When I told you that there were twelve mosaics under the A1058 in Newcastle, you may have had one of two thoughts:

1. Aren’t there fourteen? Why yes, that was poorly fact-checked.
2. Does this mean 13 more posts featuring photographs of grimy 1970s mosaics from a dodgy underpass? I can neither confirm nor deny, but this post might give you a clue.
   

Yesterday, in the context of the first passenger service of the new Metro train, I said:

with the UK’s public realm and infrastructure suffering from long term under-investment, it looks like we’ll be stuck with cascading sets of problems for years to come.

And how. By yesterday evening, the Metro network had been bisected: it has been judged unsafe for trains to travel in the tunnels which live under Gateshead’s 1960s flyover, which has been assessed as in danger of collapse.

This means that the Tyne can no longer be crossed by Metro. The works on the Tyne Bridge, as well as the flyover being closed, make road crossings of the Tyne in the city centre challenging, exacerbated by the closure of the High Level Bridge to most traffic some years ago.

The nearby Swing Bridge hasn’t swung in years, and the car park beneath the nearby Redheugh Bridge has been cordoned off because of the risk of bits of concrete dropping off it.

The Tyne Tunnels are restricted at weekends as one is needing maintenance closures to ’protect its long-term future’ only 13 years after its last nine-month refurbishment closure. The ferry across the Tyne has been closing early for weeks, and is expected to continue to do so for months, due to staff shortages.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m so lucky to be able to walk to work and avoid this chaos.

Deep beneath the A1058 in Newcastle lies a subway decorated with twelve mosaics. These were installed in 1979 in anticipation of the 900th anniversary of the city’s founding, celebrated the following year.

Each panel was chosen to represent a key event in the history of the city. With a little foresight, they included the opening of the Metro as one of those seminal moments:

The trains captured in that image have trundled round the system continuously since it opened… but not for much longer. Yesterday, the first of a new generation of Metro trains entered passenger service. Perhaps someone, somewhere is making mosaic to celebrate.

It’s a sign of the times that the new train is having to trundle under Gateshead at a reduced speed due to the risk of collapse of the crumbling Gateshead flyover. Small steps forward are always welcome, but with the UK’s public realm and infrastructure suffering from long term under-investment, it looks like we’ll be stuck with cascading sets of problems for years to come.

I’m very lucky to be able to walk to work… but walking to work by the light of the moon is a bit of a downer. Not as much of a downer as the alternatives, but a downer nonetheless.

Even with the solstice on Saturday, there’s a little while longer to go until the sunrise begins to get a little earlier.

I’m behind in my reading, so this isn’t really new, but I’ve just enjoyed this David Sedaris essay published last month in The New Yorker. There was something quite festive about it in a bit of a Chris Rea sense—it’s an account of driving through the night from Maine to Manhattan.

Nothing says ‘Christmas’ quite like a giant cuddly peanut with reindeer antlers.

Just a recommendation: I can’t remember how long I’ve been reading the Jennifer Mills News, but it has been brightening my week for years. It’s a single-page ‘newspaper’ about Jennifer Mills, published by her once a week, with its own distinctive journalistic style.

It is just personal, fun and delightful.

This is Flying Angel in Custom House, a building built as a seafarer’s mission in 1936 when the nearby docks were thriving. Note the little model ship on the roof. These days, the building has been converted to flats.

I’m approaching two years of daily blogging. One consequence of this, as Wendy will tell you, is that I’m prone to whip out my phone and photograph any public artwork or memorial I happen across.

This one, in Hartlepool, struck me as one of the better artworks I’ve seen this year… but it’s been on my list of things to post for longer than usual, as I’ve struggled to find out anything about it.

But now, I’ve cracked the mystery. It is the output of a competition from the 7-9 year olds at the nearby Ward Jackson Primary, 18 years ago. The kids were asked to design an artwork to replace frequently-vandalised lamppost. This winning design belonged to Jessica Draper.

An interview with the artist at the time revealed her motivations: “Most people like the sun and say it makes them feel better, so I thought I would include it in my design.”

Honestly, I think that may also be one of the best justifications for a bit of civic art that I’ve read this year as well.

As someone who has occasionally been a little grumpy about children’s art, even I think this example is worth celebrating.

This is an ex-RAF Jet Provost which looms over the car park of the Hartlepool College of Further Education. It’s there because the college specialises in aerospace courses, among other things.

I’ve driven and walked past it many times, but most recently thought about it when I was in Stockholm earlier this year, and saw this Bell 206 helicopter on a stick: