Golden sand, deck chairs, buckets and spades and a Caribbean steal band make a splash opening Stockton’s new beach in the High Street.

‘It’s great!’ said Maurice Perry, Mayor of Stockton. ‘We’ve literally been open five minutes and it’s full of people enjoying themselves.’

Every weekend on the deck there will be live entertainment with a theme – look out for vintage and pirates.

Inspired by the success of Newcastle’s Quayside Seaside, Karen Hindhaugh, Business Improvement District manager, contacted Robinson Landscape Design Ltd to design a pop-up urban beach, transforming a hard standing into a family-friendly attraction.

‘It’s all about bringing people into the town centre’, said Karen. ‘People can come and shop, eat and drink here before looking around the rest of the town centre.’

The beach is open every day from 9.30 am–4 pm until 31^st August.

Newcastle Quayside’s much loved haven of sand has returned for the sixth year to Wesley’s Square between the iconic Tyne and Millennium bridges. The 2017 ship-shaped pop-up beach features all the usual seaside fun – golden sand, deck chairs, barrel tables, childrens’ climbing wall and traditional pavilions.

And the ever popular Riley’s Fish Shack, serving fresh barbecued fish, seafood wraps and stone fired flat breads, has teamed up with Barrio Comida to serve fresh tacos and a Mexican inspired menu.

Robinson Landscape Design’s initial concept and continued involvement has helped create a riverside focal point enjoyed by over 500k visitors in 2016 according to our partner NE1, The city improvement business. Tariq Albassam, Operations Manager at NE1 Ltd said:

“The idea for NE1’s Quayside Seaside is to give people more reasons to visit Newcastle and to stay a little longer – we have a wonderful Quayside with iconic and breathtaking views and NE1’s pop up beach provides a fantastic vantage point to enjoy them both as well as providing a volleyball court for people of all ages to have a go and for kids to play with buckets and spades on the sand all for free.”

QS was the most popular of a series of “pocket parks” that we developed for NE1 and is one of the few clear examples of the idea of a “heterotopia” – a space that changes over several time spans to become several spaces.  Play for kids; sun places for older adults; social spaces for younger adults.  We think this is an idea whose time has come: minor interventions to urban spaces that can create destinations and utterly change use patterns.  The QS space has potential for other uses.       

So watch that space.

Tom Robinson

8^th May 2017