2010

NZ2564 : Central Motorway

taken 15 years ago, near to Gateshead, England

This is 1 of 3 images, with title Central Motorway in this square
Central Motorway
Central Motorway
The motorway is taking traffic south under Manors multi-storey car park and the Swan House roundabout (the block now renamed '55 Degrees North') towards the Tyne Bridge.
Two level toon

A 1960s vision for Newcastle City Centre to separate traffic from pedestrians by creating a network of concrete walkways above access roads and traffic routes of the existing streets.
Geography reverses the situation somewhat at the Swan House roundabout which merges traffic coming off the Tyne Bridge with that from the Central Motorway and the City Centre. Here pedestrians are moved below the roads in subways but emerge again above the deep valley of Side under the Tyne Bridge.
The vision would have included Northumberland Street (where some new stores were built with shop windows at what is now first floor level), and further, but eventually money ran out and it was realised that too much of architectural merit would have to be sacrificed.
The development of the city in the 1960s and 1970s was marred by a corruption scandal involving a local politician, T. Dan Smith (aka 'The Mouth of the Tyne), and John Poulson, a property developer. Echoes of the scandal were revisited in the late 1990s in the BBC TV mini-series, 'Our Friends in the North' LinkExternal link
The 'streets in the sky' concept is explained in the Urban Translation Tour LinkExternal link
Plans of this and other Newcastle developments are discussed here LinkExternal link


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Andrew Curtis and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Category: Road > Motorway
This photo is linked from: Automatic Clusters: · Swan House [29] · Central Motorway [27] · Degrees North [19] · Manors Car Park [17] · Swan House Roundabout [15] Other Photos: · Motorway near Carliol Square, Newcastle Title Clusters: · Central Motorway [3] ·
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Grid Square
NZ2564, 1034 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Andrew Curtis   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Friday, 15 January, 2010   (more nearby)
Submitted
Friday, 22 January, 2010
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NZ 2522 6423 [10m precision]
WGS84: 54:58.3232N 1:36.4536W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NZ 2524 6427
View Direction
South-southwest (about 202 degrees)
Clickable map
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Image classification(about): Geograph
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