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Atom Bank has packed up its Durham base and moved its 600 staff to Newcastle’s restored Pattern Shop, a Grade II-listed landmark that once turned out steam locomotives for Robert Stephenson & Co. The shift puts one of Britain’s original digital banks at the centre of the city’s tech corridor — and back inside a building that helped drive the Industrial Revolution.
The Pattern Shop, built in the 1880s behind Newcastle Central Station, has undergone a multi-million-pound restoration led by Newcastle City Council and regeneration specialist PfP-igloo. The project is part of the wider Stephenson Works redevelopment, which has turned long-abandoned rail workshops into modern office and innovation spaces. Atom becomes the anchor tenant, giving the site its first full commercial life in decades.
“Our move to the Pattern Shop isn’t just a change of address; it’s a bold statement about our future and our belief in the North East,” said chief executive Mark Mullen. “We’re investing in a space that celebrates our region’s industrial past while providing a modern, flexible, and inspiring home for our people.”
Founded in 2014 by Anthony Thomson, the same entrepreneur who helped launch Metro Bank, and former first direct boss Mullen, Atom was the UK’s first app-based bank when it went public in 2016. It made headlines again in 2021 as the first bank to introduce a four-day working week with no pay cut — a policy it says has boosted productivity and slashed staff turnover.
The company, now managing more than £4 billion in customer deposits, has spent the past two years tightening its operations and preparing for expansion. Last year, Atom reported its first annual profit, with operating earnings of £27 million, and raised £100 million from long-term investors BBVA, Toscafund, and Infinity Investment Partners. That cash helped finance product growth and, insiders say, the bank’s new home.
For Mullen, the building’s symbolism matters as much as the space itself. Robert Stephenson’s original Pattern Shop was where some of the world’s earliest locomotives were built — including prototypes that paved the way for the Rocket. Now, a digital lender that trades in code instead of coal is taking over the same floorplates.
Atom’s management says the move is about scale and talent. The bank is hiring around 30 new employees across data, engineering, and customer service as it accelerates lending to homeowners and small businesses. The flexible design of the new workspace suits its four-day model, allowing hybrid teams to use hot-desking and collaborative areas rather than fixed offices.
The relocation also deepens Atom’s links to the region’s universities and training programmes. The bank funds the Atom Futures Fund, which helps students from low-income or care backgrounds, and backs Women in Technology scholarships at Durham University. It also runs apprenticeships and internships aimed at building a local tech pipeline.
Atom’s decision to stay rooted in the North East sets it apart from many fintech peers clustered in London. Mullen has long argued that digital finance can thrive outside the capital if infrastructure and skills are in place — a stance that has won quiet praise from civic leaders trying to rebalance the UK economy.
For Newcastle, the arrival of a profitable, fast-growing bank in the shadow of Stephenson’s old factory is more than a real-estate win. It ties the city’s industrial past to its digital present — and gives its rail-engine birthplace a new engine of its own.
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