The Common Room

Christmas at The Common Room: Tipsy Lego
2023-12-01 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/London) | The Common Room, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE, United Kingdom
Embrace the holiday spirit with a delightful gathering that combines creativity and celebration. Join us to construct one of our signature LEGO models, and the best part? We’ll treat you to a complimentary festive drink as you embark on this fun and festive building adventure.
Get ready to let your imagination run wild, connect with fellow LEGO enthusiasts, and savour the taste of the season in a relaxed and joyful atmosphere. It’s an event you won’t want to miss.
Mark your calendars – it’s time to get into the holiday spirit, one LEGO brick at a time! 🎁🏰🥤
📍Location: 5|Quarter, The Common Room
📅 Date: 1 Dec, 2023
🕕 Time: 6pm-8 pm
Ticket and booking information
General admission: £9.00 per person.
Each person attending must have their own ticket.
Refund Policy
Contact the organiser to request a refund. Eventbrite’s fee is non-refundable.
Arriving early, or fancy sticking around?
Our café bar, 5|Quarter will be serving hot & cold drinks, nibbles and some fantastic offers on wine and cocktails, until late.
Additional Information
Our building is fully accessible. If you have any queries about accessibility, please contact events@thecommonroom.org.uk

Faber Academy Writing a Novel: Open Day
2023-12-05 19:00 - 21:00
Interested in applying for Faber Academy’s Writing a Novel in Newcastle? Join author Richard T. Kelly for a free introductory workshop and Q&A on Tuesday 5 December 7pm – 9pm.
In this two-hour session, you’ll meet course tutor Richard and take part in a taster workshop, hear from Writing a Novel in Newcastle alumna, and meet Faber Academy staff – as well as getting to know your potential course-mates.
You’ll leave fully informed about the course and raring to hit send on your application.

Christmas at The Common Room: Glass Bottle Painting
2023-12-07 18:00 - 20:00
Indulge in a cosy and creative evening this holiday season as we draw inspiration from the breath-taking stained-glass windows of our Wood Hall for an enchanting experience of relaxed bottle painting. 🎨
Celebrate the magic of Christmas and unleash your inner artist as you transform ordinary glass bottles into radiant Christmas decorations or unique gifts.
Sip on delicious drinks and enjoy relaxed conversations with fellow participants. It’s an evening designed to help you unwind and immerse yourself in the joy of the Christmas season.
📍Location: 5|Quarter, The Common Room
📅 Date: 7 Dec, 2023
🕒 Time: 6 pm- 8pm
The ticket includes: Glass bottle, paint, and fairy lights for you to take home.
Join us in making this holiday season a little brighter, one glass bottle at a time. We can’t wait to share this magical evening with you! 🎄🎁🍷
Ticket and booking information
General admission: £12.00 per person.
Each person attending must have their own ticket.
Refund Policy
Contact the organiser to request a refund. Eventbrite’s fee is non-refundable.
Arriving early, or fancy sticking around?
Our café bar, 5|Quarter will be serving hot & cold drinks, nibbles and some fantastic offers on wine and cocktails, until late.
Additional Information
Our building is fully accessible. If you have any queries about accessibility, please contact events@thecommonroom.org.uk

Matt Deighton + support
2023-12-08 08:00 - 19:30
Wandering Oak presents: Matt Deighton + support

Matt Deighton’s stunning discography is an undiscovered island inhabited by a human being everyone wants to love and protect from the world around him. Matt’s is a story of genuinely great musicianship and songwriting; but most of all, of the beauty and fragility of one of Britain’s greatest lost talents and how life around him has sometimes shaped a fate beyond his control; but who has come back with something more beautiful every time the storm abated.

You may recognize Matt from his time fronting acid jazz heroes Mother Earth or as Paul Weller’s guitarist in the late 90’s. Likened as the natural successor to Nick Drake, Davey Graham and John Martyn, Matt’s discography shines like a diamond among the silt – Villager was the subject of a Mojo ‘Buried Treasure’ feature and is oft hailed as a British folk classic.

