From my hotel room, I have a fantastic view of the Trinity Square multistorey car-park. So what, you may ask?
Firstly, it's a stunning piece of sixties sci-fi futurism (or would be if it weren't built with concrete). It's now abandoned - the lower storeys have been removed, so there's only a skeleton left to dominate the skyline, though demolition is promised by Tesco.
Secondly - it's a key setting in that bleak, gritty classic, Get Carter.
A corrupt property developer (unfortunately not the architect, also responsible for the Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth) is thrown from the roof in the film. Actually, I rather like it as an abstract design, but the materials and setting are key, and I think they're both wrong in this case. I'd rather have this than another bloody plastic Tesco though. Can I be first to call them the BP of supermarkets?
These buildings need maintenance, which many of them never got, and they need to be flexible, which many weren't - built in an era in which planners thought they could shape the future themselves, the building failed when the proles failed to do what they were told - see also Sheffield's Park Hill estate (that's a video) - the largest listed building in Europe, now being refurbished by trendy designers Urban Splash.
Here's the Tyne Bridge. There are several bridges of varying ages across the Tyne. Uniquely, every single one is beautiful.
My hotel's just to the right, overlooking the bridges.
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