A multimillion-pound rejuvenation project in the heart of Newcastle city centre is continuing with the transformation of historic Cloth Market bar Balmbra’s.
Immortalised in the Geordie song The Blaydon Races, Balmbra’s was a popular music hall and pub until it was damaged by a fire in 2014 which largely destroyed the interior of the building.
Now, with help and financial support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, administered by Newcastle’s BID company NE1 Ltd, owners the Malhotra Group are redeveloping the building and will receive a grant to restore the building’s exterior.
The frontage will be restored and signage will be replaced with a reproduction of the original from the 1900s.
The leisure group, which also owns the Three Mile in Gosforth, Leila Lily’s and the Grey Street Hotel, will create a pop-up bar to bring the building back into public use and generate some income as a stop gap until the wider transformation and redevelopment of the site can be carried out in the future.
The building forms part of the Malhotra Group’s £25m investment plans for the area which centre on the creation of a luxury hotel dubbed the ‘Dorchester of the North’ – but those plans have been put on hold due to Covid 19.
The Malhotra Group is working closely with the conservation team at Newcastle City Council to protect the building. Three bay windows will be reopened and one of the most famous parts of Balmbra’s, the barrel-vaulted roof, will be preserved.
Once complete the venue will be operated by Zafer Saygilier, owner and operator of Soho and Greenhouse.
The work starts next Monday andwill be finished by the end of the year.
Balmbra’s will be the sixth building to receive a Heritage Fund grant as part of NE1’s redevelopment of the Bigg Market, which has also seen the transformation of the public realm, work that was completed in 2018 and was awarded the Lord Mayor’s Award for Landscape design.
Other buildings to be redeveloped in the area are Pumphreys – also owned by the Malhotra Group – Koh-i-Noor, Cosy Joes, 41 Groat Market occupied by Meat Stack, and WC Newcastle.
Alex Slack, project manager for Bigg Market said: “The public hasn’t been able to enjoy Balmbra’s for years.
“Whilst we would ideally like to see the full restoration of the dance hall, this interim redevelopment and pop up bar will bring the building back into public use and will go some way to stopping the rot and allowing further disrepair.
“Balmbra’s plays an important and significant role in Newcastle’s history and in NE1’s Bigg Market redevelopment programme as it seeks to build upon the progress made on the Cloth Market.
“Pumphrey’s at the top of the Cloth Market was the first building to receive a grant from the Heritage Fund and Balmbra’s, the penultimate building on the street, will hopefully catalyse further improvements.”
Meenu Malhotra, founder and chairman of the Malhotra Group said “We are delighted to be receiving support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and NE1.
“ Having previously completed the restoration of Pumphreys we are excited to begin the next chapter in Balmbra’s rich history. We remain committed to a full restoration in due course but as an interim measure we want to see the building back in use. We will be working hand in hand with NE1 and the City Council to ensure the project is carried out appropriately and sensitively.”
Since NE1 Ltd started the delivery of the National Lottery Heritage Fund-backed project in 2018, there has been £1m invested in public, open areas of the Bigg Market and £350,000 in building restorations funded by NE1 and the Heritage Fund, as well as a further £3.1m by the private sector.
