The grade two-listed building has now been launched. Credit: Barry Pells

GALLERY | Newcastle’s Pattern Shop open for business

20 May 2024 16:07 Neil Tague Comments (0)

Following a two-year redevelopment, the £8.7m conversion of Robert Stephenson’s historic engineering workshop is complete, bringing 32,000 sq ft of workspace to the city.

The Pattern Shop is a key element of the £137m Founders Place development.

The three-storey building is situated close to Central Station and has been sympathetically converted with emphasis on retaining as many original features as possible, including cast-iron pillars in the Engine Hall, large arched windows, floorboards, and roof timbers.

Following the extensive remodelling of the 32,367 sq ft. site, the hub provides Newcastle with flexible SME workspace, or a single let, for up to 300 people, as well as offering exhibition and creative spaces.

igloo Regeneration development manager Pippa Heron said: “After decades of neglect, the workshop has undergone extensive remedial and remodelling work, and is now ready to take its rightful place as one of Newcastle’s most striking and creative workspaces.

“The Pattern Shop has not enjoyed the easiest journey back from the brink but we are absolutely delighted with the restoration and its final appearance.”

Knight Frank is engaged as letting agent. Partner Patrick Matheson said: “You have to see The Pattern Shop to really appreciate the scale of the redevelopment that has taken place here. With impressive attention to detail and huge nods to its industrial past, it really is a unique building that has everything to offer businesses looking for an iconic and sustainable base in Newcastle.”

He added: “We are already receiving enquiries from interested parties and once the building is occupied, it will truly underline an important chapter of this regeneration success story.”

At Founders Place, igloo, part of Places for People, is working in partnership with Newcastle City Council and Thriving Investments. the fund management arm of Places for People founded in 2017 as PfP Capital.

The Founders Place brand covers close to 10 acres within the Stephenson Quarter, including the Pattern Shop and the plot for the proposed 100,000 sq ft grade A office block Pioneer, which would sit between the Pattern Shop and neighbouring Boiler Shop venue to one side, and the Crowne Plaza and Rocket building on the other, these two developments being delivered in the first phase of the Stephenson Quarter by Clouston.

Robertson Construction has delivered the Pattern Shop project, having taken the job on when Tolent collapsed into administration in 2023. Artwork has been introduced to add colour to the site, with one mural being painted on the side of the development’s energy centre, which powers the building with air source heat pumps.

One of the most visually striking elements of the development is the reborn Engine Hall, which has required soundproofing between the new workspace and the Boiler Shop next door.

The Pattern Shop has been rated BREEAM Very Good and EPC-B. Situated between Hanover Street and Forth Street, The Pattern Shop sits on 4.3 acres of brownfield land within the Stephenson Quarter regeneration area behind the Central Station, and forms part of the ambitious £137 million Founders Place employment scheme. Once complete, Founders Place will offer around 200,000 sq ft of workspace.

Longer term, there are plans for around 80 zero-carbon homes, with low-density and permeability through the site into other areas in mind.

The structure of the neighbouring Machine Shop can hopefully be retained, although the roof is in need of replacement, while there is a possibility of a meanwhile use being introduced at the Railyards plot within the masterplan. The hope is also to retain the Coppersmiths building.

The over-arching principles of the masterplan are a desire to create a green pocket, to create a destination of human scale rather than max-out the plots with taller buildings – mews-style residential will be more the theme.