Demolition Developments

Posted on July 21, 2008 | 1 Comment

Updates courtesy of Tex, thanks!

After visiting the car park, i can now bring the following updates.

On the entrance ramp, there is no signs to say the car park is closed or that demolition will start soon. So i used the excuse of not being a local (so not knowing) and drove up the ramp to the top of it.

The main entrance at the top of the car ramp (where the tickets were issued from machine) has been secured. as has the stairwell going up, however the down stairs has no gates or bars so access can still be gained to the old trinity shopping centre, but i am not sure of how much).

Around the south facing side (opposite tesco) the shops have all been boarded up and there are demolition crews present behind them starting to dismantle shop facias and fittings to the centre.

Although there is still a chance to go up the ramp to (where you can still get good photographs with the tyne bridge in the background) - it doesn’t look as if it will be long before the dem. crew finish in the shops and start on the car park. I would estimate at september when it starts to come down.

Demolition is being undertaken by thomsons of prudhoe, so they may be able to provide a more detailed estimate.

Hope this updates helps future visitors - but if you are going. BE QUICK.

Car Park on Twitter

Posted on July 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Like other inanimate objects which mysteriously communicate their status on Twitter, you can now follow the Car Park.

Views from the Top

Posted on July 1, 2008 | 1 Comment

Closure Date

Posted on April 30, 2008 | 7 Comments

According to the BBC, the car park will close on June 8th, but the date for the demolition is yet to be announced. So there’s still time to get into the car park and take some pictures.

I get the impression the place will still be standing for a good few months yet.

2004 interview with Owen Luder

Posted on April 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment

There’s a 2004 Radio 4 interview with architect Owen Luder (Realplayer) about the demolition of the Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth. No doubt Radio 4 will have him on again to give the same interview about the Trinity Centre.

Interestingly, Luder sounds a bit like Michael Caine.

They paved paradise, and pulled down a parking lot

Posted on April 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Cameras everywhere...
Cameras everywhere… by Sam Judson, on Flickr

The Trinity Centre was a building for a future that never happened; one which would see Gateshead as a major shopping and leisure destination, where people could spend the day at the shops, finish it off with drinks at the top level restaurant, maybe have a little dance, then walk a short distance to the car and drive home drunk.

It was a flawed plan and one of many urban redevelopment projects in the Sixties that tried to eliminate the disorder of the past and enforce modern living through the clean lines of Le Corbusier inspired architecture.

Then it was fashionable to cover up that ugly Victorian fireplace with plaster board a nice modern gas fire, and the desire for modernity was such that it allowed us to destroy many fine pre-war streets and displace local communities without batting an eyelid. This is something that’s both difficult to comprehend and fascinating at the same time.

Architects are still designing radical buildings, but these days it’s not the car parks and shoppings centres that tend to be radical. Both the Metro Centre and Eldon Square Shopping Centre are sprawling American-style malls which are architecturally anonymous and visually dull.

When I was walking around the top level of the car park on Saturday, I was aware that the architect had put a great deal of effort in designing the shapes I saw around me. The building may be considered ugly by many, and certainly there are many things about its design and construction that haven’t stood the test of time, but we must appreciate that there is something unique about this building that will be lost when it is demolished.

I suspect that there will be nothing unique about what will replace it, and the lyrics to Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi will be as relevant as ever.

Nothing like a good queue

Posted on April 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment