Benwell Dene is a Victorian building in the suburb of

Benwell Benwell is an area in the West End of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. History The place-name 'Benwell' is first attested in the ''Historia de Sancto Cuthberto'' circa 1050 AD, where it appears as ''Bynnewalle'', from the Old English ''bionnan ...

Newcastle Upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, England. It was designed by

Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known f ...

for Dr Thomas Hodgkin and was built in 1865. Hodgkin donated the house to the Royal Victoria Home in 1894, and bequeathed the gardens and grounds to the people of Newcastle as a public park. The building subsequently became the Royal Victoria School for the Blind. After the school's closure in 1985, the structure was converted into a hotel. It is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The

Hodgkin family The Hodgkin family is a British people, British Quaker family where several members have excelled in science, medicine, and arts. The first famous member of the family was the grammarian and calligrapher John Hodgkin (tutor), John Hodgkin (1766� ...

made their careers in finance, science, medicine and the arts. Following their

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

faith, they were also notable philanthropists.

Thomas Hodgkin Thomas Hodgkin RMS (17 August 1798 – 5 April 1866) was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, ...

(1831–1913) was the grandson of John Hodgkin (1766–1845), the family's founder. Thomas Hodgkin's profession was

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

, and he founded the family finance house of Hodgkin, Barnett, Pease, Spence & Co. based in Newcastle. His primary interest was historical research and his fame largely drives from his 8-volume history, ''Italy and her Invaders'', published between 1880 and 1899. In the 1860s, Hodgkin settled in the West End of Newcastle Upon Tyne, in the suburb of

, and commissioned

to build him a house. Waterhouse had already undertaken work in Newcastle and elsewhere for the

Pease family The Pease family is an English and mostly Quaker family associated with Darlington, County Durham, and North Yorkshire, descended from Edward Pease of Darlington (1711–1785). They were 'one of the great Quaker industrialist families of the ...

, fellow Quakers and partners in Hodgkin's bank. Hodgkin raised his family of seven children at the house, including

Robert Howard Hodgkin Robert Howard "Robin" Hodgkin (24 April 1877 – 28 June 1951) was an English historian. He taught at The Queen's College, Oxford, Queen's College, Oxford, from 1900 to 1937 and served as its Provost (education), provost from 1937 until 1946. ...

, later a historian and Provost of

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its pred ...

. Thomas Hodgkin donated Benwell Dene to the Royal Victoria Home in 1894. The grounds were given to the people of Newcastle to form Hodgkin Park. The house subsequently became the Royal Victoria School for the Blind which remained at Benwell for 90 years until its closure in 1985. The building was subsequently converted into a hotel.

Architecture and description

Benwell Dene is built of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

to a courtyard plan, with two storeys and attics. The architectural style is "

Tudor Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

". It is listed Grade II on the

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

Footnotes

References

Sources

* {{cite book , last1 = Pevsner , first1 = Nikolaus , last2 = Richmond , first2 = Ian , author-link1 = Nikolaus Pevsner , title = Northumberland , series = The Buildings Of England , year = 2002 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kClO7NOfvsIC&q=Northumberland+Pevsner+Richmond , location=New Haven, US and London , publisher =

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

, isbn = 978-0-300-09638-5 Grade II listed buildings in Northumberland Alfred Waterhouse buildings Grade II listed houses