After the Depression of the 1930’s and the Second World War, there was a mood across Britain for wanting something better, something new. Nowhere was that feeling stronger than in Newcastle and two men in particular: political leader T. Dan Smith and planner Wilfred Burns.
After the Depression of the 1930’s and the Second World War, there was a mood across Britain for wanting something better, something new. Nowhere was that feeling stronger than in Newcastle and two men in particular: political leader T. Dan Smith and planner Wilfred Burns.
T. Dan Smith had risen spectacularly from a tough childhood in Wallsend to become Leader of Newcastle City Council between 1959 and 1965. Wilfred Burns had been born in Lancashire and as a town planner had been heavily involved in the rebuilding of Coventry, which had been hit badly by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz, before becoming a visionary town planner in Newcastle under T. Dan Smith in 1960. In 1963, Burns came up with his famous development plan for Newcastle, which was to be turned into the Brasilia of the North, a modernist beacon, complete with motorways and walkways in the sky.
Concrete Dreams Exhibition in Newcastle
Both men had a vision of a modern Newcastle, and it is this attempt to modernise the city in the 1960’s and 1970’s that is documented by the exhibition Concrete Dreams at the Farell Centre in Newcastle.
Visiting the exhibition, I watched some of the films downstairs, entitled Amber: Documenting Place. There was film of work at an unspecified shipyard, while the walls are decorated with photos of a shop and washing in a back garden. We can see a busy river, a working river, with one ship next to another being built or repaired
In the exhibition itself, the first thing to see is a model of Gateshead redevelopment and the Trinity Square of ‘Shepherds’ carpark and adjoining shops. This somehow reminded me of the pride that there was in these developments when they first went up…the faults would be seen later.
There was a showing of a Pacemaker 1970 film of T Dan Smith, part of series of people said to be “shaping the country” at the time. Dan was filmed in a grand room with grand paintings and from the top of the then new Civic Centre, before cutting to footage of marches between the wars, what Newcastle was trying to escape and leave behind – the poverty and grimness of life in the 1930’s.
The development of Byker
There is a plan for the ‘Future of Byker”, complete with a map showing the motorway that was never built, the motorway that was to by-pass the new Byker and the reason for the wall being built to protects the estate from the sound of the motorway. Speaking of Byker, there is a model of Tom Collins House sheltered housing scheme, in the award winning Byker Wall. There is also a map of the new Byker showing different neighbourhoods colour coded with names if streets in them, showing how community was intended to be developed.
There are copies of Wilfred Burns study for Newcastle, the 1963 government Traffic in Towns report and the aforementioned Newcastle upon Tyne Development Plan of 1963.
Amother book is opened at a picture of the early Eldon Square shopping centre with its elevated restaurant…Rise in aspirations and Towers surrounded by traditional housing seen as more desirable…
As the 1970’s progressed, so the motorway plans for Newcastle came under ever more criticism from groups such as SOCEM (Save Our City from Environmental Mess, so the Metro was devised as a public transport answer to transport problems. Accordingly, the exhibition has plans of the Metro a revolutionary idea at the time, but sadly still not developed to its full potential…
One Scheme that Didn’t Come to Pass
One of the most interesting exhibits is a model of the plan to build a deck over the Tyne creating a 15-acre site for major public buildings at the hub of Tyneside.
These would have included a regional concert hall, an opera house and restaurants. If this had come to pass, then the famous of the river and the iconic Tyne Bridge would have been swept away.
Modernist Dreams
There are also diversions up to Killingworth, Kenton Bar, Felling and Jesmond Library – with more examples of Modernist architecture… I was struck by a headline in a book on display; Killingworth Towers: what went wrong – about the demolition of the Towers in 1987. The culprit? The rise in aspirations and Towers becoming surrounded by traditional housing seen as more desirable…
There is also a comparison with the then newly developed Modernist city of Brasilia, the city that had inspired Burns and Smith.
So, we see how Newcastle weas full of concrete dreams in the 1960‘s and 1970‘s. Bit of course, dreams are different for different people; some dreams come true…while others turn into nightmares.
Byker in Focus Accompanied Exhibition Concrete Dreams
On 6 February, an event called Byker in Focus accompanying the exhibition Concrete Dreams took place at the Curtis Auditorium in Newcastle University, attended by about 350 people. Byker featured centrally in the event. remembering when the old, terraced houses were swept away and a new kind of estate was put up in their place, under the vision and practice of the architect Ralph Erskine.
It was noted that since then, photographers and artists had been drawn to the area and the event was aiming to understand how and why Byker has attracted such attention. It was said to be a post war cityscape and place of political and social conflict, which has been used as a stick to attack the post war consensus and the perceived failure of policies associated with it.
