Toffee Factory

Toffee Factory is a beautifully refurbished new building providing high quality, contemporary serviced office space for a range of digital and creative businesses, from start-ups in a shared workspace to larger offices for established companies. Thoughtfully designed by local architects xsite, and furnished with both design classics and locally produced furniture and art work. Located in the heart of The Ouseburn area  of Newcastle adjacent to the Quayside, it is within walking distance of the City Centre and the Railway Station with good transport links by road and a frequent local bus, Q2, dropping off near the door.

The Ouseburn has a unique community feeling of its own with excellent pubs and places to eat on the doorstep: The Tyne Bar, The Free Trade, The Cycle Hub Cafe, The Cluny, The Cumberland Arms and Ouseburn Farm are just a stroll along the river away. There is even accomodation at the neighbouring Hotel du Vin. Meeting rooms are available for hire for our internal companies for free. Toffee Factory also has an Event Space for external hire with a fixed projector and seating for up to 70 people. The Toffee Factory is a landmark building located at the mouth of the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle upon Tyne.

As with many other sites and buildings in the Valley, it has a long history of different uses that reflect the changing fortunes and roles of the area itself, and gives insight into the lives of the people who have inhabited the building over the years. The Toffee Factory occupies the South Western corner of Lower Steenbergs Yard, with two sides formed by nine metres retaining walls holding up Ouse Street and the Glasshouse Bridge. The Yard itself is a strip of land between the small Ouseburn river and the retaining wall to Ouse Street, running from Cut Bank to the Quayside Road. From there, a narrow tunnel provided the only access.

In 1870 Newcastle Corporation decided  to develop a 'Foreign Cattle Yard and Slaughter Shops' at the north end of the site. This was a response to the increasing importation of live cattle from abroad, particularly from Scandinavia. The corporation  purchased the land in 1872 for £83,000 and agreed a contract with Henry Hudspeth in 1877 to build a 2-storey sanatorium that could hold up to 635 cattle and 3,000 sheep. The building has since been demolished, but the ramp that was used to get the cattle in and out of the Yard is still a prominent feature.

Livestock imported to Newcastle Quayside could now be sent directly to this new facility, to be quarantined for a minimum of twelve hours and if found free from disease to be then transferred to open pens for sale and subsequent slaughter.