“It’s impossible to imagine fans of Nick Drake of John Martyn not falling in love with him…” – the Sunday Times

A few FFOs
John Martyn / Paul Weller / Michael Head / Nick Drake

Artist site

https://www.mattdeighton.co.uk/

Christmas at The Common Room: Light-Up Christmas Cards
2023-12-09 10:00 - 12:00
Gather with friends and family for a creative and joyful experience. Join us for a special event where you’ll have the opportunity to craft your own illuminated Christmas card using STEM skills.
This engaging festive activity is designed to bring friends and families together, inspire young minds, and spread the joy of the season through a unique, hands-on approach.
📍Location: Wood Hall, The Common Room
📅 Date: 9 Nov, 2023
🕕 Time: 10am-12pm
🎄Dress code: Christmas jumpers encouraged
Celebrate the holidays with a dash of science and a sprinkle of creativity.🌲👨‍👩‍👧‍👦✨
Ticket and booking information
General admission, 1 adult and 1 child: £5.00
Additional kid: £3.00
Each person attending must have their own ticket.
Refund Policy
Contact the organiser to request a refund. Eventbrite’s fee is non-refundable.
Arriving early, or fancy sticking around?
Our café bar, 5|Quarter will be serving hot & cold drinks, nibbles and some fantastic offers on wine and cocktails, until late.
Additional Information
Our building is fully accessible. If you have any queries about accessibility, please contact events@thecommonroom.org.uk

Christmas at The Common Room: Light Up Christmas Cards
2023-12-09 12:00 - 14:00
Gather with friends and family for a creative and joyful experience. Join us for a special event where you’ll have the opportunity to craft your own illuminated Christmas card using STEM skills.
This engaging festive activity is designed to bring friends and families together, inspire young minds, and spread the joy of the season through a unique, hands-on approach.
📍Location: Wood Hall, The Common Room
📅 Date: 9 Nov, 2023
🕕 Time: 12-2pm
🎄Dress code: Christmas jumpers encouraged
Celebrate the holidays with a dash of science and a sprinkle of creativity.🌲👨‍👩‍👧‍👦✨
Ticket and booking information
General admission, 1 adult and 1 child: £5.00
Additional kid: £3.00
Each person attending must have their own ticket.
Refund Policy
Contact the organiser to request a refund. Eventbrite’s fee is non-refundable.
Arriving early, or fancy sticking around?
Our café bar, 5|Quarter will be serving hot & cold drinks, nibbles and some fantastic offers on wine and cocktails, until late.
Additional Information
Our building is fully accessible. If you have any queries about accessibility, please contact events@thecommonroom.org.uk

Christmas at The Common Room: Glass Bottle Painting
2023-12-13 18:00 - 20:00
Indulge in a cosy and creative evening this holiday season as we draw inspiration from the breath-taking stained-glass windows of our Wood Hall for an enchanting experience of relaxed bottle painting. 🎨
Celebrate the magic of Christmas and unleash your inner artist as you transform ordinary glass bottles into radiant Christmas decorations or unique gifts.
Sip on delicious drinks and enjoy relaxed conversations with fellow participants. It’s an evening designed to help you unwind and immerse yourself in the joy of the Christmas season.
📍Location: 5|Quarter, The Common Room
📅 Date: 13 Dec, 2023
🕒 Time: 6 pm- 8pm
The ticket includes: Glass bottle, paint, and fairy lights for you to take home.
Join us in making this holiday season a little brighter, one glass bottle at a time. We can’t wait to share this magical evening with you! 🎄🎁🍷
Ticket and booking information
General admission: £12.00 per person.
Each person attending must have their own ticket.
Refund Policy
Contact the organiser to request a refund. Eventbrite’s fee is non-refundable.
Arriving early, or fancy sticking around?
Our café bar, 5|Quarter will be serving hot & cold drinks, nibbles and some fantastic offers on wine and cocktails, until late.
Additional Information
Our building is fully accessible. If you have any queries about accessibility, please contact events@thecommonroom.org.uk

Christmas Film Screening: The Snowman and The Snowdog double bill (family friendly)
2023-12-16 10:00 - 11:30
Join us for a heart-warming and festive family morning in the historic Wood Hall. Here are all the details you need:
📅 Date: 16 Dec, 2023
🕕 Time: Doors 10 am, film start 10:30am
🏠 Venue: Wood Hall, The Common Room
🎄 Dress code: Christmas jumpers encouraged!
Year: 2012| Duration: 60 min
✨ Event Highlights:
– A festive sweet treat included for every good girl and boy
– Your choice of comfortable seating: beanbags for a relaxed viewing or table seating for a more traditional experience – seating is allocated on a first come first served basis – we encourage leaving space on the beanbags for the kids!
– Plenty of festive snacks and drinks available to keep you refreshed throughout the film.
We can’t wait to share this heart-warming tale with you. It’s going to be a magical morning filled with festive fun! Don’t miss out. 🎉
Ticket and booking information
£7.50 base ticket covers entry for one adult + one child.
Additional adults charged at £2.00 each with the purchase of one full-price ticket.
Additional children charged at £4.00 each with the purchase of one full-price ticket.
Each person attending, including adults accompanying children, must have their own ticket.
Refund Policy
Contact the organiser to request a refund. Eventbrite’s fee is non-refundable.
Arriving early, or fancy sticking around?
Our café bar, 5|Quarter will be serving hot & cold drinks, nibbles and some fantastic offers on wine and cocktails, until late.
Additional Information
Our building is fully accessible. If you have any queries about accessibility, please contact events@thecommonroom.org.uk

