NEWCASTLE & GATESHEAD | Full Summary of Projects

[sterock85]

Is this Newcastle on the coast though, one of the few differences i can see along with the river not having the same name!

[city_thing]

Yep, it's on the North East coast.

And the river's called is the Hunter river.

[hollow man]

It is amazing that the two Newcastle's have both been the largest coal ports in the world at different times.

[toonlad]

Have a look at a map of Malaysia (another colonial country) and in the North East, on the coast, is a city called Kota Bharu. Translated thats New Castle!

So seems the geordies got everywhere!!

[Newcastle Historian]

This is an interesting site, covering "All the Newcastle's of the World" . . . though the 'links' on there could be better.

http://www.tourismnewcastle.co.za/NC...newcastles.htm

[geordiejon]

Newcastle NSW has also had a regeneration in recent times too, and has a great beach- which unfortunelty isnt called Tynemouth or anything but Nobbys or something similar. I always thought it would be funny if you moved to Aus and ended up in Newcastle and lived in a suburb called Wickham or Jesmond- it would be a bit weird though. Newcastle is Australias biggest city that isnt a state capital.
There are loads of Newcastle around the world, some in Canada and also one in South Africa. There are also loads in USA, although they often call them New Castle in the states (whenever you go to Florida and they you are flying home to our Newcastle they always put it on the board as New Castle). The english speaking colonies used to copy our city names loads. Around Toronto you have Lincoln, Grimsby, Cambridge, Norwich, Brighton, Scarborough, Whitby and Tottenham to name a few. New Hampshire has Manchester, Plymouth, Bedford, Londonderry and Durham.
The Newcastle in NSW though seems unique in that it not only copies the name but also the suburbs within the original one.
There are no Gateshead's around the world though, apart from an island off the coast of Canada in the frozen arctic.

[geordiejon]

I see they are working at the bottom of Northumberland Street for the new screen. I just hope they move that big statue thing though- otherwise you arent gonna see anything.
The library is looking good, 100% better than what was there before.
I sat on Eldon Square having my lunch on Saturday, and despite the wet weather the square is so much better with the restaurants and coffee shops with seating outside. I just wish they would do something with the blank walls of Eldon Sqaure on Blackett Street- thats is the last bit that need to be improved.

[hollow man]

This Newcastle New Castle thing is very strange.

Most ships sailing into the Port of Tyne have us down on their papers as New Castle aswell.

Daft.

[city_thing]

Originally Posted by geordiejon

Newcastle NSW has also had a regeneration in recent times too, and has a great beach- which unfortunelty isnt called Tynemouth or anything but Nobbys or something similar. I always thought it would be funny if you moved to Aus and ended up in Newcastle and lived in a suburb called Wickham or Jesmond- it would be a bit weird though. Newcastle is Australias biggest city that isnt a state capital.
There are loads of Newcastle around the world, some in Canada and also one in South Africa. There are also loads in USA, although they often call them New Castle in the states (whenever you go to Florida and they you are flying home to our Newcastle they always put it on the board as New Castle). The english speaking colonies used to copy our city names loads. Around Toronto you have Lincoln, Grimsby, Cambridge, Norwich, Brighton, Scarborough, Whitby and Tottenham to name a few. New Hampshire has Manchester, Plymouth, Bedford, Londonderry and Durham.
The Newcastle in NSW though seems unique in that it not only copies the name but also the suburbs within the original one.
There are no Gateshead's around the world though, apart from an island off the coast of Canada in the frozen arctic.

There's a Gateshead just south of the Australian Newcastle, but I couldn't find any maps with it in. If you go to Google Maps and zoom in on Newcastle (Aus) then you'll see a small town named Gateshead just a bit south of the city.

[city_thing]

I tired to create a tag on Google maps, but I'm pretty bad at this sorta stuff.

This link might work, I've put a marker on Gateshead, NSW.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?ie...d0b05db9a86aac

[geordiejon]

Well there you go. Another Gateshead in the world! Not Surprisingly it is south of Newcastle NSW.

[jwmacintyre]

Originally Posted by geordiejon

I sat on Eldon Square having my lunch on Saturday, and despite the wet weather the square is so much better with the restaurants and coffee shops with seating outside. I just wish they would do something with the blank walls of Eldon Sqaure on Blackett Street- thats is the last bit that need to be improved.

Yeah I hate the colour and look of the bricks, It wouldn't involve alot of money to get rid. You could simply just render the wall and then maybe a light colour could be applied. Mind you saying that the money involved over the years to keep it looking clean and bright as it gets older would be alot.

[SCNewcastle]

I've always thought they did comparatively well on the bricks - we could have had the public toilet tiling that the Manchester Arndale Centre had before the IRA. The real problem is that there's so little to look at - no shopfronts or windows or detailing. I'm not sure render would help with that. If it's not going to be completely redeveloped, perhaps it would work to hang a large public artwork off it? I'd vaguely imagine a series of big panels...?

