First steps towards Founders Place 70-home scheme
igloo Regeneration and Thriving Investments have applied for permission to carry out enabling works that would unlock a mixed-use development site on South Street, in the heart of Newcastle’s historic city centre.
Newcastle City Council is set to approve plans for the clearance and remediation work on the site at a meeting next week.
The clearance work would be strategically targeted at removing 20th century alterations and additions that have compromised the original historic fabric of the Stephenson Engineering Manufactory.
With One Public Estate brownfield funding already secured, the derelict site will evolve into the 70-home Orchard Yard housing scheme.
The funding is to help build thousands of homes and is awarded to councils to unlock disused brownfield sites.
Newcastle city council was successful in securing £2.4m in the last funding round, with £1.65m allocated to bring forward
housing on Founders Place.
The South Street site, once home to workshops of the Stephenson Engineering Manufactory, has seen various industrial uses over the decades and fell into disrepair after the last tenant, Doves Building Merchant, left in 2004.
If approved, enabling work on the site would allow clearing out asbestos, removal of unsafe structures, and put in new retaining structures.
The Machine Shop and Smith’s Shop derelict shells are now deemed dangerous and inaccessible. Credit: via Anita Morris
The phased plans are poised to reinvent the Machine Shop with the proposals seeking to retain and restore the fabric of the earliest industrial structures, providing family homes and apartments, along with business space, a public park and courtyard.
Accessed from Sussex Street, the Smith’s Shop would complement its neighbour by providing further housing and public spaces.
Insiyah Khushnood, senior development manager at igloo Regeneration, said: “The enabling works are the first essential step to breathe new life into the derelict site of the former Stephenson Works which will ultimately become the Orchard Yard residential scheme.
“Without these works, the site would remain abandoned and inaccessible.
“We have been working since 2020, in collaboration with Newcastle City Council and other partners, to bring forward the former Stephenson Works sites, and have successfully restored The Pattern Shop building, which was completed last year.
“The Machine Shop and Smith’s Shop continue to be challenging due to a number of constraints.
“Despite this, funding was secured to open up and make the site safe, that will then lead on to the full regeneration of an unused and forgotten part of the city.”
Sarah Dyer, heritage consultant to igloo Regeneration said: “During my research, it was evident that George and Robert Stephenson were at the forefront of technological innovation in the 19th century; comparable to the pioneers of mobile phone or electric vehicle design today.
“The Machine Shop and Smith’s Shop reflect the evolving demands of locomotive and marine engine production that took place there, expanding and adapting over time to meet the needs of new technology and innovation.
“Now, with the next phase, the current Machine Shop and Smith’s Shop will have the opportunity to be revitalised as spaces for living, making, and innovation.
“With the new access we will be able to gather more information about the building, peeling back the layers to reveal more of the original building.
“The future prospect of reopening South Street, reconnecting to the Quayside, and seeing the area once again alive with people, activity, and creativity is truly exciting. I feel the Stephenson’s would have approved!”