Christmas Film Screening: Die Hard (15+)
2023-12-16 19:00 - 21:30
‘Join us for a ‘yippee-ki-yay’ evening of action-packed fun, popcorn, and holiday spirit! Here are the details you need:
📅 Date: 16 Dec, 2023
🕕 Time: Doors 6:30pm, film start 7:00pm
🏠 Venue: Wood Hall, The Common Room
🎄 Dress code: Christmas jumper encouraged!
Year: 1988 | Duration: 132 min
Seating: Beanbag + table seating options available. Please select which seating option you prefer, and please let us know if you have any access requirements by emailing events@thecommonroom.org.uk. Feel free to bring your own cosy blankets, pillows, or anything else that makes your experience even better.
Ticket and booking information
Bean Bag Ticket: £12.50 per person.
Table Ticket: £12.50 per person.
Each person attending must have their own ticket.
Refreshments: Text-to seat service during the film is available from our café bar, 5|Quarter; including Bailey’s hot choc, mulled wine, Christmas cocktails and yummy cinema worthy treats.
We can’t wait to see you there. It’s going to be a Yippie-Ki-Yay Christmas that you won’t want to miss!
Refund Policy
Contact the organiser to request a refund. Eventbrite’s fee is non-refundable.
Arriving early, or fancy sticking around?
Our café bar, 5|Quarter will be serving hot & cold drinks, nibbles and some fantastic offers on wine and cocktails, until late.
Additional Information
Our building is fully accessible. If you have any queries about accessibility, please contact events@thecommonroom.org.uk

Candlelight Concerts: A Tribute to Taylor Swift
2024-01-12 18:30 - 19:00
⭐ Candlelight concerts bring the magic of a live, multi-sensory musical experience to awe-inspiring locations never before used for this purpose in Newcastle. Buy your tickets now to discover the music of Taylor Swift at The Common Room under the gentle glow of candlelight in our beautiful Wood Hall.
General Info
📍 Venue: The Common Room
⏳ Duration: 60 minutes (doors open 40 mins prior to the start time and late entry is not permitted)
👤 Age requirement: 8+. Anyone under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult
♿ Accessibility: this venue is wheelchair accessible
❓ View the FAQs for this event here
🪑 Seating is assigned on a first come first served basis in each zone
🕯️ If you would like to book a private concert (min 40+ people), please click here
🎻 Check out all the Candlelight concerts in Newcastle
🎁 To treat your friends and family to a Candlelight gift card, click here
Programme

“Lavender Haze”
“Love Story”
“Cardigan”
“Blank Space”
“Enchanted”
“Anti-Hero”
“Snow on the Beach”
“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
“Wildest Dreams”
“Lover”
“I Knew You Were Trouble”
“You Belong With Me”
“Shake It Off

Performers

String quartet – String Infusion

Candlelight: A Tribute to Queen
2024-01-13 18:30
⭐ Candlelight concerts bring the magic of a live, multi-sensory musical experience to awe-inspiring locations never before used for this purpose in Newcastle upon Tyne. Buy your tickets now to discover the music of Queen at The Common Room at Wood Hall under the gentle glow of candlelight.

Add-on: Snapshot by Candlelight
📸 Personalize your Candlelight experience and make it unforgettable! Snapshot by Candlelight is an enchanting photo service that makes the most of the beautiful glow of the candles. Strike a pose and our photographers will print an instant photo for you to take home as a lovely keepsake.
General Info
📍 Venue: The Common Room at Wood Hall
📅 Dates and times: select your dates/times directly in the ticket selector
⏳ Duration: 60 minutes (doors open 45 mins prior to the start time and late entry is not permitted)
👤 Age requirement: 8+. Anyone under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult
♿ Accessibility: this venue is wheelchair accessible
❓ View the FAQs for this event here
🪑 Seating is assigned on a first come first served basis in each zone
🕯️ If you would like to book a private concert (min 40+ people), please click here
🎻 Check out all the Candlelight concerts in Newcastle upon Tyne
🎁 To treat your friends and family to a Candlelight gift card, click here
Programme

Love of My Life
Under Pressure (ft. David Bowie)
You’re My Best Friend
Don’t Stop Me Now
Who Wants to Live Forever
We Will Rock You
I Want to Break Free
Bohemian Rhapsody
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
We Are the Champions
Somebody to Love
Another One Bites the Dust

