ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS

Improvement of Grainger Town’s public spaces is one of the six key themes of the regeneration strategy, aimed at enhancing the area to complement the promotion of Newcastle as a major European Regional Capital.

Dramatic changes to the public face of Grainger Town began in December 1998 with the start of a major programme of environmental improvements including creative lighting, new public art works, new street furniture and re-paving of key areas. The main features of the Public Art programme will be installed during 2003, including the River of Text, a bronze 3D map of the area, a memorial plaque to Thomas Bewick and other schemes. A creative lighting scheme for the main features of Grainger Town's architecture will also be completed in 2003.

The programme concentrates work on those important public spaces within Grainger Town, which features some of the city’s most prominent addresses, including Grey Street and Grainger Street and Grey’s Monument. In 2002, lighting schemes for Theatre Royal and Grey's Monument were installed, with images of Earl Grey set into illuminated cubes at the base of the Monument.

The environmental improvements are of the highest quality and form a showpiece for the regeneration process, demonstrating the commitment of all parties to improving the quality of the environment at the heart of Newcastle.

The public realm environmental work has been undertaken in 6 phases. The first 3 phases are shown below. Phase 4 has provided improvements to Grainger Street. Phase 5 commenced in February 2003, and has substantially improved areas of Neville Street and Lower Grainger Street. Phase 6 has achieved improvements to the area around the Grainger Market.

THREE PHASES OF PUBLIC REALM ENVIRONMENTAL WORK

Click on the coloured areas to select Phase information