The building was commissioned by
William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong as an entertainment facility for important guests to complement the large mansion (since demolished) that he had built to the west of Jesmond Dene in 1835. Armstrong had tunnels built to connect his house with the banqueting hall. The banqueting hall was designed by
John Dobson in the
Italianate style, built in
rubble masonry and was completed in 1862. The design, which was orientated from north to south, was a rectangular structure with tall round headed windows at both ends. The design of the gatehouse, the only part of the structure visible from Jesmond Dene Road, involved an asymmetrical main frontage of three bays. The left-hand bay featured an arched opening with an
archivolt and a
hood mould with a tall
mullioned and
transomed window in the gable above. The central bay was fenestrated with a pair of square mullioned and transomed windows on the ground floor and a tripartite mullioned and transomed window on the first floor with a small
gablet above. The right-hand bay contained a small arched doorway on the ground floor. During the first half of the twentieth century, the banqueting hall was used by Newcastle Corporation for entertaining civic guests, and the works of art included a portrait of
Prince Hal. However, by 1970, the complex was disused and in 1977 the roof was removed from the original hall. The Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust asked the Miller Partnership to prepare design proposals for development of the complex; drawings were duly submitted. However, the complex was listed by
the Victorian Society as one of the top ten buildings at risk in May 2024. A charity, Urban Green Newcastle, became responsible for the city's parks in 2019 but, after failing to restore the buildings including the Banqueting Hall, handed the parks back to the city in November 2025. ==References==