Robert Burns Dick was Newcastle’s most talented architect of the interwar period.  Among many significant buildings, he designed the Magistrate’s Court, Police Station and Fire Station on Pilgrim Street(1931-3).  This has a powerful colonnade and abstracted mythical beasts, as well as a window with columns in antis. 

The most iconic building on Tyneside is the Tyne Bridge (1924-28).  This was constructed by the engineers Mott, Hay & Anderson, who also built the Syndey Harbour Bridge, but the architectural portions were designed by Robert Burns Dick.  It’s a very memorable design, with an immense iron arch held between robust concrete pylons that show a strong Egyptian influence.  The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922.  It provoked a craze for Egyptian artefacts.  Ancient Egyptian design was one of the influences on Art Deco, which was the most popular style in the 1920s.

Robert Burns Dick was born in Stirling, Scotland in 1868.  His family moved to Newcastle where his father worked in the brewing trade.  After education at the Royal Grammar School, he served articles with W.L. Newcombe FRIBA from 1883-8 and attended art classes.  He was employed as an assistant to Armstrong and Knowles from 1888, but began independent practice in 1892.  A partnership with C.T. Marshall (1866-1940) lasted from 1895-7, and he joined in partnership with J.T. Cackett in 1899.  It is generally accepted that Burns Dick provided the artistic input to the firm while Cackett provided the business acumen.  

In 1905 he joined the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries and was elected FRIBA on 8 January 1906, having been proposed by Cackett, A.W.S. Cross and G. Hubbard.  He was a member of the Northern Architectural Association, acting as President from 1914-8 and Treasurer from 1928-47.  During his terms as President he wrote a series of articles on the war and its effects on architecture.  Conservative in politics, Burns Dick joined the Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery.  He was seconded from military service in 1915 to design works for Short Brothers.  

Burns Dick was a founding member of the Newcastle Society, which was established in 1924 to create a Green Belt around the city and to give Newcastle a modern centre.  He had a reputation as a good planner of buildings and was also regarded as a fine draughtsman of perspectives.  He travelled in Belgium, France and Italy.  By 1914 he was residing at Millmont in Fenham.  Burns Dick retired to Esher in 1940 and died there on 11 December 1954.