A major venue likened to a new Stack has won the backing of council bosses to open in Newcastle city centre.
Councillors have backed plans for a new food, drink, and entertainment hub to open just down the road from the popular shipping container village, which has now been dismantled to make way for a £155m HMRC office complex. It will see the historic Worswick Chambers building further down Pilgrim Street transformed into a three-storey collection of bars, food vendors, and other units built up around a central plaza.
The multi-million pound development now looks on course to open in summer 2023, after getting the seal of approval from Newcastle City Council. Applicant Anson House 9 Ltd, which is led by former Stack boss Neil Winch, has secured a licence for the new venue after a council hearing earlier this month, despite complaints that Stack has been a “nightmare” for its neighbours.
Read More: Metro park and ride sites get £3m boost for contactless payment, new CCTV, and better lighting
In a decision issued this week, the local authority’s licensing sub-committee said it was “satisfied” that the scheme, part of the Reuben Brothers-led regeneration of Pilgrim Street, would not have a negative impact on the city centre. Designs for the grade II listed 1800s site show that it will feature eight bars, seven food stands, two function rooms, a coffee shop, and other retail units surrounding a courtyard with a stage and big screen.
While last week’s hearing was told that the proposals did not constitute a relocation of Stack, which also has a branch in Seaburn, the clear similarities between the two venues were acknowledged. Barrister Charles Holland told the committee that Anson House 9 wanted to replicate the best of Stack’s features and said it had been a “successful and much admired venue” that “managed to pull off the feat of being large but intimate, and was trouble-free”.
That came after claims from city centre councillor Jane Byrne that Stack “completely failed” to keep noise under control and caused “huge problems” for residents of nearby Bewick Court. One resident of the 19-storey tower block warned the council that Stack was "nothing short of a living nightmare" and urged decision-makers not to back a venture which would effectively be "Stack coming back bigger, louder, and more obnoxious than before".
Mr Holland said such accusations were “hyperbolic” and not backed by evidence, while arguing that the run-down Worswick Chambers was well overdue to redevelopment. The venue would operate until 2am under the plans submitted to the council and Mr Holland said it would be required not to cause a nuisance either to the offices being built next door or to guests of a five-star hotel due to open at the city centre’s old fire station.
Planning permission for the ‘Pilgrim Place’ development that includes Worswick Chambers was already approved in 2021, alongside two new office buildings and a car park.
Read More:
- 'It will only get worse' – Fears mount after shocking report reveals scale of North East child poverty crisis
- Newcastle's 'motorbike crime emergency' could force locals to 'take the law into their own hands'
- Newcastle enters race to host Eurovision 2023 with UK set to stage song contest next year
- Tyne Tunnel would have 'significant' queues without cashless toll system after traffic levels surge
- New date for Newcastle Clean Air Zone – with tolls for high-polluting vehicles on hold until 2023
