Great Northern Classics is set to open its doors this autumn, as plans for the broad-based heritagevehicle centre remain on track after nearly a year of development. Intended to house specialist workshops, a training school, car storage facilities, event spaces and a café, the appropriately vintage and vast 85,000sq ft Victoria Ironworks building is on the former site of trolley bus and tram depot Eastwood & Swingler and later Rolls-Royce. In a similar mould to Oxfordshireʼs Bicester Heritage, it is set to become a centre in the north for enthusiasts and businesses, providing an expected 120 jobs.
Lead tenants are already lined up and more than two-thirds of the required funding has been secured, demonstrating what Shaun Matthews, one of the four founders, calls a resurgence in the regionʼs heritage industry. “Great Northern Classics is an ambitious project which will help repair, in our own small way, 40 years of underinvestment in traditional craft skills,” he says.