Newcastle bridges history and progress
A former industrial site in Newcastle is to be transformed into a mixed-use development that will sit alongside Founders Place on the Tyne river.
Newcastle’s Forth Yards, a 51-acre regeneration site along the River Tyne, is set to reshape the city’s urban landscape and become a model of sustainable, inclusive city living.
Positioned as a key gateway to the city centre, this once-industrial brownfield site, rich in railway heritage, is being transformed into a vibrant, housing-led mixed-use development.
With plans for more than 2,000 new homes and amenities like a New York-style highline linear park, the project seeks to connect Newcastle’s West End communities with its centre while preserving its industrial past.
Forth Yards is located along the western edge of Newcastle city centre, with the River Tyne as its southern boundary and the Redheugh Bridge as its north-south spine. At 20 ha, the site is Newcastle’s last major undeveloped river-frontage brownfield site and boasts an array of industrial archaeological heritage and historic railway infrastructure.
This is alongside the neighbouring Founders Place development to the east of Forth Yards. Founders Place was originally the location of the workshops and offices of Robert Stephenson & Company, the first company in the world created specifically to build locomotive steam engines. It is now home to a mixed-use scheme which includes a hotel, car park, University Technical College, office space, and a music and events venue and will connect the site to Central Station.
Building the future
Forth Yards offers the opportunity to build on and bring the city’s industrial heritage into the 21st century with a focus on housing-led regeneration that works for people and the environment. This will encapsulate not only housing but quirky public realm, including the highline linear park on the site of a disused railway track which cuts across the top of the Forth Yards development area.
Plans are being brought forward to deliver a number of significant residential-led schemes across Forth Yards. Newcastle City Council is working with the site owners, Homes England and the North East Combined Authority, to enable the development of a well-connected, mixed-use and sustainable new place integrated into the existing fabric and communities of the city.
In April 2024, Hines agreed to forward fund the development of 519 new homes as part of the first phase of development for Forth Yards. Olympian Homes is the development partner for the 325,000 sq ft scheme. It will comprise two blocks of one- and two-bedroom rental apartments, along with 10,000 sq ft of amenity space including a gym, coworking facilities, two roof terraces and a cinema room.
The aim with Forth Yards is to create a community and neighbourhood that residents are proud of and that represents Newcastle’s industrial past, but also its future as an inclusive city and a green city.
