The Building That Inspired Me: Kathryn Archer
Kathryn Archer, Partner at LA London.
In our regular journal series ‘The Building that Inspired Me’, we hear from LA London team members about a significant building or structure that has inspired and shaped their career in architecture. This month, Partner Kathryn Archer chooses Tynemouth Plaza, a once-grand Victorian pleasure palace overlooking Long Sands beach to the east of Newcastle, which was razed to the ground following a fire in 1996.
Can you tell us about the building you have chosen?
I’ve chosen Tynemouth Plaza, originally known as Tynemouth Aquarium and Winter Garden, a huge Victorian building overlooking Long Sands Beach in Tynemouth. It was designed by the architects John Norton and Philip Massey and built between 1877 and 1878, but was sadly destroyed by fire in 1996.
What does the building mean to you?
As a child, my family would frequently visit the pretty coastal town of Tynemouth, just a 20-minute drive from Newcastle, situated on the mouth of the Tyne and featuring the beautiful yellow sandy beaches of the north-east coast including Long Sands, which was recently voted the 4th best beach in the UK.
“I was inspired by the grand scale, the elegant rhythm of repeating arched windows and the opulent but restrained stone detailing.”
Tynemouth flourished in the late 1800s and the plaza housed an aquarium, winter gardens, a large ballroom, bars and games rooms. It was later used as a billet during the First World War and had a range of uses in the ensuing decades, eventually falling into decline.
We visited as a family for a brisk walk along the beach followed by an ice cream and half an hour in the amusement arcade, then housed in this now crumbling building alongside a roller rink and surf board supply shops. Unfortunately the building was subject to a mysterious fire in 1996 and was razed to the ground immediately afterwards.
How did it influence your choice of career or your career path?
I was inspired by the grand scale, the elegant rhythm of repeating arched windows and the opulent but restrained stone detailing. As a university project, I chose to reimagine the building, designing a new swimming pool and galleried cafes and restaurants built as a free-standing, modern structure inside the grand structure of the shell, with the glass roof above reinstated.
My interest in the structure of the building was one of the first signs of my desire to adapt, restore and renovate period buildings like those we often work on at LA London, such as Cornwall Terrace, The Savoy, Harrods and Selfridge’s.
Tynemouth Plaza and Long Sands beach.
The interior of Tynemouth Plaza.
How has it affected your approach to projects at LA London?
When I first visited the plaza as a child I liked to imagine the Victorian visitors enjoying the winter gardens with views of the beautiful but chilly sea, sheltered by the huge glass roof from the bracing north-eastern winds, or enjoying tea on the terraced promenades on a sunny afternoon.
These childhood imaginings about the individuals that once inhabited the building have echoes now in the work I do at LA London. When we’re working on a home for a residential client, I often feel like I’ve lived in it for a year or so before the client moves in – I’ve inhabited the spaces in my imagination, working out how the spaces will be enjoyed and work in the detail of every day life, from making sure that the children can enjoy the elegant swimming pool in safety to working out the optimal position to plug a hairdryer.
Catch up with the other interviews in this series: LA London Associate Miruna Stroe talks about T-House by Simon Ungers and Thomas Kinslow, Managing Partner Andrew Paulson shares his love for La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and Senior Architectural Assistant Pavel Savelev takes us inside Dunaev Merchant’s House in Russia, where he studied for eight years.
