A New Exhibition at the Farrell Centre is Sharing the History of Newcastle's Quayside
This year marks 40 years since the inception of the plan to regenerate Newcastle's Quayside, and a new exhibition at the Farrell Centre is exploring the ideas and aspirations that shaped it
The Farrell Centre, part of Newcastle University, shines a spotlight on Newcastle’s built environment and its mission is to engage local people, and those from further afield, in the future of the built environment. At the heart of that is a belief that the city belongs to everyone and everyone should have a voice in shaping its future. ‘We see ourselves as a meeting place for the professions and policy makers but also, fundamentally, for the public,’ says director Owen Hopkins.
Its exhibition, Newcastle Quayside at 40, is marking 40 years since the inception of the project to regenerate Newcastle Quayside. ‘It’s one of those projects where there isn’t really an obvious start date. The Quayside had been the focus of a lot of attention from planners, architects and policy makers for several decades,’ says Owen. ‘After the Second World War, even though ships continued to be built for a long time, the writing was on the wall in a way. This area was changing quite fundamentally but the thing that wasn’t predicted was the speed at which it would change. By the 1980s, it had become a sort of redundant part of the city and there are some really evocative photographs that show it then in a very dilapidated condition with old warehouses and abandoned buildings. It was somewhere that had actually almost ceased to be part of the city. It had lost its use really.’
In the late 1980s, the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation put their focus on reimagining the Quayside to bring it back to life, making it a commercially successful and culturally vibrant public space. ‘I think that has been achieved,’ says Owen. ‘One of the most fascinating things about it, particularly for someone like me who’s not Newcastle born-and-bred, is that there’s a feeling, almost, that the Quayside has always been like this. Of course, it hasn’t. But the fact it provokes that assumption is testament to its success.’
The Tyne and Wear Development Corporation plays a pivotal role in the story. ‘Organisations were established by the government in the 1980s, in a number of northern cities, to drive economic regeneration and the built environment was central to that,’ explains Owen. ‘They had planning powers so they could override some of the decisions made by local authorities and the idea was to cut through some of the bureaucracy and allow decisions to be made quickly, and acted upon quickly. I hadn’t realised the extent to which it was a really model public-private collaboration and they worked very tightly with the developer. It brought together the best of both worlds – the strategic approach and planning powers with the expertise of development and creating places that were going to be financially successful and attract people to the Quayside. I think it’s a project that is an exemplar – not just in the city and the North East, but nationally and maybe internationally too.’
The project was masterplanned by architect Sir Terry Farrell whose story is central to the Farrell Centre. ‘He grew up in the city, he studied here, and he’d seen the change quite fundamentally both through industrialisation but also through the big modernist projects of that era,’ explains Owen. ‘All of that shaped his approach to cities and the role that architecture and masterplanning play in transforming them for the better. He brought all of that to bear when he achieved the masterplan for the Quayside, thinking about how it could be reintegrated with the surrounding city, how existing buildings could be repurposed and reinvented, and how they could be complemented by new buildings.’
Whilst the Gateshead Quayside was a wholly separate project, the two complemented each other. ‘I can’t believe that would’ve transpired in the way it did without what was going on across the river,’ Owen adds. ‘I think, in a funny way, you’ve got two sides of the same coin in the regeneration – Sir Terry Farrell’s urbanist approach and Gateshead’s iconic architecture (particularly with The Glasshouse but to some extent with Baltic as an existing building too). We were using these great architectural statements as a way of remaking a place. I think for our visitors it’s hopefully interesting to see how these places emerged but also to take pride in a project that has been very successful and very influential as a way to remake former industrial parts of our cities.’
Using archival materials, the exhibition tells the story of the last 40 years of the Quayside. ‘The exhibition is looking at relatively recent history,’ says Owen. ‘The Millennium Bridge was a key moment within that, although not directly part of the project itself but very much catalysed by it. It’s recent history in living memory. What we’ve done is studied this moment of history in depth with a lot of archival material from the North East Regeneration Archive, held by Professor Paul Greenhalgh. He collected huge amounts of the material that was printed by the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation, and by some other organisations involved, that were used to tell the story of what was taking place – part of that mission to give the Quayside a new identity. This is pre-internet so everything was printed and actually there’s this amazing record of material and we’ve presented that largely as found. We’ve left brochures open in a deliberately haphazard way. We’ve introduced a little bit of interpretation too.
‘We found an early presentation put together by the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation where they look at measures of success, which is quite interesting. Very early on they were looking at what would be the criteria by which they could judge whether what they had done had worked or not and we’ve used that as a way to almost do that ourselves. We’ve looked at how the work around infrastructure, community collaboration and planning has all fed into making the Quayside what it is today. We’ve all been to the Quayside, we all know it well, but it’s almost a question of using our own experiences and knowledge of that place and putting that alongside some of the original ideas and aspirations that shaped its creation.’
Home to Newcastle Law Courts, the Quayside now attracts visitors to chic hotels, popular restaurants and busy bars, for scenic strolls and bike rides, and to attend events including the Red Bull Tyne Ride (taking place on 29th August this year), while the weekly Quayside Market honours its historic roots. Owen believes the most successful part of it is the amount of public space that’s been provided. Outdoor seating and colourful murals now encourage visitors to slow down and take in the view across the River Tyne. ‘You go down there and see the materials that were used and the thought that’s gone into it is all of a very high quality, given some of it is over 30 years old,’ he says. ‘It’s a space where the city comes together. It’s often the place where visitors come to first, to get a sense of the city and what this place is about.
‘In some ways Sir Terry Farrell’s masterplan is still unfinished. There are still vacant plots that offer a great opportunity for the city and further along at Spillers Wharf there are significant development opportunities to continue the story of the Quayside and its regeneration. Now, when there is vibrant community and culture (particularly as you get closer to Ouseburn), it’s about looking at how those developments can work with what’s already there and successful. That’s the challenge, but also the opportunity.’
