Trinity Square, Gateshead

Last updated

Sculpture in the square's centre Stainless Steel sculpture, Trinity Square, Gateshead. (21008578901).jpg
Sculpture in the square's centre

Trinity Square is a shopping and leisure centre in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. The new centre was constructed on the site of former multi-storey car park and shopping complex going by the same name, which originally opened in 1967.

Contents

The former Trinity Square was noted for its Brutalist architecture produced by Rodney Gordon when he worked for the Owen Luder Partnership. The car park had a prominent role in the 1971 film Get Carter, so is commonly referred to as the Get Carter car park. The demolition of the car park structure itself started on 26 July 2010 and was complete by early October of the same year. The shopping centre opened in 2013.

Construction

The car park was designed in 1962 by the Owen Luder Partnership when Brutalism was regarded as the cutting edge of architecture, but by the time that it opened in 1967, interest in the movement had begun to decline. The building's raw concrete weathered poorly, and by the time Get Carter was filmed in 1970 the car park had already become patchy.

The multi-storey car park had seven tiers of parking decks. These were raised above the adjoining shopping centre by a "forest" of piloti columns. The decks on the north face had a slight curve creating a wave effect. There were two supporting towers containing stair and lift access. Each level of car park was therefore uninterrupted, so that when viewed from a distance the sky was visible through the structure. A cafe unit in a contrasting box structure sat above the top tier of the car park connected to the access towers by a glazed bridge and an open walkway. The cafe, which never actually opened, had large windows providing views across the Tyne Gorge.

The developer was E Alec Colman Investments Ltd, which had also used Luder for its Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth, and construction was undertaken by Robert McAlpine. The consulting structural engineer was Gordon Rose of Rose Associates. The lead architect was Rodney Gordon. [1] [2] The car park was commissioned as part of the redevelopment of the established market square in Gateshead town centre, and hence was sometimes referred to as the Inner Market car park. However the landscaping ultimately created an exposed and unattractive shopping precinct on two levels with poor access. While construction of the car park was in progress subsidence was noticed due to mine workings, but this was overcome. At the same time nearby Newcastle upon Tyne had begun the covered Eldon Square Shopping Centre and this further undermined the long-term success of the development. The rooftop cafe failed to find a tenant and was never opened. It was also unable to be granted a fire certificate by the fire service.

Depiction in Get Carter

Showing the rooftop cafe TrinityCentre02.jpg
Showing the rooftop cafe

The car park is the location of several key scenes in Get Carter , and is often seen in the distance. Local businessman Cliff Brumby (Bryan Mosley) meets Jack Carter (Michael Caine) at the incomplete rooftop café, as he is in the process of developing it into a restaurant. Carter later confronts Brumby on one of the building's stairways, and pushes him off to his death; meanwhile the two effete architects waiting in the unfinished café for Brumby start worrying about ever getting their fees. After this film the car park was dubbed the Get Carter car park because of its appearance in the film. The director Mike Hodges was not aware that his friend Rodney Gordon had designed the car park, and did not understand Gordon's constant joking that one of the architect characters was a send-up of him. It was only through reading Gordon's obituaries that Hodges realised he was serious: "Until then I'd always thought the architect was Owen Luder whereas, in fact, it was his practice that took the credit. My friend, Rodney Gordon, had actually designed the Trinity Centre. He hadn't been joking after all." [3]

Other depictions

Derelict state of the rooftop restaurant during April 2008 tour Trinity Centre carpark roof.JPG
Derelict state of the rooftop restaurant during April 2008 tour
The first day of demolition on the car park structure, on 26 July 2010 Trinity square demolition1.JPG
The first day of demolition on the car park structure, on 26 July 2010

In 2005, BBC Radio 3 broadcast Gateshead Multi-Storey Car Park in its experimental Between The Ears slot. A radiophonic tribute to Trinity Square, produced by Langham Research Centre, the programme was made entirely from the sounds of the car park, processed and treated on quarter-inch tape, featuring interviews with its architect Owen Luder, and representatives from the Twentieth Century Society and Gateshead Council. [4]

The car park was the subject of scale (1/16 inch=1 foot), a dual channel super 16 mm film transferred to video, 16 minutes long and made in 2003. The work is by Turner Prize-nominated artist Runa Islam. In the piece the building is compared to its architectural model.

