Fresh images have offered a sneak peak inside a multi-million pound restoration of Newcastle’s Grainger Market.
The city centre institution is undergoing a major revamp, in the hope of transforming it into a destination to rival Europe’s best indoor markets.
Latest pictures from the centre’s £9 million facelift offer a first look at the major changes planned in the market arcade, which is being reconfigured to make it capable of staging gigs, plays, and other cultural events.
Restoration features
While much of the area is covered by hoardings or scaffolding, which keep the building works out of sight of the public, Newcastle City Council has released photos showing how a new pavilion and upstairs seating area at the Nelson Street end of the market arcade is taking shape.
Opposite at the Nelson Street end, a staircase is also being built that will take shoppers up to a previously-inaccessible upper level.
Regulars in the market will also have noticed that sliding glass doors are now being installed at its various entrances, in an effort to deal with long-standing complaints about the Grainger Market being too cold during the winter months.
Local artist Ashley Willerton has also been brought in to hand paint new signs around the market, which it is hoped will make it easier to navigate.
That follows on from the installation of new ceramic tiling welcoming visitors into the market and telling them what street they are exiting onto.
New toilets are also being installed by contractors Robertson, while the old kiosks in the centre of the arcade that used to house popular traders Pumphrey’s Coffee and Hunter’s Deli were demolished last year.
Old air raid shelters beneath the Grainger Market have been lost as a result of the restoration work, after it was deemed they would not be able to withstand the construction above and needed to be filled in with concrete.
Funded through cash awarded from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund in 2021, it was originally hoped that the redesign of the market would be completed last summer.
But completion of the project, which follows on from the long-running restoration of the market’s barrelled glass roof a few years ago, has been delayed into this year.
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