New Quayside hotel backed by planners

The Eldon Chambers building dates back to 1833

A new hotel and restaurant looks set to open on Newcastle's Quayside after winning the backing of city planners.

The team behind the Cow Hollow Hotel in Manchester's Northern Quarter have won permission to take over the derelict Tyneside building.

Under plans approved by Newcastle City Council, the Grade II-listed Eldon Chambers building will be revamped.

The former law offices, vacant since 2016, will become a 26-bedroom hotel, with a restaurant and bar.

Granting planning permission for the development on Wednesday, the city council said that the hotel project would “protect the building’s historic significance”.

Approval had previously been granted in 2016 to convert the building, which dates back to 1833 and began life as a merchant traders’ office, into a hotel, but that never went ahead and the permission lapsed.

Now the developers are promising a “total refurbishment” that will give future guests a “more luxury stay” than the hotel brands already on the Quayside, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. Newcastle design firm Collective Design said there would be a "total refurbishment of the building" with the exterior "untouched aside from signage and repairs in line with listed building policy".

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