Historic Gosforth bank could become café and wine bar

A historic bank building on a Newcastle high street could be converted into a café and wine bar. Council bosses are assessing plans to transform the former Barclays bank site on Gosforth High Street into a “warm and inviting” new venture.

Plans for the Kraven café and wine bar

Plans to establish the Kraven cafe and wine bar at the closed bank outline ambitions for it to “develop into a much-loved facility” in the heart of Gosforth. The prominent site operated as a bank for almost 130 years, originally opening as the North East Banking Company in 1894.

It became Martin’s Bank in 1928 before being taken over by Barclays in 1969, but was closed down in 2022 after the company argued that only 45 customers used the branch exclusively for their banking. Law firm Sort Legal and estate agency Estatio! have since opened branches at the building.

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Upstairs offices unaffected

However, the planning application for Kraven says that the upstairs offices would be “unaffected” by the vision of turning the ground floor into a café and wine bar.

The plans, lodged on behalf of applicant Sort Limited, state: “In setting out their aspirations for the site, the applicant would stress that it is not the intention for the proposed wine bar to be confused and/or conflated with a use as a night club, pub, or similar. Indeed, the applicant does not intend on playing loud music at any point during its trading hours, and it should be noted that the proposed floorplan does not make any provision for a dancefloor, DJ booth, or any associated items/equipment which would possibly lead to the site being considered to be a 'bad neighbour' to the existing neighbouring properties.

“Notwithstanding the fact that matters such as this would be covered by the relevant licensing regulations, the applicant is instead seeking to create a warm and inviting atmosphere, whereby customers can enjoy a hot drink and 'light bites' throughout the day, before a glass of wine during the evening.”