The New Bridge Hotel, Newcastle
The New Bridge Hotel on Newbridge Street is a city centre hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne. It is used for Home Office asylum accommodation under the Mears North East regional contract, and through summer 2025 it became the focal point of recurring rival protests, with multiple arrests for public order offences[3]Press[4]Press. Newcastle World reported on 30 August 2025 that it "is understood to be housing around 800 male asylum seekers", an unattributed line that no other source repeats[9]Press. No count of residents has been published.
Last confirmed in asylum use: January 2026 (Naked Politics)[8]
Background
The New Bridge Hotel sits on Newbridge Street in central Newcastle, a short walk from Eldon Square and Northumbria University. It is a three star hotel operated commercially before the Home Office contract took it out of public booking. The North East, Yorkshire and Humber asylum accommodation contract is held by Mears Group, which has run dispersed and contingency accommodation across Newcastle since 2019.
2025 protests and arrests
From early August 2025 the hotel became the venue for a series of weekend protests. ITV News reported that police detained demonstrators during the rival anti-migrant and counter-protests held outside the hotel on 2 August 2025[1]Broadcast. Northumbria Police later confirmed four arrests in connection with public order offences over that opening weekend[4]Press.
The protests continued through August: Newcastle World reported on 23 August that groups gathered outside the hotel while a large police presence also converged[3]Press.
Council position (August 2025)
In August 2025 Newcastle City Council leader Cllr Karen Kilgour publicly opposed the use of city centre hotels for asylum accommodation and said she shared the government's ambition to end hotel based asylum accommodation[5]Council. ITV News Tyne Tees reported in August 2025 that Newcastle City Council, asked about a city centre hotel used to house asylum seekers (the article does not name the hotel), confirmed it is in direct talks with the Home Office to end the contract but is not planning legal action of the kind pursued unsuccessfully by Stoke-on-Trent in 2022 or successfully by Epping Forest in 2025[2]Broadcast.
Cost analysis
No count of residents has been published for the New Bridge Hotel. Newcastle World's line of around 800 is unattributed and unconfirmed, so no nightly or annual cost is estimated here. The Migration Observatory benchmark is £170 per person per night[6]. The May 2025 NAO contract review put the average per hotel run rate across the wider portfolio at about £5.84 million per year[7]NAO.
Per-person per-day cost stack (benchmark)
£170- Hotel rate (room + three meals)£10059%
- Weekly cash allowance£74%
- Legal aid & casework£127%
- NHS / interpreter / utilities£1911%
- Contractor / security overhead£3219%
Cost in context
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
NAO
Newcastle budget hotel
£55
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
Timeline
Timeline
Earlier
Operates as a commercial three-star city centre hotel on Newbridge Street
2 Aug 2025
First weekend of rival protests
Police detain demonstrators; four arrests confirmed by Northumbria Police.
Aug 2025
Council statement on city centre asylum hotels
Cllr Karen Kilgour opposes the use of city centre hotels for asylum accommodation. ITV News Tyne Tees reports the council is not planning legal action over a city centre hotel; the article does not name the hotel.
7 Jan 2026
Weekly protests still reported
A January 2026 column says weekly Saturday protests have taken place outside the hotel since August 2025, and that the Home Office is using it to house people seeking asylum.
Sources
- Demonstrators detained by police during rival protests outside asylum hotel · ITV News, Aug 2025
ITV News coverage of rival anti-migrant and counter-protests outside The New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle on 2 August 2025, with police detaining demonstrators during the public order incident.
- Newcastle City Council not planning legal action to stop asylum seekers being housed in hotel · ITV News Tyne Tees, Aug 2025
ITV Tyne Tees reports that Newcastle City Council is not planning to follow Epping in seeking a High Court injunction over a city centre hotel used to house asylum seekers, and is instead relying on direct talks with the Home Office to end the contract. The article does not name the hotel, so it does not confirm the use of any particular building.
- 13 pictures as protestors clash over migrants in Newcastle · Newcastle World, 23 Aug 2025
Names The New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle as the city centre hotel outside which groups gathered on 23 August 2025 while a large police presence also converged. It gives no number of residents.
- Police confirm number of arrests following Newcastle weekend protests · Newcastle World, Aug 2025
Northumbria Police confirms four arrests in connection with public order offences during the first August 2025 weekend of asylum hotel protests outside The New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle city centre.
- Council leader calls for an end to asylum seeker hotel contracts · Newcastle City Council, Aug 2025
Statement by Newcastle City Council leader Cllr Karen Kilgour opposing the use of city centre hotels for asylum accommodation and confirming the council is in active talks with the Home Office to end the contract.
- Asylum accommodation in the UK · Migration Observatory, University of Oxford, Aug 2025
£170 per person per day in hotels (2024/25 average); used for per-hotel estimates and food/utilities breakdowns.
- The Home Office's asylum accommodation contracts · National Audit Office, May 2025
222 hotels in use; £1.296 billion annual (2024/25); per-hotel approximately £5.84 million.
- Anti-migrant protests aren't going away: can progressive politics meet the moment in 2026? · Naked Politics (Banseka Kayembe), 7 Jan 2026
Opinion column saying weekly Saturday protests have taken place outside The Newbridge Hotel in central Newcastle upon Tyne since August 2025, and that the hotel is being used by the Home Office to house people seeking asylum. It gives no resident number.
- Rival protest groups clash outside Newcastle hotel · Newcastle World, 30 Aug 2025
Names The New Bridge Hotel and says it "is understood to be housing around 800 male asylum seekers". The sentence has no attribution, no other published source gives the figure, and it is treated here as a single hedged report, not a count of residents.