Newport city centre Among other units, it houses one of the city's Wetherspoon's public houses, the John Wallace Linton. A planning application by Holder Mathias Architects was approved in 2007 by Newport City Council for an £87 million redevelopment and refurbishment to be known as City Spires but it was mothballed in 2008 before construction started. An alternative redevelopment plan was started in 2012. The first phase of development, Admiral House, was opened in 2014. Newport city centre Newport city centre is traditionally regarded as the area of Newport, Wales bounded by the west bank of the River Usk, the George Street Bridge,
Newport, Wales Around the settlement, the new town grew to become Newport, obtaining its first charter in 1314 and was granted a second one, by Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford in 1385. In the 14th century friars came to Newport where they built an isolation hospital for infectious diseases. After its closure the hospital lived on in the place name "Spitty Fields" (a corruption of "ysbyty", the Welsh for hospital). "Austin Friars" also remains a street name in the city. During the Welsh Revolt in 1402 Rhys Gethin, General for Owain Glyndŵr, forcibly took Newport Castle together with those at Cardiff,