Co-op Store Conversion
Report from the Tyneside Committee
The area in which the old Co-op building stands is one rich in the history of the city of Newcastle. St Andrews Street (formerly Darn Crook) is an ancient street, bounding St Andrews Church, and retains the form of medieval Newcastle although being now lined with Victorian buildings between 2 and 4 storeys high.
Newgate Street, also with medieval origins is quite different in character. It has been a broad space for many years, but the recent redevelopment of the Eldon Square extension has succeeded in recreating a more traditional street form and focuses attention on the 1932 Co-op building.
The Tyneside Committee have sent emails and letters to the City council and are working alongside the Newcastle Conservation Advisory Panel monitoring the panning proposals and aiming to retain the best of the features of this building both internally and externally.
The Tyneside Committee have sent emails and letters to the City council and are working alongside the Newcastle Conservation Advisory Panel monitoring the panning proposals and aiming to retain the best of the features of this building both internally and externally. The future plans include a small supermarket outlet; large and smaller retail units; a restaurant area and the Hotel entrance and reception coming off on St Andrews Street. The Northumberland and Newcastle Society are broadly in favour of the proposals to change this building to a hotel but with some reservations about the loss of the former ballroom which is to be converted to bedrooms. Also, the fabulous staircase lobbies are proposed as being demoted to mere fire-escapes which is a great shame as they are a feature of the building which many local people remember fondly.
City and County
November 2011
