My RHA
Northern Housing award
24th May 2021 | posted in News
The Sidings, a 73-home development built by Railway Housing Association off Haughton Road won ‘Best Development for Social/Affordable Rent’ in the 2021 Northern Housing Awards.
The scheme beat off competition from six other developments across the North to scoop the award.
This is the second award given to The Sidings, with the Association also previously winning a Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) award.
And it could lead to a hat-trick because it has also been shortlisted in the category of ‘Best Urban Development outside of London’ in the Inside Housing Development of the Year awards, which will be determined later this year.
Judges at the Northern Housing Awards cited The Sidings for ‘bringing new life to a historic building and its surrounding area’.
This was in reference to the engine shed which was converted into seven mews-type houses and which form the centrepiece of the development.
Judges also liked how the scheme had complemented the campaign to make the Darlington & Stockton Railway a World Heritage Site, given The Sidings has been built close to the route of the original railway.
And they also praised the partnership with nearby Darlington College which provided training opportunities for students during the construction process.
Anne Rowlands, Chief Executive of Railway Housing Association, said: “We’re naturally delighted to win another award for The Sidings and especially because we were up against other fantastic developments in the North of England.
“It’s a scheme we are very proud of and hopefully we will have one more reason to celebrate later in the year.”
The engine shed which forms the centrepiece of The Sidings development originally housed railway engines operated by the Great North of England Railway. In 2008, despite becoming a target for vandals over the years, it was granted Grade II listed status, with English Heritage saying: “it is a rare surviving example of a first-generation railway engine shed and it is highly significant for the evolution of early railway building design”.
