Parts of city centre building not seen by public for over a decade to be transformed

A vacant city centre building is set to be reborn as a university teaching facility. The ground and basement floors beneath NMITE’s student accommodation on Eign Gate, most recently home to Peacocks and, before that, Woolworths, will be converted into modern teaching spaces, including for its new Autonomous Robotics Degree, thanks to Government funding. The site will house a new autonomous robotics learning studio, a drone testing area, and study and social spaces. NMITE chief executive James Newby inside the former Peacocks store in Eign Gate, where work is under way to prepare the building for its conversion into a new learning studio and teaching space, with completion expected in autumn 2027. (Image: ROB DAVIES)The building, a 1920s brutalist structure, includes a basement stockroom that has remained largely untouched for years.