A pub destined for demolition is set to be make a return as part of a multimillion-pound Newcastle city centre scheme.
Bar Fleet Street, which was originally called the Printer’s Pie, opened as part of the Chronicle and Journal’s Thomson House development in 1965.
It was the favourite haunt of both journalists and print workers, in the days before new technology took over much of the printing role in newspapers.
The bar, operated by Heineken’s pub business Star Pubs & Bars, closed its doors in 2015 and plans to bring in new tenants were shelved when it emerged the building was set for a different future.
Now the building’s owners Reach Plc – publishers of the Chronicle and Journal – have unveiled proposals to flatten the entire site and replace it with a dual-branded hotel and aparthotel, set to be operated by international brand Marriott Hotels.
And the scheme also includes plans to rebuild a standalone pub to replace the old Bar Fleet Street in the same location. Star Pubs & Bars will operate the new public house.
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The creation of a new pub is revealed in documents submitted to Newcastle City Council by planning consultancy Lichfields, on behalf of Reach Plc.
Planning documents say: “ The Pudding Chare frontage of Thomson House includes a public house latterly known as Bar Fleet Street, which closed in 2015.
“As part of the proposals, this is to be demolished and replaced by a new standalone public house in broadly the same location and accessed from Pudding Chare.
“This will add vibrancy to the street and increase pedestrian movement through the chare. It will also act as a new frontage for this elevation of the development, which in recent times has functioned as a back throughfare rather than as a destination.
“On Pudding Chare, red brick is to be used as the main material for the public house. This will tie in with the red brick which is commonly used in this area and will ensure the public house provides an attractive visual feature.”
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The planning documents also reveal how the overall project at Thomson House will create more than 400 jobs.
In all, around 40 full time hotel jobs will be created, as well as a number at the public house, around 150 temporary direct construction jobs and 225 jobs in the supply chain.
