Gateshead Town Centre

The PSA accommodates a number of community uses including health and fitness centres, a music academy, Trinity Church Hall and a health centre, whilst a number of other community and civic functions are on the edge of the centre, including the Civic Centre. 

Due to the presence of Trinity Square Gateshead Centre has a variety of multiple retailers in the centre, including; Tesco, Matalan, , Boots, Specsavers, Costa, Pure Gym, Iceland, Greggs, Heron Foods, Nandos, Burger King and Holland & Barrett. There are also local and regional multiples including Dickinsons. The likes of Tesco and Iceland are overperforming in terms of footfall, with both shops seeing more visitors than the national average for the respective chains.

The centre is a highly accessible location within the region.  Gateshead Interchange provides excellent public transport access, with Metro links to the wider Tyne and Wear sub-region., and bus services linking to the wider North East. The Interchange also offers cycle parking. 

Approximately 203 buses per hour pass through the centre. The centre does suffer from the effects of through traffic and congestion associated with the Gateshead Highway and other main roads that cut the centre off from surrounding areas. The average number of visits to Gateshead Town Centre per person per month is 3.66, roughly once a week (June 2021).  

The PSA has approximately 1000 parking spaces spread across a number of sites and facilities. 

The redevelopment of Trinity Square included a Tesco Superstore and Vue Multiscreen Cinema, student accommodation linked to Northumbria University and  public realm improvements.  

The Local Plan defines a consolidated PSA focused around Trinity Square, with other adjacent areas and sites identified as having development potential for a range of uses including retail and leisure uses. These include development opportunity areas at Jackson Street and High Street, and the Old Town Hall area to the north of the PSA. 

Works to improve the PSA are ongoing, with Future Place funding secured to produce a development and delivery framework for the town centre. This work will guide long term planning and investment in Gateshead town centre. A planning application for improvements to the Trinity Centre is being considered: the proposed development would improve accessibility of the building and add a café. Empty units in the Interchange facing West Street have been purchased by the Orbis Community Interest Company, which could help revitalise this area.  

The High Street South area is situated outside of the PSA, and  has been included in regeneration proposals outlined within the Exemplar Neighbourhood SPD and Masterplan, which will provide new homes close to the town centre, An update to the SPD and Masterplan is currently being developed, and will include the potential for Gateshead Flyover to be removed, as well as improving walking and cycling access within the area and providing public open space. 

On 1 September 2020, the Use Classes Order 1987 was updated to better reflect how land is used. The update removed a number of more specific uses, for example under the old Use Classes Order shops fell under class A1 and restaurants under class A3. The amended order places both these uses into class E (commercial, business, and services).  

In carrying our retail health checks of our centres, Gateshead Council will continue to monitor more specific uses such as shops, restaurants and cafes, and financial and business services. We are taking this approach in order to get a clear picture of how exactly our centres are being used, and what changes are taking place over time. We have incorporated these more specific uses within the new Use Classes Order system. For example, shops are now counted as an E(a) use where previously they would fall under class A1. 

Gateshead Town Centre is home to a variety of retail and other town centre uses. A total of 13 different use classes can be found in the centre, ranging from the Arts to Convenience Stores. Use class E(a) (Miscellaneous Retail) is the most common use with 51 (40%) units belonging to the class. Hover over the dashboard to interact with the data. 

The number of units within each class has been visualised using bar charts. These allow for year-on-year trends and patterns to be identified. As expected, there is not a great deal of variation in the number of units per class although this proves a useful way for identifying a year on year breakdown of units per class.  

