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An organisation that has brought one of Newcastle’s most loved historic buildings back to life has made an impassioned call for financial support to help keep it open.

The Common Room project revived the old North of England Mining Institute close to Newcastle’s Central Station, restoring it after years of decline and opening it as a heritage venue that aims to inspire future generation of innovators and engineers by celebrating the region’s past. The hall was home to the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, an organisation established in the 1800s “to advance the science and art of mining” while bringing down the toll of death and accidents.

The institute declined in tandem with the collapse of the North East’s mining industry, but multimillion-pound funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund helped trigger the hall’s regeneration. The Common Room opened in 2021 after the regeneration project had been hindered by the pandemic, but since opening it has staged a number of events to engage people of all ages, as well as hosting weddings, exhibitions and installations, making its unique historic spaces available to hire to bring in funding.

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But CEO Liz Mayes has revealed that the ‘clock is ticking’ on the building’s ability to remain open, leading to her turning to the region’s business community in hopes of securing consistent funding, through partnerships, or regular bookings and business events.

She is also considering the possibility of launching a public fundraiser, in the hopes that the thousands of people who have visited the building since it opened would want to become involved in securing its future.

She said: “We got the keys back exactly three years ago and it’s nothing short of a miracle that we’re still here. We slipped through the cracks in the funding that was available for the cultural sector through Covid and then we opened our commercial trading - a hospitality venue – into a post-pandemic cost of living crisis.

“We got here thanks to the support of National Lottery Heritage Fund, Trust and Foundations and some incredibly generous private donors. And none of this would have happened without a small band of hardworking people who have bent over backwards, rolled their sleeves up and gone above and beyond to keep the wheels turning. Over this time we’ve built a trading model that makes a (small) surplus but has so much potential. Many of our close business contacts have used the venue and have bookings in for 2024.

“Those who are closest to The Common Room already know that we’re at a tipping point. When we inherited the building we didn’t inherit reserves, we inherited a mortgage and then we took on additional debt to enable us to get started with the build – all in the pre-Covid world. Our lenders have given us so much flexibility and we’ve made repayments to try and chip away at that debt, but it’s left our cashflow really vulnerable.”

Ms Mayes, who became CEO of The Common Room six years ago, says that since reopening it has welcomed 57,000 people through the doors, 20,000 of whom have engaged directly in STEM programmes, working alongside the region’s engineering sector to change perceptions and aspirations around engineering.

She said: “We want to keep doing that. But it might not be possible without further support. We’re exploring many options still, but the clock is ticking for us. We’ve really got something special here, and the opportunity for it to be sustainable is real, and the impact it can have on the regional economy and the people of the North East is already in progress. We are seeking supporters who can invest in this unique facility to ensure it can be enjoyed for generations to come.”

She added: “Engagement with The Common Room is an opportunity to leave a legacy in Newcastle and the North East, just as the founders of the Mining Institute did when they built The Common Room in 1872.”