Many housing estates can be documented in terms of both lived experience and political/social context and Byker is no exception. Seen as an example of both Modernist and Post-modernist architecture, Byker now covers 200 acres and is home to 9 500 people.
The Byker development was also an example of community involvement in design, but it was said to be still clearly result of Erskine’s vision. Part of that vision was trying to keep people together.
Photographer Sirkka Liisa-Kontinen
Sirkka-Liisa is a Finnish-born photographer who documented changes that took place in Byker between 1969 and 81. She related how she had come to Newcastle to work for the Amber Collective and how she had lived in lived in Byker from 1969 – 76.
Sirkka-Liisa remembered that Byker had been a vibrant working-class community, that was about to be demolished. When she arrived there, one-third of the estate had already been demolished to make way for the motorway, just south of and parallel to Shields Road that was never built.
A young Sirkka-Liisa was taken under wing by the local matriarchs, even being scolded that she didn’t clean the door steps! There were hardly any cars and so consequently the streets were a playground. Lisa was able to document a place that was a deprived area but populated by dignified people, who looked after one another through realistic photos documenting life in Byker . One other thing that was notable from the display of her photos that Lisa showed us, was how many musicians there had been living in Byker.
2003-9
Sirkka-Liisa returned to Byker between 2003 and 2009 and photographed places such as the famous Byker Wall. By then most of original community was lost.
In 2004 numerous asylum seekers arrived and the estate became very multicultural, with Lisa herself becoming a volunteer in an asylum seekers support group.
Sirkka-Liisa looked for people from the old Byker and was able recreate an old photo, with the same person, but also featuring different generations from her family. Lisa also photographed relatives of older people, who had lived in Byker in the 1970’s.
Some of those who had recently arrived in Byker included a Mongolian, whose door was sadly kicked in many times, a student from Burundi, two people from Sri Lanka and a couple from Lebanon.
Architect James Longfield
Next up was the architect James Longfield who had also lived in Byker and in 2017 had completed a PhD about Erskine. His short talk on Byker was titled, Mirror Mythos Management.
James began with the mirror, by noting that comments on Byker often reflected wider concerns. He argued that the design of the estate was late Modernist, but in some respects quite reactionary, even informed by medieval cities and garden city movement. The estate has landscaping, with places for social gathering and the landscape in general is sensitive to the climate.
It was noted how the estate was designed so that in effect Byker is turning its back on wider city.
Longfield argued that the involvement of the residents had seen a modest advance on a humanising project with the involvement of local people. But the question remained: was redevelopment necessary?
Mythology
Longfield then explained how he thought that Byker had shifted from a case study to mythology. The design was trying to raise standards and should involve people’s daily concerns and see them living in an environmentally sustainable location. It was a vision of what could be.
Management
Byker is home to around 9 000 people, but many of the original hobby rooms intended to help bring people together, have now been converted into private homes. This was seen as making the estate easier to manage. But Longfield claimed that priority should be given to developing these places as community hubs. Development of hobby rooms into community hubs is something that Karbon Homes are currently looking at.
Silvie Fisch Director of Northern Cultural Projects
The third speaker was Silvie Fisch from Newcastle University and the Oral History Collective and who is a director of Northern Cultural Projects.
Silvie has been developing an archive of Byker and shared with us some of the pieces in the archive. Starting with an evocative old painting of Byker Hill. Silvie took us through numerous fascinating old photos including art projects, murals and community theatre. It was also noted that Byker Grove had been set in the estate, if actually filmed in Benwell.
Byker for Byker people 2003
The 1990’s were a dark time for Byker as the Tory government withdrew support for Council housing. By 2003, a response had been prepared, with an exhibition of photographs taken by local people. These Included photos of newly arrived asylum seekers.
There were also uplifting photos showing the bringing of community centres back to life, including the colourful paintings on a building in Brinkburn Street. The archive was documenting local people doing art. Silvie is hoping to develop a community archive for Byker (if she gets the funding).
Following the talks there were questions. Among other comments, Sirkka- Liisa Kontinen noted that one idea behind the design of the estate was that people would have more privacy, and they do indeed have that, now but there is also more isolation. Meanwhile a resident from Byker commented on the mythology by arguing that there was no greater community in Byker than in other working-class communities in the North East.
Concrete Dream is an interesting and thought provoking look at how the modern Newcastle developed in the 1960’s and 1970’s and a reminder of what else might have been built.
Concrete Dreams is at the Farrell Centre on Claremont Road, Newcastle until 1st June, open Thursday to Sunday 10 am to 5 pm.
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