Portfolio | By The River Brew Co

Location: Hillgate Quay, Gateshead
Completed: June 2018
Client:By The River Brew Co

Project Info:

By The River Brew Co occupies Hillgate Quay on the Gateshead side of the River Tyne immediately below the iconic Tyne Bridge. Conceived as a ‘creative community’ utilising repurposed shipping containers, the development brings life to the disused quayside site.

The site comprises 3 separate clusters of containers. The most westerly houses a 15 BBL brewery, its tap bar and an open fire restaurant ‘Träkol’, the second, directly under the Tyne Bridge, is home to a custom bike workshop doubling as cafe by day and cocktail bar by night, finally the eastern half of the quay is occupied by the ‘Hawker Market’ a 40 container street food market. Predominantly stacked 2 high, the containers are arranged to create a mix of ‘streets’ and contained open space, providing shelter from winds along the Tyne as well as framing and maximising views of Newcastle’s quayside and the Tyne’s bridges.

The decision to build using converted shipping containers was driven by the limited lifespan of the project – initially 4 years, the requirement to minimise groundworks on the quay itself, and the super-tight 16 week project programme. Depending on location, containers are either painted or shotblasted and allowed to oxidise while roof mounted, supersized, dock-side neon signage lights the way.

Opened in summer 2018 for the launch of The Great Exhibition of the North, By The River is already a fixture on the Newcastle_Gateshead waterside and earning plaudits, both local and national.