Central Arcade – Burmantofts (1906)

At the top of Grey Street is the Central Arcade, created when the interior of Exchange Buildings was burnt out around 1904. Its replacement, designed by Joseph and Harold Oswald and completed in 1906, was the glorious Central Arcade, its two storeys of shops faced entirely in brown and yellow.

The original glass mosaic floor (1906), by Rust’s Vitreous Mosaics of Battersea, wore out and had to be replaced in the 1990’s by the American Olean mosiacs, pictured.. Newcastles most beautiful shopping arcade also has a fine selection of Burmantofts tiles. This contract appears to be the last substantial interior completed in Burmantofts