The corner of Pilgrim Street was transformed when a host of shipping containers were winched into place and turned into a busy, vibrant, and exciting location, filled with live entertainment, street food and bars.
STACK Newcastle became an instant success and welcomed a staggering three million plus visitors during its time in the city centre.
And that provided the proof – if proof was needed – that this concept was one that people of all ages would embrace, fueling the future growth of the company.
The second STACK scheme opened in September 2020 on the magnificent Seaburn coastline in Sunderland and has since achieved its own success with thousands visiting each month to enjoy the wide variety of events, entertainment and street food that is on offer.
Although many were extremely disappointed when STACK Newcastle closed its doors in May to make way for the Pilgrim Quarter development, it was always known that this site would be a temporary home.
But you can’t keep a good man – or in this case attraction – down and STACK is about to return with a vengeance, not just to Newcastle but to other key locations in the North East and beyond.
The recent announcement of a new, permanent flagship site on Tyneside has, not surprisingly, been well received.
STACK Newcastle will be relocated at the Grade II listed building, Worswick Chambers at Pilgrim Street which has been covered with scaffolding and netting for more than 20 years.
The new flagship venue will be a combination of the existing building with an extension built using the original shipping container concept to create the STACK’s much loved outdoor plaza area. The whole venue will be blended and split over three floors to include multiple bars and street food units alongside the core STACK element in the outdoor plaza of a stage for live performances and a big screen.
The aim is for STACK Newcastle to be back open, bigger and better, in time for the festive season in 2023, bringing a huge boost to the city centre.
Continuing to grow and become a nationally recognised brand has always been part of the Danieli Group strategy and those first steps are well underway.
Two new, ambitious schemes have been proposed for County Durham – one which will see the transformation of Durham city’s former Marks & Spencer store into STACK Durham on Silver Street, and a purpose-built STACK scheme is planned for Newgate Street in Bishop Auckland on the former Mothercare and WHSmith site.
Both developments, if approved by the local authority, will provide an exciting leisure solution to underutilised retail units and support the counties ambitious plans to regenerate and revitalize the town centers providing a vibrant day and evening economy for residents and visitors alike.
Neill Winch, CEO of Danieli Group, is particularly excited to be growing the STACK brand across the region.
“Durham is a city with an international reputation for its tourist attractions and history and is home to one of the top universities in the country, bringing in students from around the world,” he said.
“And Bishop Auckland is a town where we know we can contribute to local culture, jobs, enterprise, tourism and communities.
“We are in the business of transforming places, and we hope to be a catalyst for transformation in County Durham with a combined investment of more than £7 million.
More than 300 jobs will be created across both of these schemes, with STACK Durham due to be open by winter 2023 and Bishop Auckland in 2024.
Both sites will be the usual mix of quirky street food, top quality bars and entertainment and performance spaces, whilst STACK Durham also has some added elements of surprise with a roof top terrace and a games room with state-of-the-art interactive shuffleboards and darts.
And it doesn’t stop there.
A former Argos store at St Marks Shopping Centre in Lincoln is also being repurposed as an exciting new STACK – the first development outside of the region. Again the Danieli Group are taking the concept to new levels transforming an expansive empty retail shed into a leisure attraction that will combine all of the elements that make STACK such a huge success – street food, bars, roof terrace, large stage, big screens, coffee shop and gaming area for competitive socialising.
At the same time an application to create STACK Carlisle on Lowther Street car park, which will be developed using the original method of shipping containers, is to go before local councillors in the near future, bringing a much needed boost to the leisure scene in that area.
Barely pausing for breath, Danieli Group have also unveiled its plans for a pop-up STACK for Middlesbrough which will be in place for three years from spring 2023 if given the green light, and will see an empty space under a number of arches completely transformed beyond all recognition using shipping containers and a tipi to animate the space.
And that’s what STACK does best – takes an exciting vision and turns it into a reality.
“We are currently in a period of rapid growth,” said Neill.
“We’ve made a number of exciting announcements over the last few months and we hopefully will continue to roll out locations in the years ahead.”