In 1984, Newcastle band Hurrah! shot a video showing the group performing their third single "Who'd Have Thought", which reached number 7 in the UK Indie chart in 1984, at the top of the 15 storey car park. [5]

Decline

With the development of the MetroCentre and competition from nearby Newcastle upon Tyne city centre, commercial interests in Gateshead town centre have declined. The 1985 opening of the Gateshead Interchange, a bus and metro transport hub, combined with changes to town centre access for private motorists, made the car park largely redundant. Its deteriorating condition also led to the 1995 decision to close the upper parking levels. In the late 1990s Tesco acquired an interest in the site and in 2008 work began to redevelop the entire Trinity Square site and the existing Tesco supermarket into a new town centre shopping complex. [6]

Preservation attempts

During the 1980s and 1990s, there were various proposals to redevelop the car park as a contemporary art gallery or events venue (and in 1983 Charlie Hooker and the Newcastle-based Basement Group organised Mainbeam – a ballet for vehicles there), but as the structure was regarded as a civic white elephant, these all met with local resistance.

The building remained unlisted. The building was featured in the Channel 4 series Demolition in 2005. At the same time general interest in the car park increased, partly as a reflection of the recognition of Get Carter as a classic of British cinema, with Sylvester Stallone lending his weight to the calls for it to be preserved as a cinematic landmark.

Demolition

In June 2007, Gateshead Council and site owners Tesco confirmed the demolition of the car park. [7] The shops in the shopping centre below closed at the end of January 2008, in readiness for the demolition, and a final tour of the upper levels was held by the owners of the site in April 2008. Demolition of the buildings surrounding the car park was started at the end of 2008 by demolition contractor, Thompsons of Prudhoe. By 2010, the car park structure remained, although the shopping centre buildings around had been demolished. Demolition of the car park itself finally commenced on 26 July 2010, with Owen Luder stating that Gateshead would lose its "front teeth". [8]

Gateshead Council sold off fragments of the remains as "commemorative pieces of concrete in specially decorated tins" for £5 each. [9]

Redevelopment

The site was subsequently redeveloped by Spenhill Developments, a division of Tesco, [10] [11] and a large supermarket, which was built by Bowmer + Kirkland, was completed in 2013. [12] Trinity Square was nominated for the 2014 Carbuncle Cup for the ugliest building of the previous 12 months. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newcastle upon Tyne</span> City in England

Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle, is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tricorn Centre</span> Former shopping centre in Portsmouth, England

The Tricorn Centre was a shopping, nightclub and car park complex in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It was designed in the Brutalist style by Owen Luder and Rodney Gordon and took its name from the site's shape which from the air resembled a tricorn hat. Constructed in the mid-1960s, it was demolished in 2004. It was home to one of the first Virgin Megastores and housed the largest Laser Quest arena in Europe.

<i>Get Carter</i> 1971 British film by Mike Hodges

Get Carter is a 1971 British gangster film, written and directed by Mike Hodges in his directorial debut and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne, Britt Ekland and Bryan Mosley. Based on Ted Lewis's 1970 novel Jack's Return Home, the film follows the eponymous Jack Carter (Caine), a London gangster who returns to his hometown in North East England to learn about his brother's supposedly accidental death. Suspecting foul play, and with vengeance on his mind, he investigates and interrogates, regaining a feel for the city and its hardened-criminal element.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gateshead</span> Town in Tyne and Wear, England

Gateshead is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. The town shares the Millennium Bridge, Tyne Bridge and multiple other bridges with Newcastle upon Tyne.

Killingworth, formerly Killingworth Township, is a town in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It lies within the historic county of Northumberland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Owen Luder</span> British architect (1928–2021)

Harold Owen Luder was a British architect who designed a number of notable and sometimes controversial buildings in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s, many now demolished. He served as chairman of the Architects Registration Board and twice as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1981–1983 and 1995–1997. He established his own practice Owen Luder Partnership in 1957, and left in 1987 to form the consultancy Communication In Construction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blaydon</span> Human settlement in England

Blaydon is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, and historically in County Durham. Blaydon, and neighbouring Winlaton, which Blaydon is now contiguous with, form the town of Blaydon-on-Tyne. The Blaydon/Winlaton ward had a population in 2011 of 13,896.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eldon Square Shopping Centre</span> Shopping mall in Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Eldon Square is a shopping centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It opened in 1976 and was built on the site of Old Eldon Square, a famous part of Georgian Newcastle designed by John Dobson in about 1824. This redevelopment, which left only the eastern terrace standing, has been criticised, with one writer calling it "the greatest single example of architectural vandalism in Britain since the war".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingston Park</span> Human settlement in England