Performers

String quartet – Aurora Strings

Vice Killer plus support from Citrus
2024-01-27 19:00 - 22:30
Alternative Indie band Vice Killer begin 2024 by playing their first headline show at the unique venue ‘The Common Room Of The Great North’ in Newcastle.
Supported by Newcastle based band ‘Citrus’

Mini Mariners!
2024-02-21 10:00 - 15:00, 2024-02-22 10:00 - 15:00, 2024-02-23 10:00 - 15:00
Ahoy, Mini Mariners! Get ready to set sail on a thrilling adventure in our Boat Material Testing Workshop. In this hands-on craft session, young shipbuilders will explore the fascinating world of boat construction by experimenting with various materials to find out which ones make the sturdiest and most buoyant boats.
Kids will have the chance to unleash their creativity as they design and build miniature boats, testing materials such as cardboard, plastic, foil, and more. Through trial and error, they’ll discover the secrets to creating vessels that can brave the high seas (or a water basin) without springing a leak.
Join us for a nautical journey of discovery, where imagination meets experimentation! Let’s chart a course for fun and learning with Mini Mariners!
Booking information
Each person attending, including adults accompanying children, must have their own ticket
If you have any access needs please email: events@thecommonroom.org.uk when you make your booking.
Arriving early, or fancy sticking around? Our café bar, 5|Quarter will be serving hot and cold food & drinks from 10:00-18:00.
Additional information
Location: The Common Room, Westgate Road, Newcastle NE1 1SE
Children must be supervised at all times by a responsible adult.
About The Common Room
The Common Room is a charity formed in 2017 to restore the Grade II* listed Neville Hall in Newcastle upon Tyne (home to The Mining Institute since 1872), and its significant archive and collections documenting centuries of engineering, mining, and wider scientific innovation.
Thanks to National Lottery players, an £8.9m grant has enabled us to spend over £7 million restoring the building, and around £2m to support our running costs, preserve our collections, and to drive our mission: to use our unique heritage to inspire the next generation of innovators and engineers.
Complete with its own café bar, 5|Quarter, The Common Room is also available for hire for private events, including conferences, lectures, weddings, and gigs.
Find out more at thecommonroom.org.uk

Magnificent Women: Pioneering Engineers Past and Present
2024-03-07 18:00 - 20:00
Who were the pioneers who built local power stations in the 1930s to bring electricity into the home? What role do female engineers have today in the transition to clean energy? How can women secure exciting new jobs in the digital industries? Chi Onwurah MP and Laura Brown of Northern Powergrid talk to author Henrietta Heald at The Common Room about women and electricity, past and present.
Chi Onwurah qualified as an electrical engineer at Imperial College and spent 20 years building digital networks all over the world, including the first mobile phone network in Nigeria. She has been MP for Newcastle Central since 2010 and is currently shadow minister for Science, Research and Innovation.
Laura Brown is a commercial manager at Northern Powergrid, the body in charge of the electricity network that powers everyday life for more than 8 million people across 3.9 million homes and businesses in the northeast region. She works with generators and users of electricity to enable them to accelerate their delivery of Net Zero.
Henrietta Heald is the author of Magnificent Women and Their Revolutionary Machines, about the extraordinary individuals who set up the Women’s Engineering Society a century ago, and Magician of the North, a biography of Lord Armstrong of Cragside. Her many media appearances have included BBC Woman’s Hour, Michael Portillo’s Great Railway Journeys, Inside the Factory, and interviews with BBC Radio Newcastle, Look North and Tyne Tees.
Magnificent Women: Pioneering Engineers, Past and Present is an event in the series Electric Dreams, celebrating the centenary of the Electrical Association for Women.
Arriving early, or fancy sticking around?
Our café bar, 5|Quarter will be serving hot & cold drinks, nibbles and some fantastic offers on wine and cocktails, until late.
Refund Policy
Contact the organiser to request a refund. Eventbrite’s fee is non-refundable.
Additional information
Location: The Common Room, Westgate Road, Newcastle, NE1 1SE
Our building is fully accessible – the Lecture Theatre has one space available for a wheelchair. If you have any queries about accessibility, please contact events@thecommonroom.org.uk
About The Common Room
The Common Room is a charity and venue based in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Home to the Mining Institute since 1872, The Common Room aims to use its unique heritage to inspire the next generation of innovators and engineers, with an ongoing free science and heritage programme for the public, schools, youth groups, communities and more.
Complete with its own café bar, 5|Quarter, The Common Room is also available for hire for private events including conferences, lectures, weddings, and gigs. Thanks to National Lottery players, an £8.9m grant has enabled us to spend over £7 million restoring the building, and around £2m to support our running costs, preserve our collections, and to drive our mission. Find how you can support us here.
Visit our website to find out more about The Common Room: thecommonroom.org.uk
