Capital&Centric Adds Beartown Brewery Taproom and Italian Restaurant to £63M Goods Yard Development in Stoke-on-Trent

Capital&Centric is adding two independent hospitality operators to its £63 million Goods Yard development in Stoke-on-Trent, with Beartown Brewery scheduled to open a café, bar and taproom in October 2026 and an Italian restaurant set to follow in the months ahead.

The two venues will occupy the restored Signal Box at Goods Yard, a canalside mixed-use neighbourhood on Glebe Street adjacent to Stoke railway station. Beartown Brewery will take the ground floor with a concept called Goods Yard Tap, while the Italian restaurant — whose operator has not yet been announced — will occupy the space above.

Goods Yard Tap: Coffee, Burgers and Independent Beer

Goods Yard Tap is designed as an all-day venue, opening at 7 a.m. with speciality coffee and pastries before transitioning to a burger menu and taproom service. The taproom will feature a rotating selection of beers from independent breweries across Staffordshire, the Midlands and beyond.

Joe Manning, Managing Director and Partner at Beartown Brewery, said the Signal Box felt like the right home for the concept. "We're properly excited to be opening Goods Yard Tap and becoming part of what's happening in Stoke," Manning said. "Goods Yard is a seriously cool development and the Signal Box felt like the right home for what we want to do. We'll be bringing plenty of Beartown beer, great burgers and the kind of relaxed atmosphere we're known for. There's loads happening in Stoke right now and some really exciting plans across Staffordshire more widely, so we're keen to put our mark on the area and become part of that story. We've got ambitious plans for Beartown over the next few years, and Goods Yard Tap is an important part of that next chapter."

The new venues join Panko & Sushi, which has already opened at Goods Yard, in what Capital&Centric is positioning as a curated mix of independent food and drink operators.

A £63M Mixed-Use Neighbourhood Taking Shape

Goods Yard was developed by Capital&Centric in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Council on a former industrial site next to Stoke railway station and the Trent & Mersey Canal. The scheme received planning approval in March 2022 and has since delivered 174 rental apartments alongside approximately 30,000 sq ft of workspace and commercial space.

The development includes the restored Signal Box, a Vaults Warehouse, a Pavilion workspace and ground-floor commercial units within the residential building. Commercial units across the scheme range from approximately 1,200 sq ft to 14,000 sq ft. Panko & Sushi occupies a 1,650 sq ft ground-floor unit in the apartment building.

The 174 apartments are now occupied by hundreds of residents, who also have access to a public square, gym, mini-cinema, resident spaces and a Friday Feast events programme. The new hospitality venues are intended to extend that activity to a broader public audience.

Tim Heatley, co-founder of Capital&Centric, said the Signal Box letting exemplifies the developer's approach to heritage reuse. "We believe in Stoke. That's why we've put £63m behind Goods Yard, and why we're continuing to put our money into great places here," Heatley said. "Goods Yard is already a proper community, with hundreds of people now calling it home. You can feel the buzz building, and these new openings are going to crank that up another notch. Turning an old Signal Box into somewhere for coffee, burgers and beers is exactly the sort of thing we love doing. Take a building that's been sat empty, give it a new purpose and create somewhere people actually want to spend time."

Signal Box Conversion and Heritage Reuse

The Signal Box was formerly a derelict railway structure. Its conversion into a revenue-producing hospitality venue reinforces Goods Yard's station and canalside identity while giving the heritage asset a new commercial purpose. The approach is consistent with Capital&Centric's broader strategy of using food, beverage and leisure uses to activate mixed-use neighbourhoods, creating footfall that supports both the residential and commercial components of a scheme.

That strategy has a built-in advantage at Goods Yard: the 174 occupied apartments provide an on-site customer base, while the public square and events programme generate activity beyond standard office hours.

Broader Stoke-on-Trent Plans and Market Context

Goods Yard forms part of Capital&Centric's wider programme in Stoke-on-Trent. The developer is also progressing plans for Spode Works, the former ceramics site in Stoke town centre. The first phase of Spode Works is intended to include independent cafés, bars and restaurants, workspaces, padel courts, exhibitions and community spaces, with a broader masterplan envisaging homes, cultural space and green areas.

Tim Heatley said the firm intends to continue investing in the city. "We're not stopping here. There's more to come at Goods Yard, as well as our plans for Spode Works. We're putting our money where our mouth is because we genuinely believe in Stoke and its future. There's a real appetite for great places here, and we're excited to keep adding to them."

The hospitality lettings at Goods Yard arrive as occupier-demand sentiment in the UK retail and leisure sector shows incremental improvement. The Q2 2026 RICS UK Commercial Property Survey recorded a net balance of –16% for retail occupier demand, up from –19% in Q1 2026 and –21% in Q4 2025 — still a negative reading, but indicative of operators becoming more selective about physical locations rather than withdrawing from them entirely. UK all-property equivalent yields held at approximately 7.0% through July 2026, with retail recording annual capital-value growth of 1.7% and an annual total return of 8.6%.

Goods Yard Tap is scheduled to open in October 2026. The Italian restaurant is expected to open in the following months, with the operator to be announced separately.

Sources

Capital&Centric — Goods Yard grows as two new indie food and drink spots join the neighbourhood (Sept. 23, 2026)