New plans could be approved this week to breathe new life into the derelict site of a Newcastle city centre café that was destroyed by a fire.
Hundreds of student flats are earmarked for the former home of the NE4 café and Lock and Key restaurant, near St James’ Park, which were demolished after a blaze ripped through the building in 2015. The vacant plot of land in Heber Street has been the subject of several redevelopment plans in the years since, none of which have come to fruition.
But the latest proposals for the site are now due before city councillors this Friday, with a 12-storey student accommodation block expected to be approved. Designs from Downing Students would see more than 400 students housed in a complex made up of 293 standalone studio apartments and another 20 ‘clusters’ flats.
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Newcastle City Council’s planning committee had previously rejected a building plan for the site in 2019 on the grounds that its future residents would be forced to live in “poorly lit, dark and gloomy” conditions. But the new designs bear a much closer resemblance to a redrawn 2021 version, from previous applicants St James Boulevard Developments, which was approved but never built.
Recommending that councillors approve the plans this week, city planners wrote: “The development would allow for the Heber Street frontage to Helix to be completed with a building that would provide articulation and interest for passing pedestrians. The design would reflect the size and contemporary design forms of adjacent sites with its occupation by students adding to the vibrancy and activity of the area, providing associated benefits to footfall and local commercial uses.
“The design provides for an acceptable level of outlook and amenity to its future occupants, whilst protecting those of its neighbours, when assessing the impacts against previously approved development on the same site.”
The council also said that concerns over noise and fire safety, raised by Northern Powergrid and the Health and Safety Executive respectively, have been resolved.
In their application submitted to the council last November, Downing Students said that they would produce an “exceptionally high-quality building”. The Liverpool-based firm is also behind the nearby Verde and The View student accommodation blocks.
The application states: “The proposal will fill the derelict land on the south side of Heber St with a high-quality building, designed by internationally renowned architects Simpson Haugh, in an area that has become increasingly student residential in character. The application site sits in an area that has seen much change, including the A189 major distributor road (St James’ Boulevard), recent tall buildings and the wider development of brownfield land which has been cleared to make way for the development of Newcastle Helix.”
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