The derelict site of a fire-hit Newcastle restaurant will finally be redeveloped as student housing, after councillors approved plans.
Lock and Key and the attached NE4 café were destroyed in a blaze in 2015 and were subsequently demolished, since when the plot in Heber Street has been left vacant. The land, near St James’ Park, has been the subject of numerous building plans that have failed to materialise over the years.
But there are now hopes that it will finally get its long-awaited overhaul, after Newcastle City Council signed off on designs for a 12-storey student accommodation block. The local authority’s planning committee granted approval on Friday morning for proposals from Downing Students, which will see more than 400 students housed in a complex made up of 293 standalone studio apartments and another 20 ‘clusters’ flats.
While concerns were raised about the potential traffic congestion caused by more taxis in the area and the level of cycling infrastructure around the city centre for residents, councillors were unanimous in their backing for the scheme. The site had previously been the subject of debate in 2019, when housing plans were rejected on the basis that future occupants would be left in “poorly lit, dark and gloomy” conditions.
A redrawn version of those proposals was then approved in 2021 for previous applicants St James Boulevard Developments, but was never built. Liverpool-based Downing Students is also behind two other student accommodation complexes nearby, Verde and The View, and has promised an “exceptionally high-quality building”.
The developer said in its submissions to the city council last year: “The proposal will fill the derelict land on the south side of Heber Street 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.”
Councillors were told on Friday that concerns over noise and fire safety at the development, raised by Northern Powergrid and the Health and Safety Executive respectively, had already been resolved.
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