Kingston Park is a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, about 4 miles (6 km) north west of the city centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunston, Tyne and Wear</span> Area of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England

Dunston is a western area of the town of Gateshead on the south bank of the River Tyne, in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, North East England. Dunston had a population of 18,326 at the 2011 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gosforth</span> Suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Gosforth is an affluent suburb of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It constituted a separate urban district from 1895 until 1974 before officially merging with the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 2001, it had a population of 23,620.

Demolition is a 2005 television series from Channel 4, which can be seen as being the reverse of the BBC's 2003 series Restoration. The public were encouraged to vote for buildings which they want demolished and replaced, with 12 buildings making The Dirty Dozen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gateshead Interchange</span> Tyne and Wear Metro station in Gateshead

Gateshead Interchange is a Tyne and Wear Metro station, serving the town of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. It joined the network on 15 November 1981, following the opening of the third phase of the network, between Haymarket and Heworth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitefriars Shopping Centre</span> Shopping mall in Canterbury, Kent

Whitefriars Shopping Centre is a shopping centre in Canterbury, Kent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Runcorn Shopping City</span> Shopping mall in Runcorn, England

Runcorn Shopping City, formerly Halton Lea and Runcorn Shopping Centre, is a medium-sized indoor shopping centre in Runcorn, England. Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972, it is the main shopping area in Runcorn and has over 125,000 visitors per week. It was the largest enclosed shopping centre in Europe at the time of its construction and remains the largest in Cheshire.

Thomas Oliver was an English classical architect and surveyor active in Newcastle upon Tyne. He was one of a number of talented local architects who worked with Richard Grainger on the development of Newcastle, but his work tends to be overshadowed by that of John Dobson who has been given a great deal of the credit for the central part of the city referred to as Grainger Town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Bridges</span> Shopping mall in City of Sunderland, England

The Bridges Shopping Centre, commonly known as ‘The Bridges’ is a shopping centre located in Sunderland, England. The centre was opened by Princess Royal, Anne in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newcastle City Centre</span> City centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Newcastle City Centre is the city centre district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the historical heart of the city and serves as the main cultural and commercial centre of the North East England region. The city centre forms the core of the Tyneside conurbation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodney Gordon</span> British architect

Rodney H Gordon was an English architect. He was the primary architect of the Tricorn Centre, Portsmouth, and Trinity Square, Gateshead. Architecturally, his works were primarily in concrete; he was said to be a Brutalist and his buildings have been described as "dramatic, sculptural and enormous" as well as "futuristic".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derwent Tower</span> Demolished apartment building in Dunston, England

Derwent Tower was a 29-storey residential apartment building in Dunston, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom, opened in 1972. Due to its unusual shape it was nicknamed the "Dunston Rocket" during construction and the name remained with locals throughout its life. It was demolished in 2012.

References

  1. Jeffries, Stuart (15 March 2004). "The joy of concrete". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  2. Croft, Catherine (10 September 2008). "Obituary: Rodney Gordon". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  3. Hodges, Mike (26 July 2010). "A concrete monstrosity, but it was perfect for my film". The Independent. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  4. Mahoney, Elisabeth (20 June 2005). "Radio review: Storeys to tell". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  5. "Get Hurrah! | Generator". Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  6. "Trinity Square : Trinity Square Gateshead". Archived from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 11 September 2008.
  7. "Iconic car park to go in revamp". BBC News. June 2007.
  8. "Demolition of Gateshead Get Carter Car Park Starts". BBC News. July 2010.
  9. Pieces of iconic Get Carter car park on sale to fans BBC News, 26 January 2011
  10. Tesco unveils £150m Gateshead Town Centre Scheme in Construction Enquirer, 26 July 2010
  11. "HuffPost UK: UK News and Opinion". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  12. "Thousand jobs to be created by Gateshead revamp". Chronicle Live. 9 August 2012.
  13. bdonline.co.uk: The Carbuncle Cup award for the worst new building, accessdate: 24/08/2014

54°57′46″N1°36′08″W / 54.9627°N 1.6022°W / 54.9627; -1.6022