Over in Gateshead, the Get Carter car park is at long last joining Westgate House on the great scrapheap of Sixties eyesore landmarks. In its place the council proposes to site a new Tesco supermarket, more cafes and restaurants, some tree-lined walkways, bars and luxury apartments, a cinema and a pedestrianised square with a piece or two of modern art. The whole thing will no doubt be built in pale brick squiggly lines with big glass windows and wavy bits of metal tacked on the top - the modern day equivalent of concrete and pebbledash.
By and large it seems an unimaginative waste of space. As was the case with the underused monstrosity it replaces, everything in this development has better sited, much longer established and already popular competitors out-of-town, down on the Quayside and across the river in Newcastle. If I were Gateshead Council, I wouldn't be putting that wrecking ball away just yet.
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