'One of Newcastle's tallest buildings': Plan for £60m 21-storey student accommodation tower unveiled
A £60 million vision to build a massive student accommodation tower in the heart of Newcastle has been unveiled.
Developers have lodged huge plans to knock down the Hadrian House office block and replace it with a 21-storey building that would house hundreds of Northumbria University students. Proposals submitted to Newcastle City Council promise to “revitalise and regenerate an unwelcoming part of the city”.
The plans, led by Sona Estates and Argon, would involve the demolition of both the existing eight-storey Hadrian House and the network of high-level walkways linked to it, which the documents describe as a “dilapidated” and “unsafe” remnant of Newcastle’s T Dan Smith era.
In their place would come a student housing complex for 507 students, as well as revamped pedestrian routes and public space.
The planning application states: “The proposed development incorporates the removal of Hadrian House, an unattractive, largely vacant office building which has come to the end of its useful life and which does not contribute positively to the area.
“The building is not suitable for re-use for structural reasons (including the low floor to floor heights) and would fail to make the most efficient use of the land. Additionally, re-use of the building would not meet the brief from Northumbria University in terms of the number of student beds required and would not be economically viable.
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“Associated with the demolition of Hadrian House will be the removal of sections of the high level walkways which are unwelcoming, unsafe, do not provide level access and are a disjointed remnant of a planned way of moving around the city which did not come to fruition, which are falling into disrepair and which do not serve a useful purpose”
Hadrian House, which was built in the 1970s, is currently home to the Hustler Pool and Snooker Club. It also briefly housed Newcastle’s sexual health service, before it relocated to the Summerhill conservation area, and was heavily criticised in a recent CQC report on the clinic as having substandard facilities.
The proposed student housing development would be made up of 57 studio apartments and 450 cluster rooms, containing between four and 10 bedrooms and with shared living and kitchen facilities.
The regeneration vision would also see part of the existing Saville Place car park incorporated into a “generous stretch of public realm” connecting Higham Place, Durant Road, and the Blue Carpet area next to the Laing Art Gallery – described as a “destination and a clear route for students, workers and the general public to use, when moving around the city”.
A 21-storey block would become one of the tallest buildings in Newcastle, among which is also the neighbouring Bewick Court flats. The planning application argues that the “slender form and mass of the towers have been carefully positioned to ensure that they become a positive addition to the skyline and do not block or distract from heritage assets such as the Civic Centre”.
In a letter supporting the development, Northumbria University said that the Hadrian House project would “play a crucial role in delivering the standard of accommodation our students deserve”.
The university has recently demolished its accommodation at Lovaine Hall and will do the same with the disused Claude Gibb student halls in Day Street.