Newgate

Our challenge was to design a collection of buildings for a city centre infill site to deliver 575 student accommodation units, a 265 bedroom hotel, retail space, external amenity space plus basement car parking and servicing. Client aspirations had to be balanced against the fact that the site was in the heart of Newcastle’s conservation area and was surrounded by important heritage assets.

The three major streets that the infill building was to occupy presented an evolution of styles from restrained Georgian on Clayton Street, across Newgate Street (a mixture of styles) through to the Victorian ornate grandeur of Grainger Street.

The primary design challenge was to deliver a restored frontage to all these streets, with their myriad styles, creating a cohesive composition. The new infills and street frontages had to respect their neighbours both in terms of materials and architectural treatment. However, the new building could not be a pastiche but rather be identifiably modern.

The end result is a development formed around 2 landscaped courtyards that deliver amenity space to both the student units and hotel. The street facing façades are predominantly natural stone to tie in with the local “Grainger Town Stone”. The Grainger Street aspect is a simple infill intervention that takes cues from the banding and copings of the Victorian buildings to each side. The scheme subtly adjusts in style as it travels down Newgate Street and turns the corner to meet the Georgian buildings on Clayton Street.