Knowledge Quarter plans to transform Newport city centre

A joint vision by Newport City Council, Coleg Gwent and the University of South Wales (USW), the Knowledge Quarter plan was unveiled in 2018 as part of the council’s “masterplan” for regenerating the city centre.

The university’s Usk Way campus will remain in place, but sweeping changes are planned for the buildings and space around it, including the Newport Centre, which has been a destination for entertainment and leisure for more than 40 years.

The vision is to develop a single area of the city for higher- and further-education - reviving central Newport as a student hub.

The Knowledge Quarter won’t just be for young learners, however, because the city’s new “state-of-the-art” leisure centre will be built on currently undeveloped land between the USW campus and the Castle Bingo car park.

What’s in the plans?

The Knowledge Quarter was announced in early 2018 as part of major renovation plans for Newport.

After a quiet few years dominated by the pandemic, recent weeks and months have seen the project take several key strides forward, with a series of planning decisions and announcements.

Coleg Gwent will build a new home across the road from the USW campus on the site of what is now the Newport Centre.

With its city base currently in Lliswerry, the move will bring hundreds of young people into central Newport and will undoubtedly be a boon for traders.

An artist's impression of the proposed Coleg Gwent campus in Newport city centre.

City council leader Jane Mudd said last week the proposals would make Newport "an attractive place to live in, work in and visit”.

The Coleg Gwent plans are currently out for pre-planning consultation, after which they will go through the formal procedure for planning permission.

If built, it will spell the end of an era for one of the city’s most recognisable buildings, the Newport Centre.

Back in 2018, it was estimated the leisure centre and swimming pool needed £10 million of repairs, and today this work is considered “unviable” by the council.

An artist's impression of how the new leisure centre in Newport will look.

The pool has been out of action for several months and there are no plans to reopen it. While other leisure activities continue at Newport Centre, its primary use in the past two years has been as a Covid vaccination centre.

It will be knocked down to make way for the Coleg Gwent campus, and the city’s new leisure centre will be built a few hundred yards away.

An aerial view of Newport including the USW campus and the Newport Centre. Picture: Chris Tinsley

The proposed three-floor development will include a pool hall, changing rooms, toilets, foyer, café, gym, studios and a green roof garden.

There has been some disappointment, however, that the new site will not accommodate live music – unlike the Newport Centre which welcomed stars including David Bowie and Sir Elton John.

Despite that, planning documents claim the new leisure centre and swimming pool “will provide a diverse range of sport and activities, catering for all levels of ability and all ages, and encouraging community engagement and participation”.

A student city in future?

Ahead of the development work, the University of South Wales has reaffirmed its commitment to the city.

The closure of Caerleon Campus in 2016 brought major changes to Newport, not just in the loss of the student population – more than 9,000 a decade ago – but also in the wider economic benefits of being a student city.

While the university continues to run some courses at its campus in Usk Way, the scaling-down of its presence in Newport will have been felt keenly by the city, not least in the night-time economy.

The USW campus in Usk Way, Newport. (Image: Newsquest)

Speaking to the Argus earlier this month, Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, assistant pro vice-chancellor for enterprise at USW, said a new business initiative was evidence the university was committed to Newport.

The Startup Stiwdio scheme offers space and support to USW graduates who are starting their own businesses, and the professor said it would “act as a catalyst and a conduit for increasing entrepreneurial activity” in the city.

She also said USW has “enormous economic impact”, and “for every £1 that we receive in income, £5.30 is generated to the wider economy”.

With the imminent development of the Knowledge Quarter, it will be hoped the arrival of more students and facilities in the city centre will open a new, positive chapter for Newport.