November 2023

A new home for the UK Government in the heart of Blackpool is starting to take shape. 

  

The building façades are now being installed at the £100m, seven-storey Civil Service Hub, as part of the Talbot Gateway development close to Blackpool North train station. The terracotta faced ultra-high strength concrete façade panels, which are highly sustainable and help reduce the building’s embodied carbon, will feature across the exterior of the building and create an impressive Art Deco appearance, in keeping with Blackpool’s architectural heritage within the town centre. 

   

The Civil Service Hub will see over 3,000 government workers relocating to Blackpool town centre when it completes in 2025, supporting the wider £350m redevelopment of the area which also involves new Grade A offices, a hotel and transport interchange and a new Multiversity campus. 

  

The site, which will include a new town centre square with cycle and pedestrian routes, is within walking distance of the new tram interchange at Blackpool North Station, promoting more sustainable travel routes. 

  

Once complete, the Civil Service Hub will support Blackpool Council’s ambitions to rejuvenate the town centre economy by introducing high-quality offices that will create and protect local jobs, drive footfall and breathe new life into the town centre economy.   

  

Cllr Lynn Williams, Leader of Blackpool Council, said: “Not only is the Civil Service Hub changing the skyline of Blackpool, but the potential impact on the local economy of bringing over 3,000 more professional workers into the town centre is a key part of our plans to make Blackpool better.

 

“This will be another high-quality office building that brings people into the town centre. For local people and businesses in the surrounding areas, there is a real opportunity to benefit from having that volume of workers on their doorstep.

 

“This office is only one element of the wider regeneration we have at the Talbot Gateway, with the Holiday Inn hotel and Marco Pierre White restaurant set to open next year along with the tram extension to the train station, and our plans to bring another 3,000 staff and students into the area as part of the Multiversity campus.”

 

The long-standing partnership between Muse and Blackpool Council, has already delivered the 125,000 sq. ft Number One Bickerstaffe Square council office, a Sainsbury’s supermarket and a refurbished 650-space multi-storey car park, alongside extensive public spaces for the community to enjoy. 

 

Alan McBride, Technical Director at Muse, said: “We have reached a wonderfully visual milestone in Talbot Gateway’s regeneration, with the terracotta panels in particular emphasising how we’re creating a brighter Blackpool while being sympathetic to the town’s rich cultural heritage.

“The new Civil Service Hub will provide a highly sustainable workspace for the benefit of local people and the wider community, while also creating welcoming public spaces for everyone to enjoy. We can’t wait to see the positive impact this will have as we create a Blackpool that’s fit for the future.”

 

The 215,000 sq. ft offices have been designed to be extremely sustainable and achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating with everything ultra-low energy and as energy efficient as possible, high levels of insulation, low-carbon heating and cooling, and demand driven ventilation, helping to reduce the building’s overall carbon footprint.   

  

Designed by London-based Make Architects, the building also benefits from ground floor cyclist facilities including showers and changing facilities, a large reception lobby, and a high quality fit out including open plan working areas, meeting rooms, quiet zones and other flexible workplace settings, with high levels of natural daylight and generous, airy ceiling heights throughout.  

  

 Gary Hughes, Regional Director at VINCI Building, said: “We’re delighted to be delivering the latest phase of the Talbot Gateway Development. Working closely with Blackpool Council, MUSE and their design team has enabled us to utilise some of the most modern construction methods available in delivering the Civil Service Hub. This is helping us to reduce carbon emissions during construction, through the materials selected and by reducing deliveries, while creating a more efficient building operationally.

 

“Construction of this key project has also enabled us to forge close links with local organisations and charities who support those furthest away from the labour market. This is something we certainly hope will leave a legacy for Blackpool and Lancashire.” 

 

Plans for a new state of the art education campus in Blackpool town centre have been submitted. 

An outline planning application for a new Multiversity campus for Blackpool and the Fylde College has been submitted to Blackpool Council, showing a five storey campus on Cookson Street which could bring up to 3,000 new staff and students to the town centre. 

The £65m development would allow Blackpool and the Fylde College to relocate from out of town facilities into a world-class state-of-the-art campus as part of the £350m Talbot Gateway regeneration of the area around Blackpool North train station. 

The Multiversity would be built by Blackpool Council, then leased to the College, offering more than 70 individual courses and enhancing its existing higher education provision which is directly linked to local employment needs. 

The proposed development would include two phases, starting with an education campus on the corner of Cookson Street and George Street, followed by future development across the southern end of the site by Milbourne Street and Grosvenor Street.  

The plans would deliver up to 32,600 sqm of education space and commercial space across several phases, starting with the new Multiversity building. 

The main campus building would be designed to be carbon-neutral in operation, with the surrounding area on also George Street landscaped and pedestrianised to make it a safer environment for students. The Multiversity has been designed by established architects Hawkins\Brown and aims to complement the rest of the Talbot Gateway regeneration. 

Talbot Gateway is sited next to Blackpool North train station, with the Multiversity adding to other developments under construction nearby, including the 144 bedroom Holiday Inn and transport interchange and the Civil Service Hub, which will bring an additional 3,000 professional workers to the area when it opens in 2025. 

The site will offer plenty of sustainable transport options, including electric buses, train and tram, making the campus accessible to students across the Fylde Coast and beyond. 

Cllr Lynn Williams, Leader of Blackpool Council, said: “The Multiversity will be a game changing addition to Blackpool town centre and this is another exciting step forward.

“The Talbot Gateway is designed to support our plans to make Blackpool better, by bringing thousands of workers and students into the town centre, and creating an environment for local businesses to benefit from that huge increase in footfall, creating more jobs and opportunities for local people.

“The Multiversity will also help improve the town’s skills base so that our local people can learn work-ready skills and gain university level qualifications without leaving the town, while also offering a world class education campus that will help attract people to study, live and work in Blackpool.”

Alun Francis, Principal and Chief Executive, Blackpool and The Fylde College said: “Multiversity will genuinely transform the opportunities for people in Blackpool and on the Fylde coast, helping to deliver a highly skilled workforce.  It will combine the very best of higher and technical and professional education in one campus, with curriculum completely aligned with the growing opportunities across Lancashire and the North West. 

“Multiversity aims to be the country’s first carbon neutral Higher Education campus and we fully intend it to be a landmark building as part of the redevelopment of Blackpool town centre.  This is one of the best things to happen to Blackpool for a generation.”

The land for the new Multiversity is currently being acquired by Blackpool Council, with the support of a £9m Government grant as part Blackpool Town Deal, which was awarded in March 2022. 

The project was also awarded £40m as part of the Government’s Levelling Up funding in January 2023 as part of the total project cost of £65m.  

For more details on regeneration plans in Blackpool, visit www.blackpool.gov.uk/betterblackpool 

 

ENDS 

Note to Editors 

Hawkins\Brown is an architecture practice based in London, Dublin, Manchester, Edinburgh and Los Angeles. Founded more than 30 years ago and now run as an employee-owned trust, the firm brings a collaborative approach to projects across a range of types and scale in six main sectors: Civic, community & culture; education; healthcare; workplace; transport & infrastructure and residential. 

  

One of the UK’s leading architects in the education sector, Hawkins\Brown has worked on academic and research buildings for institutions that include University College London, the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester. Recently completed projects include a new Creative Arts Building for Leeds Beckett University, the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building at the University of Warwick, and a new social science research park (sbarc | spark) at Cardiff University.