Planning application submitted to begin work on historic Newcastle building

A planning application has been submitted to Newcastle City Council, which aims to give new life to one of the city’s landmark buildings, Neville Hall.

Home to the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (NEIMME), the building occupies a prominent position at the junction of Neville Street and Westgate Road within the central Newcastle conservation area.

The Common Room, a new charity established in 2017, is managing the redevelopment and refurbishment project.

Its board of directors was able to use the £600k HLF development funding to get the transformation underway with the production of a fully-costed design, construction methodology and business plan, with Gardiner and Theobald appointed as project managers.

The proposals aim to convert the existing building and retain its extensive and unique historic library collection, refurbishing the ground floor reading rooms and enhancing the conferencing facilities to expand the community offering in the form of lettable conference, meeting and event hire spaces.

It will also be necessary to integrate modern electrical and mechanical services throughout to cater for existing and proposed uses.

Liz Mayes, director at The Common Room, said: “This is a hugely ambitious and exciting project which will play a key role in ensuring the sustainability of this area of the city.

“The Common Room aims to use the unique heritage of the Mining Institute to inspire the next generation of innovators and engineers, but to do that, we need to create not only a sustainable business model, but an environment which retains its sense of history, whilst being able to provide the kind of learning facilities and technology expected today.”

The planning application was submitted last month; determination is expected in May 2018.

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