Pocket Parks
One of the key strands of NE1's Business Programme has been the creation of a series of Pocket Parks at sites across the city, an idea born from the need to create more green space in Newcastle city centre and improve the quality of the city's public realm. Over the summer of 2011, the first of NE1's temporary parks were installed; Grey Street Gardens and the Quayside Seaside.
2012 saw the return of the Quayside Seaside with Grey Street Gardens making way for NE1's Monument Live big screen showing NE1's Monument Movies and a host of high profile sporting events accross the summer such as the Olympics, European Chamionships, Wimbledon and the Great North Run.
Quayside Seaside will return in June 2013 and remain until the end of September.
Since the inception of NE1's first Pocket Parks, NE1's strong track record of bringing together a wide range of companies and organisations to deliver high quality public realm improvements in the city, has seen NE1's role develop greatly over recent years. As such, NE1 are currently working on pocket park and public realm improvements to:
NE1 are also investigating the potential for future improvements to:
Further details shall be published shortly.
Please see details of NE1's pocket parks delivered to date below.
Grey Street Gardens, providing a tranquil space in the heart of the city, Grey Street Gardens temporary pocket park was installed in 2011 and remained in location until the end of summer. The planters have now taken up a permanent position oustide Newcastle's Theatre Royal.
Quayside Seaside, Newcastle's own "beach" was one of two temporary pocket parks installed in the summer of 2011. The Quayside Seaside, complete with deck chairs, palm trees and buckets and spades, was a venue at which the public could unwind, build sandcastles and enjoy a free game of volleyball. NE1's Quayside Seaside has proved to be so popular that the duration of it's installation has been extended by one month, now from June to September, and has become an annual fixture in Newcastle's calender of events.
57 Quayside, the first of NE1's pocket parks to open in the city. Launched in Autumn 2010, 57 Quayside, is a temporary park created on a vacant site owned by UK Land Estates and is now enjoyed by thousands of workers and visitors to the Quayside.
St Nicholas' Cathedral Square on Mosley Street, perhaps one of the most sensitive sites in the whole of Newcastle. The park was officially openend on 12 May 2011, creating a pocket park designed to reconnect the Cathedral with its surroundings and deliver a public space that is already being enjoyed by visitors to the Cathedral and the general public.
Sir Bobby Robson
Memorial Garden - the former Carnegie
Electric Site at Gallowgate was transformed by NE1 into a pocket
park in the first phase of a programme to create a memorial garden
to commemorate the life and work of Sir Bobby Robson. In the shadow
of St James' Park, NE1 has created a gardened area that now houses
a memorial sculpture.
If you would like to find out more about NE1's Pocket Park programme contact Adrian Waddell, NE1's Director of Operations on 0191 235 7092 or via email at adrian.waddell@newcastlene1ltd.com