W Lowry, builders, of Newcastle on Tyne, for the sum of £9,789, from the plans, and under the superintendence, of Mr George Tunstal Redmayne, architect, of Manchester. [Building News 10 July 1874 page 58]

TO BUILDERS - PHILLIPSON MEMORIAL BOYS’ ORPHANAGE. NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. - Persons desirous of submitting TENDERS for the ERECTION, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, of an ORPHANAGE for 100 Boys, are requested send in their names and addresses to Mr George Connell, (Quantity Surveyor, Bank Buildings, Mosley street, Newcastle upon-Tyne; or to George T. Redmayne, Architect, 67, King Street, Manchester, on or before the 10th September. The lowest or any tender not necessarily accepted . [Yorkshire Post 2 September 1873 page 1]

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE - Tenders have lately been received for the erection of a Boys' Orphanage, to be called the Phillipson Memorial School. It is to be erected on the Moor Edge, closely adjoining the existing Abbot Memorial Schools (Girls' Orphanage). The architect is Mr G T Redmayne, of Manchester, and the probable cost is £10,000. [British Architect 2 January 1874 page 14]

Reference    Yorkshire Post 2 September 1873 page 1
Reference    Building News 10 July 1874 page 58 and illustration