The year is 2025. The face of Newcastle has been transformed by new developments.
And while we can’t guarantee that people will be whizzing about in flying cars, we can show you how the city will look after some of the most exciting new proposals are completed.
Here we look at some of the proposals - from multi-million pound developments to quirky new micropubs - that are set to transform the face of the city centre over the coming years.
The 'Whey Aye'
In May 2019, ChronicleLive revealed plans to build ‘The Whey Aye’, a 460ft structure at the centre of a massive £100m development.
The colossal wheel will dwarf even The London Eye and help create 550 jobs.
The development will be built on a 344,500 sq ft stretch of the Quayside - around the size of five football pitches.
Developers have also released images of the proposed 12m 'Geordie Giant' sculpture, which looms over the development and will greet guests as they arrive.
Newcastle City Council granted planning permission for the site - named 'Giants of the Quayside' - in July 2019, and developers now hope the Spillers Wharf site will be ready to open in 2023.
It will feature restaurants, bars, a state-of-the art virtual golf club as well as tennis courts and five-a-side pitches.
Quayside West
Developer Newby released details in early 2019 for its proposed Quayside West development on a derelict site next to the Metro Radio Arena.
Plans for a £250m “urban village” that developers say could become “the Ouseburn of west Newcastle” went before the council later in the year, but were redrawn amid significant concerns from city planners over the size of the development.
Plans for the former Calders site on Skinnerburn Road include up to 1,200 homes as well as a hotel, bars, restaurants and several green spaces.
The open spaces include a public park facing the Dunston Staiths, a tree-lined residential boulevard, a “cascade” of public squares and green spaces at the bases of buildings and a ridge-top pedestrian walkway linking up the site.
The firm behind the project in December that it was “just as excited” by the plans, despite scaling them back.
Wine bar - former Bigg Market toilets
The famous Bigg Market toilets have been turned into a high-end wine bar - and will be open by the end of THIS month!
Restoration work on the 19th century underground loos has now been completed and the site has been handed over to a developer with big ambitions to turn it into one of the city’s quirkiest nightspots.
The former gents’ public conveniences closed due to council budget cuts in 2012, but city regeneration chiefs say they are the “final piece in the jigsaw” of the Bigg Market’s £3m facelift.
Developer WC Newcastle Ltd is hoping to have the wine bar open by the end of January.
The firm says the venue will be an "intimately designed and atmospherically lit subterranean bar, in keeping with the Victorian heritage, but fused with a modern outlook and feel".
City Pool and Turkish Baths to reopen
After a £7.5m renovation of this historic Newcastle building it will finally reopen to the public in January 2020.
Fusion, a registered charity, brought the site back to life, and added a fitness suite and café bistro.
The redevelopment involved restoration of the Turkish baths and swimming pool, the creation of a new spa and fitness suite, glass fronted conditioning studios on the first and ground floor and changing areas.
The baths, first opened in 1928, were closed in April 2013 but a community campaign by Re-open Newcastle Turkish Baths Group was picked up by Fusion Lifestyle.
Pilgrim Street (Odeon)
It's currently occupied by shipping container village Stack, but the council's long-term plan is for the area surrounding East Pilgrim Street is for it to be turned into a leisure quarter complete with fine dining restaurants and high end shops.
September 2019 saw city council planners give the green light to the first phase of the development plans, which will result in the empty Bank of England plot being replaced with Bank House, a 14-storey 120,000 sqft Grade A landmark office building, which it is hoped will then be joined by further, surrounding office buildings with the potential to support 4,000 jobs.
Plans for the top section of Pilgrim Street would see full redevelopment of the fire station, Carliol House and the former Odeon cinema site, where Stack Newcastle will remain until 2022.
CGIs by Ryder Architecture show how the shopping, leisure and new housing scheme could look, with Stack Newcastle replaced by a curved structure for prime retailers, with a rooftop terrace, adjacent to a second new building containing more shops, with bars and restaurants on the upper storey.
Next door would be a new-build residential building providing homes for more than 300 people.
Chinawhite - Newcastle city centre
Celebrity nightclub Chinawhite is set to open a new venue in Newcastle, it has emerged.
The famed London nightclub has been a hip hangout for everyone from rock stars to royalty, movie and sporting stars including the likes of Kate Moss, Drake, Prince Harry, Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Cruise.
Now, 21 years after the brand first opened its doors to the A-listers of London, the firm’s managing director has said it plans to open in a listed building in Newcastle city centre next year.
In an interview, Chinawhite managing director James Spallone, said he had secured a site in the city.
He said: "It is a listed building that will require some renovation.
"We have done some basic plans. The idea is to start the build next July and be ready for October, but planning can be difficult."
Helix
The Newcastle science park is fast becoming the centre of excellence it set out to be, as a series of buildings take shape alongside those already completed by Newcastle University.
The site has now been rebranded from Newcastle Science Central to Helix and a number of buildings are coming along at a cracking pace, including the learning and teaching centre, the Newcastle Energy Centre, the office building Lumen, the National Innovation Building and the £25m laboratory complex called The Biosphere.
Housing plans at the edge of Helix are also forging ahead.
Hadrian’s Tower
It’s been a long time coming but this skyscraper will become Newcastle’s tallest building when it finally opens in 2020.
The £40m project, led by the High Street Group, is now well under way and will eventually create 162 private rented apartments for up to 456 people, and offer members of the public the chance to take in views from the rooftop.
Monument Metro micropub
In October 2018, we revealed proposals for a real ale and music bar called The Waypoint on the station's concourse.
Newcastle City Council planning officers said bringing the vacant venue back to life would "benefit the viability and vitality of the Metro concourse area as an important arrival point to the city".
Plans, drawn up by North East interiors firm Collective Design, include a small grand piano and space for local musicians to play, and got the thumbs-up from Newcastle City Council bosses in May 2019.
Developers say the final look will "retain references to the iconic architecture of Metro softened with elegant brass and leather finishes".
And the pub will centre on a sweeping curved bar in line with the old travel shop counter.
