Partnership House (historically The Tower) is a landmark tower office building in

Gosforth Gosforth is a suburb of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It constituted a separate urban district from 1895 until 1974 before officially merging with the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 2001, it had a populati ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It is located within the

Regent Centre Regent Centre is a large business park in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The business park is home to a variety of companies, including banking group Virgin Money whose Head Office is located on the site. The centre has its own transpor ...

business park, and was originally built to act as the main entrance and landmark building within the headquarters complex of the

Northern Rock Northern Rock, formerly the Northern Rock Building Society, was a British bank. Based at Regent Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, Northern Rock was originally a building society. It demutualised and became Northern Rock bank i ...

bank, prior to its near-collapse and nationalisation. It lies in the West Gosforth council ward. The building is owned by the local council,

Newcastle City Council Newcastle City Council is the local government authority for the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne. The council consists of 78 councillors, three for each of the 26 wards in the city. It is currently controlled by the Labou ...

, whereas the majority of the ''Regent Centre'' buildings are owned by Omnia. The council bought the building, initially known as ''The Tower'', for £22 million, and it is currently leased to a number of companies including

Astrium Services Astrium was an aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) that provided civil and military space systems and services from 2006 to 2013. In 2012, Astrium had a turnover of €5.8 billion and 18 ...

Wood Group John Wood Group plc, commonly known as Wood, is a British multinational engineering and consulting business with headquarters in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange as well as being a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. ...

and

Ubisoft Reflections Ubisoft Reflections Limited (formerly Reflections and later Reflections Interactive Limited) is a British video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Founded in 1984 by Martin Edmondson and Nicholas Chamberlain, ...

History

The 1960s Northern Rock Tower

In the 1960s, a 10-storey tower building was constructed for the newly formed Northern Rock Building Society in

. This became the focal point of the Fordgate Group's

complex in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Northern Rock Building Society was formed in 1965 as a result of the merger of Northern Counties Permanent Building Society (established in 1850) and Rock Building Society (established in 1865). Although not technically a part of Regent Centre, the Northern Rock buildings are adjacent to the complex. During the 1990s, the expanding building society built two new buildings at its ''Northern Rock House'' site in Gosforth; the Kielder and Prudhoe buildings. By the late 1990s, along with many other building societies, the Northern Rock Building Society decided to demutualise, and become a bank. After becoming a bank Northern Rock began to grow quickly. This growth in business created the need for more buildings at its headquarters in Gosforth, so two sandstone and glass buildings were erected in the early 2000s. Northern Rock also had customer contact centre operations at both

Doxford International Business Park Doxford International is a business park located at the A19 / A690 interchange on the outskirts of Sunderland, in the North East of England. Previously it was a greenfield site, it was designated as an Enterprise Zone in 1990 in response to ...

in Sunderland and at its head office. The bank was also developing a site at Rainton Bridge, which was sold to npower.

The 2000s tower

In 2004 the bank unveiled its plans for a new building to replace the ageing 1960s tower. The planning application was submitted to Newcastle City Council by Red Box Design Group on 13 September 2004, and the decision to grant the application was made on 17 January 2006. The branch of the bank located in the original tower building was closed on 16 July 2005, to allow for the demolition. In early 2006 the 1960s tower building was demolished by Thompsons of Prudhoe, and building work began on its replacement building in June 2006. Building the new tower was the final phase of the redevelopment of the Gosforth site. The design for this new tower was similar to the sandstone and glass buildings built in the early 2000s. The Red Box Design Group has been involved with the development of all of the currently standing buildings for the bank. The new 10-storey building cost £35 million.

Taylor Woodrow Taylor Woodrow was one of the largest housebuilding and general construction companies in Britain. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until its merger with rival George Wimpey to create Ta ...

was the main contractor, and companies such as

Desco DESCO is an underwater diving equipment maker which was first organized in 1937 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as Diving Equipment and Salvage Co. It was founded by: * Max Eugene Nohl, a diver who lived in Milwaukee. In the early 1930s he had national ...

and Red Box Architecture were involved with the design and construction. The building has been designed to achieve an "Excellent"

BREEAM BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), first published by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in 1990, is the world's longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of ...

rating. The tower has a semi circular floor plate containing flexible open plan space and external roof top hospitality facilities.

After the bank's nationalisation

In September 2007 Northern Rock received emergency liquidity support from the Bank of England, due to problems stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis. After the press reported the news, a bank run commenced, where scared customers began to pull their money out of the bank. Private bids for the bank failed, and eventually in February 2008, the bank was nationalised. At the time of its nationalisation, the bank was midway through construction of the 10-storey tower which was intended to create 1500 jobs, and act as the main entrance and focal point of the company headquarters. The nationalisation led to the company deciding to downsize, including job cubs and deciding to put this new tower building up for let or sale, as the additional space had become surplus to requirements. The company's other site at Rainton Bridge was also to be sold or let to a third party. The new tower block, simply known as ''The Tower'', was completed in November 2008. ''The Tower'' which had a Restaurant area on the ground floor and coffee shop facilities on first floor, had a total lettable area of 120,023sq ft. Gavin Black & Partners and GVA Lamb & Edge were appointed as the joint sole agents for the property. At November 2009 the lease for the building stood at £2.25 million a year.

Sale to the council and leasing

proposed to spend £22 million purchasing the building, and will let it out to another firm, a company set up by the council with support services firm Eaga, on a 25-year lease. A maturity loan over 40 years from the Public Works Loan Board with a predicted interest rate of less than 4.5% will be taken out by the council. The council expect to make money from leasing the building, in excess of the amount that they paid for it. One floor of the building was sub-let back to the council by Eaga (as of 2013 the council has been removed from the building signage). However, in May 2009, the plans of the Liberal Democrat Council to buy the Tower were thrown into doubt. This was due to Northern Rock deciding to defer their decision to sell the building, as well as opposition from the local Labour Party. On 12 May '' The Journal'' newspaper reported that the Northern Rock board had approved the deal, that the Labour opposition had been quelled. This was after a report refuting Labour's claims was put before two scrutiny panels, and that a motion to send the decision back for further discussions was defeated by seven votes to six, at the

Civic Centre A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

. In October 2009 the council completed their purchase of the Tower, and renamed it as Partnership House. As of January 2010 there was around a thousand workers in the offices at Partnership House for the "Real Partnership" - a partnership between the City Council and Eaga. It was officially opened by

Peter Mandelson Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the ...

. Eaga was bought by Carillion in April 2011. The multinational Carillion later found themselves in financial difficulty and Partnership House began to be let to a number of different companies from different industry segments. In January 2013

moved into level 9. In March 2013

moved into levels 6 and 7, relocating staff from nearby Northumbria House. In 2013 the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

logo was added to the building signage. Games studio

has taken 30,000 sq ft over two floors. In May 2016 Cundall moved from the nearby Horsley House into the level 4 of Partnership House.

Interior dimensions

The building has the following approximate net lettable floor areas:

Image gallery

File:Northern Rock Building Regent Centre Gosforth 1969.jpg, The 1960s building (1969) File:Northern Rock 2006 Demolishion.JPG, The demolition of the 1960s building (February 2006) File:Northern Rock Construction April 2007.jpg, The Tower under construction (April 2007) File:Northern Rock Gosforth 4.jpg, The Tower under construction (September 2007) File:Northern Rock Construction March 2008.jpg, The Tower under construction (March 2008)