I am on the train heading home, thankfully leaving London a day earlier than normal. Tomorrow I have been booked in to do an interview with BBC Radio Newcastle about the Angel of the North, which celebrates its 10th birthday next week.
But as we remember the building of one monster size construction, we note the imminent demise of another in Gateshead. The infamous Gateshead Multi-Storey Car Park, made famous by the classic cult film "Get Carter" is due to be demolished soon. Tomorrow morning I am due to take photos and video of the area that has been closed to the public for some years. The building itself is falling down and the restaurant at the top (it was never used for anything but the plan was that a restaurant would be installed there when the car park was built at the end of the 60s) is very out of bounds. Pity, as I was hoping to get some pictures of it for the historical records. I will be donating a copy of all the photos and video I will be taking to Gateshead Council.
And after that, I have my sights set on the Rocket Block, another monstrosity from the same period as the car park, and also due to be redesigned as rubble. It is a huge tower block but most of the flats in it are unoccupied. Big grey concrete, and like the car park, it reminds me of so many of the buildings I have seen in parts of the former Soviet Union. When I was in Minsk a few years ago, they were still building in the same Stalinist, grey monolithic style.
The Rocket (named as such because it looks like, would you believe it, a rocket!) does however have spectacular views of the Tyne and Team valleys. Some photos and viideo from there would be useful.
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