Risk List

St James’s Park East Stand, Newcastle

Status: At risk

FaulknerBrowns, 1973
Risk: Demolition

Newcastle United’s monumental St James’s Park (which has been on the same site since 1892), often tops fan polls for the best ground in the Premier League. Its lofty position atop the Tyne gorge and close proximity to the city centre has earned it the nickname ‘the cathedral on the hill’: where most cities would locate their place of worship, or civic landmark, Newcastle placed its football club. Yet throughout its history, the desire for expansion has caused conflict with local residents and the council, resulting in several failed proposals for a full-scale relocation to the city limits.

Hemmed in by a Grade I listed Georgian terrace on one side and the Victorian Leazes Park on the other, with subterranean Metro tracks complicating expansion at the Gallowgate end, the ground has subsequently developed in a lopsided, asymmetrical way. The East Stand, designed by locally based architects and sports specialists FaulknerBrowns in 1971-73, was the first major development at St James’s since 1929. Working closely with the FA, the project also made an early contribution to the Green Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds. Its angled colonnade of rippled concrete buttresses references the classical stone and regimented formality of the neighbouring Leazes Terrace, carefully proportioned to not overwhelm or block out daylight. Despite having brutalist credentials on account of its material and expressive structure, the finely-detailed stand was seen as a major catalyst in unlocking the fraught relationship between club and city by confirming its commitment to its location.

Under the new ownership of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund since 2021, the club has reopened this debate by commissioning an extensive feasibility study on ground expansion or relocation. The East Stand is now the oldest surviving part of the St James’s Park and is thought to be the area most likely to be the focus of any redevelopment. Yet simply pedestrianising the road and improving the landscaping could enhance this striking urban set-piece of 18th and 20th century architecture side by side, creating a fan-zone and setting unique in British sport.

How to help

Write to NUFC to voice your support for the building: supporter.services@nufc.co.uk

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