Knock The F***er Down
The multi-storey car park in Gateshead’s town centre is an ugly, rotting, concrete lump.
Except for some reason Wikipedia describes it thus:
Trinity Centre Multi-Storey Car Park is an iconic concrete structure in Gateshead, north-east England. Designed by Owen Luder, it is a prime example of Brutalist architecture. The structure has a prominent role in the 1971 film Get Carter, so is often referred to informally as the “Get Carter Car Park”.Wikipedia
Now it does actually serve a useful purpose: it provides a car parking facility that isn’t otherwise available, right in the centre of Gateshead, next to public transport links. But it’s a rather unpleasant ugly building and if I was ever to do a post entitled 5 Things I Hate About My Hometown, it’d be on or about the top of my list.
So I can’t say that I’m too upset that it’s scheduled for demolition.
Particularly as the Wikipedia summary singularly fails to take into account what local residents feel about it. I believe I may have already indicated my opinion here, but my belief that we should knock the f***er down as quickly as possible because it’s an ugly, rotting concrete lump is a belief, I believe, that is shared by many others.
Except rather bizarrely the ‘Get Carter’ appreciation society and Sylvester Stallone (according to Wikipedia) who apparently want it preserved as a cinematic landmark. You want it: you come and take it away and then you can do what the … heck … you like with it once you’ve re-assembled it in your hometown.
But the people who have to live in the same town as it can’t stand the bloody thing.
But it did make me want to take a photo of it to remind myself in years to come — when no doubt people will talk about it fondly — what a rotting concrete eyesore slap bang in the centre of my home town actually looks like. And if you think it’s bad from the outside, you should see what it looks like close up…
Anthony says:
March 31st, 2008 at 11:56 am
I’m getting quite affectionate towards this sort of architecture.
It’s ugly, don’t get me wrong, but it is part of our heritage.
Styles and fashions change and there will be a time in future when we’ll look around and all of the 60s and 70s architecture will have been demolished and we’ll wonder why.
Well maybe not why… most of them are ugly, poorly deigned and dangerous.
But you know what I mean.
Some of it is OK though, and given a bit of treatment, and a bit of cash, they can be turned into something nice. Like a lot of the council falts in London that are now executive Swank Pads.
mark fairlamb says:
April 1st, 2008 at 10:29 am
i think it should stay, but not just because rocky balboa says so.
they are re-developing this part of the town centre (thus getting rent from new shops instead of parking revenue), but as far as i’m aware not the south side of it (jackson street), which is in just as much need of being obliterated.
the thing i like about the multi-storey is that instead of going round and round tescos car park and burning petrol looking for a free parking space, you can nip straight into the mult-storey and for a quid have a couple of hours parking (i can’t think why anyone would need to spend more than 2hrs in gateshead town centre)
Mike says:
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
As I understand, the plan is to replace it with a Tesco.
I wonder if people will be arguing for and against the demolition of that building in 30-40 years time. I suspect not, and am of the opinion that, as with ‘art’, any building that invokes emotion (for or against) is worth a damn sight more than one that nobody could care less about.
Elsewhere, my feelings have been voiced over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/64075821@N00/2372432672/
Anonymous says:
April 6th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
It has been allowed to get into the state it is over the years, and 40 years ago undoubtadly a design statement, 40 years from now it will be interesting to see if buildings such as the nearby Sage are looked at the same way if they are allowed to fall into the same state the carpark is now.
Gateshead town centre will never compete with Newcastle, and ironically the last attempt to attract people into the town centre created the carpark and associated Trinity Square complex. The current plans as I see them involve a Tesco superstore and another carpark, well that inspires me, the only thing that will achieve is making the area an out of town shopping centre for Newcastle residents.
Trying to piggyback onto the success Newcastle have had makes sense but in my opinion most of the Gateshead quays development has been as a result of having ran out of space on the Newcastle side.
On the subject of Gateshead re-development I will be interested to see how much of this document Vision 2030 aka Gateshead takes over the World ever takes place. But it is good to know that the residents opinion is going to be taken into consideration as it was not here Saltwell/Bensham demolition where 2/3 rds of the people voted no to demolition.
John Hudson says:
April 19th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I agree absolutely with ThePickards. It’s a monstrosity that we’ve had to bear for far too long. Practically everyone who says “You must keep it” lives in Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol or some other city – not necessarily beginning with a B – a LONG way off, who doesn’t have to look at the ugly f***ing thing almost every day…
ThePickards » Blog Archive » Getting Carter One Last Time says:
April 28th, 2008 at 12:08 am
[...] believe I may have mentioned before (Knock the F***er down) that I didn’t like Owen Luder’s Brutalist car park in Gateshead’s town [...]
Helen Boak says:
May 5th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I think that they should knock the car park down and most of the surrounding area, as it is all an eyesore, especially Jackson Street. If we are to attract anyone in Gateshead Town Centre, then you need to make things more attractive to the people.
If you look closely at the main “attractions” for NewcastleGateshead, see how many are in Gateshead… The Baltic, The Sage, The Angel Of The North, The Metrocentre, The Hilton Hotel are ALL in Gateshead.
Newcastle is hijacking Gateshead’s heritage and future finances and we need to take it back and redeveloping Gateshead Town Centre is the best way to start. A cinema (which Trinity is supposed to have) will be a good start
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