Stephenson locomotive works demolition plans risk 'irreversible harm', heritage body claims

The Victorian Society says it has serious concerns over plans to demolish some remaining parts of the workshops once used by famed engineers George and Robert Stephenson, whose pioneering efforts were central to the birth of the railways in the 1800s and helped power the industrial revolution.

Newcastle City Council and its development partners have spent years trying to regenerate the Stephenson Quarter area, located behind Central Station. Last year it celebrated the transformation of the Pattern Shop building into offices.

Councillors are due to consider plans this Friday for works to the former Machine Shop and Smith’s Shop, including partial demolitions, removal of asbestos, and structural improvements – intended to help pave the way for future proposals to build around 70 homes at the South Street site.

The buildings date back as far as 1823 but have been significantly altered since, having last been used by builders’ merchants JT Dove before being vacated in the early 2000s and left disused ever since.

Currently inaccessible due to vandalism and the presence of disturbed asbestos, the council and developer igloo Regeneration say that both buildings are in a very poor state and that the currently planned works are needed before further regeneration plans are finalised.

However, the Victorian Society says the project should not be allowed to go ahead until a “more concrete and comprehensive scheme to safeguard this internationally important site for future generations” is produced, claiming it “has the potential to cause irreversible harm”.

Thomas Ollivier, conservation adviser at  the Victorian Society, said: “Birthplace to the world’s first commercial steam locomotives and directed by two of Britain’s most recognised engineers, George and Robert Stephenson, this site is of global importance. Without this site, the modern world as we know it simply would not exist.

“Any proposal for the redevelopment of this site must be informed and holistic, and should be devised with a long-term view. That being so, the demolition of any of the site’s buildings in the absence of a clear and detailed plan for what will replace them is not acceptable.”

The charity, which campaigns to protect Victorian and Edwardian buildings, says it holds particular concern about the unlisted Smith’s Shop.

The Georgian Group had also raised concerns about the older, grade II listed Machine Shop, but says it has now “tentatively” welcomed revisions to the plans which will see parts of that site protected from demolition until they can be safely accessed and assessed for their historical significance.

igloo Regeneration’s Insiyah Khushnood said: “Without these works the site would remain abandoned and inaccessible. The site has been neglected and vacant for over 20 years, resulting in significant deterioration of the built fabric which also contains asbestos. When the Stephenson Manufactory originally left the site in 1901 all the machinery and remnants of the rich industrial heritage were removed. The Machine Shop and Smith’s Shop were also heavily modified between the 1940s and 1980s by the last tenants who stripped out most if not all of the original fabric.”

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She added: “The Machine Shop and Smith’s Shop continue to be challenging due to a number of constraints. Despite this, funding was secured through the One Public Estate to make the site safe and undertake enabling works that will allow the full application to come forward and regenerate an unused and forgotten part of the city.”

Recommending that the council’s planning committee are minded to grant approval for the works to go ahead, city planners concluded that to leave the buildings in their existing state would mean they would be “ likely to continue to be the subject of anti-social behaviour and deterioration further through inclement weather and ultimately would have to be removed in their entirety”.

Their report to councillors states: “The proposed works, although extensive, will allow further investigatory works to take place and redevelopment of the site to come forward. Without the proposed works, further investigations cannot take place and the site could not be redeveloped. The applicant has shown a clear commitment to the redevelopment of the site with works that have taken place at the Boiler Shop and Pattern Shop to bring them both into a viable use.”