Pictorial Lounge Review: NCL British Airways Terraces Lounge
Index to Genius1 Trip Reports
In early September I had the opportunity to visit BA’s lounge at Newcastle in a first-time trip to both the city and the airport. The lounge is located at gate level in the domestic area of the terminal building, one floor below the main departure lounge. This area is one way only so, if you need to, use the shops in the departure lounge before heading to the lounge.
Essentially a single square, the lounge is intriguingly large for a non-premium heavy destination. Stepping through the understated entrance, there’s a small reception desk to the right complete with Terraces ‘sun’ logo projecting light above (sadly no longer working). Behind the reception desk is the area where the trademark Terraces fountain used to be (the original inspiration for the Terraces branding), removed in a recent partial refresh of the lounge. Along with seating, there’s also a news stand here.
Adjacent to the former fountain area is the Larder, which features the usual domestic lounge selection for non-breakfast hours of soup, sandwiches, bread, crisps, fruit, cheese, crackers and biscuits. The lounge was reasonably well-tended, with empties being removed promptly. A few of the food items (such as the sandwiches) could’ve been re-stocked better, however. There are a handful of dining tables and chairs in this section of the lounge, with a few more in the Library. The wooden floor immediately in front of the coffee machine has been covered over with laminate, presumably as the wood has worn where everybody stands.
To the left of the Larder are the washrooms; basic affairs that don’t seem to conform with the original Terraces concept, with Elemis hand wash and moisturiser. When I visited, they weren’t particularly well cared for.
Moving around the lounge, once past the kitchen prep area and screened off storage area is the Combiz business centre with a number of PCs but not much free space if you want to use your own laptop here.
Separating the business centre from the bar is the rather grandly titled Library. This is basically some open shelving with a handful of sorry looking dog-eared books, flanked by a couple of sofas. Perhaps in days gone by this area would’ve been a bit more useful, but today it doesn’t really serve any purpose.
The World Wine Bar is the focal point of the lounge with the usual full selection of alcoholic and soft beverages BA lounges are known for, along with nuts. Sadly the wavy island bar’s base perimeter lighting no longer functions.
The rest of the lounge is given over to numerous different seating clusters; traditional armchairs with a couple of wingback chairs in the centre. Tables are interspersed between the seats, the ones by the window (overlooking the walkway to the domestic gates and the airfield beyond) having integrated power sockets, although not all of them worked. There’s also a TV near the bar, another news stand and literature table, and two areas for luggage storage incorporating flight information screens.
With the opening of the new EDI lounge in 2013, almost all of the furniture and table/floor lamps in the NCL lounge were replaced with items from the old EDI lounge. This is a motley mixture of, in the most part, re-upholstered Terraces pieces with Galleries style fabrics, along with a handful of new Galleries tables. For some reason BA decided not to remove the horrid multi-coloured section of carpet in the centre of the lounge below some equally odd chandeliers that were installed during the refresh; these items really clash with the rest of the lounge scheme.
The lighting scheme is fairly harsh, with the ceiling lights principally being basic office style lighting (recently upgraded to LED), with no use of softer targeted lighting as you would normally find in lounges.
That being said, I was impressed with this outstation lounge. It’s spacious and uncrowded, and despite being dated, is in good condition with plenty of different spaces to relax in. The art dotted around the walls of the lounge really enhances the space. My favourite feature, however, is this literature in the news stand behind the reception desk. Dating from the early 2000s, spot the mentions of ‘new’ post-9/11 security features, Concorde and the ‘new’ Molton Brown Travel Spas.
