History of THE BISCUIT FACTORY

From the late 1870s until the early 1900s, our namesake ‘The Tyne Biscuit Factory’ operated, baking ‘fashionable biscuits of the day’. Following its closure, the building was repurposed for various industries, including a wallpaper warehouse and a retail outlet for carpets and kitchen furniture.

In 2001, the Victorian-era factory was thoughtfully transformed into an art gallery. The sympathetic refurbishment preserved many of the original features of the building, such as the exposed beams and brickwork. The addition of an upper floor, reached by a bespoke staircase, created a treble-height atrium that allows natural daylight to flood through the gallery and now houses our headline exhibition space. Our lower floors are home to 25 creative workspaces for resident artists.

The ethos of The Biscuit Factory has always been to support both emerging and established artists, contributing to the cultural landscape of the region. The scale of the gallery allows us to display the work of over 250 artists, with a team of curators hand-selecting the work on display. Welcoming over 50,000 visitors each year, the gallery focuses on making art accessible while creating a genuine marketplace for artists and makers.

Over the years we’ve grown in many exciting ways. We have launched our own charity The Biscuit Factory Foundation, which aims to nurture and develop the careers of emerging artists and we’ve opened a further two artist studio sites. The gallery now features an independent in-house cafe, The Factory Kitchen, with its own rooftop terrace and is a unique location for private and corporate events. The Biscuit Factory also boasts a number of hireable spaces, including our contemporary purpose-built function suite The Biscuit Room and a selection of meeting rooms. The Garden Room opened in 2024; a brand new wedding and event venue in Newcastle, inspired by Victorian winter gardens and filled with living tropical plants.