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Photo-a-day 238: Rooftops of Newcastle

117 words posted by Simon on 25 August 2012

Monument Mall, whose cupola is on the left of this shot, is currently undergoing major redevelopment. The new configuration will fill in the mall spaces to create several large units accessed from the street, providing space for Jamie’s Italian, Armani, TK Maxx, and several other stores besides. It’s a shame in some ways, as Monument Mall used to sport some very distinctive gold and glass escalators (there’s an amazing picture of those here), but I guess small shop units are just out of fashion these days.

Earl Grey can be seen on the right, standing some 40m above Grey Street. The fascinating story of his head can be found back on day 70 of this project…

This post was filed under: Photo-a-day 2012, Newcastle.

Photo-a-day 187: Gateshead Millennium Bridge tilted

97 words posted by Simon on 5 July 2012

I’ve featured the Millennium Bridge a few times: once with bollards, once during the removal of the bollards, and once without them. But today is the first time I’ve featured it tilted!

It cost £22m to build, and tilted for the first time in 2001. It’s so energy efficient that it costs just £3.60 in electricity to open. One thing that many people don’t realise is that the tilting of the bridge has a secondary function, beyond letting ships pass: it tips any litter dropped on the bridge into special traps, making the bridge uniquely self-tidying!

This post was filed under: Photo-a-day 2012, Bridges, Gateshead, Newcastle.

Photo-a-day 183: Bungee jumping over the Tyne

185 words posted by Simon on 1 July 2012

You’ll need a sharp pair of eyes to spot the figure on the end of this bungee rope, right in the centre of the photo.

You can see rather more easily the Sage, the Tyne Bridge (complete with Olympic rings), the Castle Keep, and St Nicholas’s and St Mary’s cathedrals, all of which I’ve featured previously!

You can also see the quayside’s Sunday market in full flow; a bit of the 136 year old Swing Bridge, whose predecessors date back some 1,800 years or so to the Roman Pons Aelius; a smidgen of Robert Stephenson’s High Level Bridge, from which hundreds of people watched the Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead in 1854; and the roof of HMS Calliope, the stone frigate on the Gateshead bank of the Tyne.

You can’t see the talented young musicians performing in the North East Youth Steel Pan Festival, part of ¡Vamos! 2012. This festival was actually my reason for visiting the quayside this afternoon, but inclement weather moved it indoors, which would’ve made a fairly dull photo. So you’ve got a bungee jumping nutcase from outside instead!

This post was filed under: Photo-a-day 2012, Gateshead, Newcastle, The Glasshouse ICM, Tyne Bridge.