A long curved wall of patterned brick and coloured balcony panels rises above low rise terraces behind it.
What Byker looks like
The Byker Wall curves for roughly a mile and a half along the ridge above the Ouseburn valley, from three storeys at its lowest stretch to twelve at its tallest. The brick runs in bands of ochre, brown and dark red. Small square windows break it, along with timber balconies painted blue, green and red. The balconies sit proud of the brick in uneven rows, braced on timber rather than poured concrete. The face looks built in panels rather than cast in one piece.
Behind the wall the streets drop to two storeys, brick terraces under pitched roofs set around paved courts and lawns. Cars stay on the perimeter road, so the lanes between the houses are open underfoot, with wooden benches and planting beds along some of them. and are two of the named courts, each a slightly different stack of the same brick and timber.
St Lawrence's, a Roman Catholic church with a spire, is built directly into the wall at one end of Spire Lane. The Anglican St Michael's stands at the other end. sits at the foot of the ridge, where the line crosses the Ouseburn valley on a long curved viaduct. runs along the northern edge, two and three storey shopfronts under stone and rendered upper floors.
A few older buildings stand among the newer blocks on Shields Road, a former bank with a shaped gable and a corner pub or two with painted brick fronts. Their stone and render sit a street away from the wall's own brick.
Shot in Byker
Byker's own fabric is the subject rather than the backdrop for the two productions that have used it. One is set inside the wall itself, the other tours the estate behind it on camera.
Breeze Block, 2002
Breeze Block is a 2002 sitcom for BBC Choice. It follows the Breeze family inside the Byker Wall itself, and the series names Byker as its production location. The credit covers the wall generally rather than one named court. Dunn Terrace, pictured here, is one stretch of the same brick and balconies. Street View
Building Sights: Byker Wall, 1988
Building Sights gave the Byker Estate a ten minute episode on BBC Two in 1988, with presenter Beatrix Campbell walking its courts on camera. Cheviot Mount, shown here, is one of the low rise courts behind the wall rather than the one stretch the programme named. Street View
Park Hill's streets in the sky run on raised concrete decks at the same long block scale as the Byker Wall, both estates built as one continuous structure stepping down a slope. The wide decks and the repeated balcony line read the same way in a wide shot. Park Hill's render is bare grey concrete rather than Byker's patterned brick, so a close shot of the facade gives it away. Sheffield's hillside also drops further in a long view. Try searching streets in the sky now.
Riverside Plaza's painted concrete panels pick up the same bright primary colours as the Byker Wall's balconies, both estates built within a few years of each other as one bold development. The towers rather than Byker's unbroken curve set them apart once a wide shot takes in the skyline. A close frame on one painted panel hides the tower height behind it, and the Mississippi riverside it faces would need dressing out. Try searching painted concrete panels now.
Corviale runs for close to a kilometre as a single long block, the idea the Byker Wall works at a smaller scale, with low rise housing tucked behind it rather than in front. Corviale's raw grey concrete has none of Byker's colour or brick pattern, so only the silhouette and the sheer length of the building carry the comparison. Try searching a single long block now.
_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1775530.jpg)