Use Class Reference List:

• E(a) - Display or retail sale of goods, other than hot food

• E(b) - Sale of food and drink for consumption (mostly) on the premises

• E(c)(i) - Financial services,

• E(c)(ii) - Professional services (other than health or medical services), or

• E(c)(iii) Other appropriate services in a commercial, business or service locality

• E(d) - Indoor sport, recreation or fitness (not involving motorised vehicles or firearms or use as a swimming pool or skating rink,)

• E(e) - Provision of medical or health services (except the use of premises attached to the residence of the consultant or practitioner)

• E(f) - Creche, day nursery or day centre (not including a residential use)

• E(g) - Uses which can be carried out in a residential area without detriment to its amenity:

• E(g)(i) - Offices to carry out any operational or administrative functions,

• E(g)(ii) - Research and development of products or processes

• E(g)(iii) - Industrial processes

The Town centre performed relatively well against a range of environmental quality indicators. The pedestrianised area running through the Town Centre to Trinity Square creates a pleasant shopping experience with shops in this area having attractive frontages, largely free from graffiti and litter. Trinity Square also provides a large communal seating area which occasionally hosts pop up stalls. Scoring for each of the environmental quality indicators has been based on discretionary assessment by officers.  

Car/Bike parking

Gateshead Town Centre has a fairly good level of provision for bike parking. There are multiple cycle stands located across the centre suitable for storing around 30 bikes. The stands are secure, and are positioned in highly visible and busy areas which are well-frequented by pedestrians. 

The majority of car parking for the Town Centre is provided in a large underground car park with capacity for hundreds of vehicles. There is also a car park located between High West Street and the A184 suitable for about 30 vehicles. 

Disabled access

Gateshead Town Centre is highly accessible for people with mobility difficulties. Although there are multiple stepped sections in the centre and especially the Metro Interchange, access is also provided by ramps and lifts to allow access to all of the centre's retail units. West Street has an incline that may make access difficult for some.  

Green transport accessibility

The Town Centre is very well equipped for public transport with the Metro Interchange located on West Street. The Interchange provides access to bus services across the whole of Gateshead and the North East. The Metro provides access to local metro stations and be used to access to mainline services for travel to places further afield.  

Pedestrian environment

Trinity Square offers a good quality pedestrian environment, with  modern design and exclusive pedestrian access creainge a calm environment for shopping. Much of the town centre is also pedestrianised, although there is limited traffic accessing parking on West Street. Jackson Street and High Street are both open to traffic, with pedestrian crossings in place to enable safe access by pedestrians.

Overall cleanliness

Ellison Street and Trinity Square are both kept in very good condition as staff provide support and cleaning services in these areas. The other areas and streets are less well-kept, with litter being common despite bins being available. 

Physical appearance

Units along Trinity Square and Ellison Street are well kept and in good condition. The same can be said for West Street. Jackson Street features more vacant units, which detract from its overall appearance. The High Street’s physical appearance is relatively poor, with multiple vacant units displaying flyers in windows.

Quality of open space

The main resting place when visiting the Town Centre is the outdoor seating area of Trinity Square. This area boasts a striking art installation and 3 sets of banked seating areas allowing people using the PSA to sit down, rest and relax. 

Gateshead Town centre has a relatively high vacancy rate with 38 (30%) of units lying vacant. Please note that due to changing District Centre boundaries the total number of units fell from 132 to 128 in this Health Check.

Vacancy rates are showing an upwards trend with an increase of 9% in the 3 years between 2020 and 2022, and has remained the same as of 2023. It should be noted that retail across the country has struggled during this period due to increased competition from online retailers, and the impacts of Brexit and, more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic.   

Footfall in Gateshead Town Centre, as with all district centres, was significantly impacted by the pandemic and successive lockdown, with monthly visitor numbers falling from a high of 1,001,939 in November 2019 to a low of 404,577 in February 2021. Since then, footfall data shows that visitor numbers have recovered and have remained above, 450,000 since July 2021 - with the most recent figure being 459,500 visitors in December 2023.

It should be noted that data on visitor numbers applies to a wider area than that surveyed for this Retail Healthcheck, however the trends shown give an indication as to trends in the volume of people visiting the Town Centre.

This data shows recent crime rates across Gateshead Town Centre, which are about average for the Borough. Exact values can be extracted by interacting with the dashboard and hovering over a data column. Using crime statistics helps to provide context to the environmental quality index by highlighting quantitative trends.  

Further data and information relating to crime can be shared on request.