Client: Blocwork / Platform4

Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

We are very excited to start the year with the news that the planning application for Forth Goods Yard, a new public realm scheme on the edge of Newcastle’s city centre, has been validated by the Local Planning Authority. This key milestone marks the start of the decision period for this exciting regeneration masterplan, following over 5 years of extensive design development and co-ordination between the client and design team, in addition to consultation with a wide range of key stakeholders. The project reimagines a disused, industrial rail yard adjacent to Newcastle’s Central Railway Station, into a car-free mixed-use development including build-to-rent apartments, a multi-storey car park for the railway station, various commercial units and dedicated public open space.

Southern Green was commissioned to undertake the landscape masterplan alongside the Townscape and Visual Impact Assessment for the planning application. The landscape design of the public realm interprets and celebrates the former use of the space through re-use of reclaimed industrial materials, re-creation of post-industrial brownfield habitats, linear form, and integration of contemporary artwork and interpretative rail lines that run through the space.

Set against the historically significant backdrop of the King Edward VII Bridge and Railway Viaduct, the design for Forth Goods Yard takes its cues from the sites post-industrial railway heritage, emphasised through recreation of its current rich ecological brownfield habitat, which has naturalised throughout the partially derelict site. The design concept is inspired by the heritage significance of the site as a major industrial gateway to the city. The lost railway lines have been reinterpreted through the concept of 'New Lines', which tell the story of the site:

• The ‘Scotswood Line’ will be a family friendly accessible linear park along the length of the viaduct, which originally carried the former Newcastle to Carlisle rail line. This elevated linear park, will provide a new active travel route from Central Station westwards and provide car free connectivity to the wider Forth Yards masterplan;
• The 'Live Line' branch line provides a unique backdrop to the Scotswood Line linear park, and an opportunity for interaction for rail enthusiasts and young families;
• The ‘Social Line’ brings to life the rich social history of the former rail yard workers and their families within the ‘platform gardens’. A series of unique dwell spaces will provide seating and activity, to promote a sense of community and social community interaction;
• The ‘Water Line’ is a rain garden which references the movement of trains through the site. A series of marginal and semi aquatic planted margins will create movement and enhance biodiversity and ecological habitat creation throughout the scheme;
• The ‘History Line’ consists of interpretive artwork, set between the rail tracks, that tell the history of the site and the coal drops;
• The ‘Lost Line’ is a relic rail line, that disappears into a planted area to the west of Block 02, interpreting the decline of the yards and the re-purposing of the site as a new community;
• The ‘B Line’ is devised from an existing strategy promoted by buglife.org.uk. It is proposed to create insect pathways which run “through our countryside and towns, along which we are restoring and creating a series of wildflower-rich habitat stepping stones”. The on-site micro version, links new biodiverse areas of planting at each level of the masterplan.

The team at Southern Green are excited and honoured to have been a part of this gateway project to the wider Forth Yards Masterplan in the heart of our city. We are keeping everything crossed for a positive planning decision, and look forward to working with the dedicated client and design team to realise this ambitious vision. We hope to share more on this project soon.