2010

NZ2564 : Ellison Place

taken 15 years ago, near to Gateshead, England

Ellison Place
Ellison Place
The concrete and glass, 5 storey, MEA House, inappropriately spans the old street. Owned by the MEA Trust it provides office accommodation to registered charities. The building was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen on 1st July 1974. Connected to the Bewick Court platform level by the pedestrian walkway seen on the right side which crosses the car park and Durant Road.
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: Street
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NZ2564, 1067 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Andrew Curtis   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Sunday, 24 January, 2010   (more nearby)
Submitted
Thursday, 28 January, 2010
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NZ 2519 6469 [10m precision]
WGS84: 54:58.5713N 1:36.4793W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NZ 2511 6467
View Direction
East-northeast (about 67 degrees)
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Image classification(about): Geograph
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