Discover the Helix Site
Follow our self guided route around the Helix Site, a ‘living laboratory’ that houses the Urban Sciences Building, the Business School, The Catalyst, and the Frederick Douglass Centre. The route should take around 10 minutes.
Conveniently located near St James Park (home to Newcastle United FC), the city centre, a range of our student accommodation and varied cafés and restaurants, the site boasts a mixture of academics and social activities.
1. Newcastle University Business School
The tour starts just right of the entry to the Helix site, at the Business School.
The triple-accredited Newcastle University Business School has strong links with 300+ global businesses and provides career, placement, study abroad and wellbeing services. It offers a Bloomberg trading suite, newly refurbished café, extensive study/social spaces and dedicated event and conference facilities near Newcastle’s finance district.
SUBJECT AREAS: Accounting and Finance, Business Management, Economics and Marketing
2. Urban Sciences
Walk up slightly from the Business School and follow the path to your left. The path should take you next to the managed partnership accommodation ‘The Verde’ on your way. At the end of the path, the Urban Sciences Building should be directly in front of you.
The Urban Sciences Building hosts Computing research and teaching. The facilities include a games lab, MakerSpace, data visualisation suite and independent and social study spaces with over 300 PCs.
Built with sustainability at its core, it contains 4,000+ sensors for environmental monitoring and has won major design and digital project awards.
SUBJECT AREAS: Computing, Data Science.
3. Frederick Douglass Centre (FDC)
To the left of the Urban Sciences building, you’ll see the FDC. Opened in 2019 and named after social reformer Frederick Douglass, the building features the largest lecture theatre on campus, a stunning 750-seat auditorium, alongside a larger space for conferencing events and state-of-the-art study spaces.
SUBJECT AREAS: Accounting and Finance, Business Management, Economics, Marketing, Computing.
4. The Catalyst
To the left of the Fredrick Douglas Centre and opposite the Urban Sciences building in the same courtyard is The Catalyst.
A £44.4 million innovation hub, the Catalyst hosts the National Innovation Centres for Ageing, Data and Health Research, alongside businesses, research specialists and Newcastle University’s wider Centres of Research Excellence.
Facilities include a TED-style theatre, team decision theatre and versatile workshop spaces, supporting cutting-edge work in ageing intelligence, data skills, and emerging health technologies. The building also boasts a cafe for students, so would be a good place on the tour to stop for coffee or lunch.
