Newcastle Cultural Quarter, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2002 - ongoing

A major part of Terry Farrell and Partners estates strategy masterplan focuses on the relationship between the university's central campus and Newcastle city Centre - 'Town Meets Gown”. The Cultural Quarter proposal seeks to draw together the dispersed and hidden treasures of the University and several learned societies into a cultural quarter within the renewed university campus.

Newcastle University is located at the northern gateway to the city adjacent to the Civic Centre and University of Northumbria. As part of a wider vision for connecting the cultural assets of Newcastle and Gateshead, Terry Farrell and Partners have proposed a 'Geordie Ramblas' running down the axis of Northumberland Street, Pilgrim Street and down the City Road to the practice's celebrated East Quayside. The dramatic Millennium Bridge forms a direct connection to Gateshead Quayside and the emerging cultural south bank of the Tyne.

The Cultural Quarter is focussed on the Grade II listed Hancock Museum and the adjoining buildings and Claremont Road and Eldon Place. Dramatic improvements are proposed to the physical and intellectual accessibility of the collections, which will in turn be supported by a whole new programme of exhibition design and interpretation. The lawns at the front of the museum are re-landscaped to provide a new setting for the building, removing unsightly car parking to a more carefully considered location.