[Seamaster]

Sunderland is "beyond revival" , says a new report.

Cities [...] like Sunderland had "lost much of their raison d'etre" with the decline of shipping and had "little prospect of offering their residents the standard of living to which they aspire". It was time to be "realistic about the ability of cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle to regenerate struggling nearby towns such as Liverpool, Bradford and Sunderland".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7556937.stm

[geordiejon]

Originally Posted by Seamaster

Sunderland is "beyond revival" , says a new report.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7556937.stm

Rather weird research, if it was researched at all- seems like some right of centre ramblings! I do though think that regeneration policy in this country is not working though. You have London and the south east getting better and better with more jobs and prosperity. Although in a much lower level you do then have regional capitals sucking out its satelite cities chances of regeneration- Newcastle in the North East, Manchester in the North West and Leeds in Yorkshire.
In our region in honestly other main towns and cities are all rather grim (apart from Durham). In Yorkshire, Sheffield and Bradford and Hull are nothing compared to Leeds. Liverpool, although improving will always live in the shadow of Manchester and will always struggle to regenerate as high as its neighbour.
I am just glad Newcastle wasnt slagged off though! I am sure our "friends" down the A19 are seething though as it would appear they have again been said to be a dump and Newcastle is more superior to them
Suggesting that everyone moves south though is a stupid idea though.

[city_thing]

I wouldn't mind seeing regeneration tactics change as well. Newcastle seems to have stalled, though the projects that they did get are great. In a lot of instances, there just seems to be a few good token projects, and then the rest in left to the private sector to finish off, though there isn't much incentive to do so. I guess that's what happens when power is so centralised, London eats up so much that there's not much left for everywhere else. I would love to see Newcastle increase the population living in the City Centre, and for small bar licences to be available to that it only costs a few hundred pounds to start up a bar that caters for less than 60 people (this has been a huge success here in Melb). It would really inject some vitality into the city and entice a lot more people to visit on civilised grounds.

I have so many plans and ideas for Newcastle, I really should write them down one day....

[geordiejon]

I agree that the regeneration of Newcastle/ Gateshead does seem to have stalled- also agree that there were/ are token projects- quayside, Baltic, Sage and then the bits in between have been left- example being the land inbetween Sage and Baltic has stalled, and I would be surprised if we see the land developed before 2010 now. I am sure we will get there, and we still have projects carrying on here, and I think we are in a much better position to other towns and cities in the North East.

Personally I think there is enough bars in Newcastle, and due to much higher prices of land etc in the UK, opening small bars wouldnt be cost effective- you ned to get plenty of people in to cover your costs, plus drinking problem in the Uk is bad enough, and although drinking is bad in Oz things are a real worry over here.

The city centre living thing in Newcastle is low compared to other cities in the UK due to its small size. You can live in the suburbs and still get back into the city centre in 20 minutes- in Manchester it takes forever to get into the city centre so it makes sense to live there. The British people prefer to live with a house and a garden too- the "garden city " theory from the first half of the 20th century is still alive and well here, and most aspire to live in these leafy suburbs- which has been trasferred to the rest of the Anglo Saxon world- USA and Australia again copy this "garden city " plan. Of course across Europe this doesnt happen in cities- most live in apartments.

[Seamaster]

I had the grave misfortune to be in Sunderland town centre yesterday. Must be the first time since I used to work there, back in the early nineties. Let me tell you, any town that loses a grand old department store like Binns, and replaces it with a ghastly shower like Wilkinsons, is not a town that is "regenerating" any time soon

[geordiejon]

Not meaning to be mean, or trying to start some kind of "My city is better than yours" which we seem to keen to have on these threads, I have to agree with Seamaster, Sunderland isnt exactly thriving, or at least it doesnt seem to be to the eye. The city centre looks like a town, the train station is well a metro station not a BR train station, and it does have a feeling of poverty. Compared to the south places like Sunderland are light years away from the good life the south towns have and enjoy. A big story recently in the Echo was that a Starbucks was opening soon in Sunderland. I mean come one, so bloody what? We are just so pleased to get some crumbs thrown at us from the prosperous south a branch of Starbucks seems like some alien concept in towns like Sunderland.
Newcastle isnt much better though, yeah we seem a lot better in terms of appearances- the city centre is pretty, our quayside is thriving and you do see the regeneration that has gone one, but soemtimes I get the impression we are a bit like " all fur coat and no knickers" sometimes- there are no new big companies moving up here really just the possibility that the gov might, and I mean might get more public sector jobs moved up here. But even this I wouldnt hold my breath on as the southern workers don't want to move up here.
The regional capitals have regenrated a lot in the last 20 years, the other cities around them have a long way to go and in general the UK has a long way to go to eleviate this London bias in business and prosperity and in reality thelabour government hasnt done much to change this and if a tory gov came in they would probably do even less!

[jwmacintyre]

I see east quay 5 on the former site of bannatynes health club/casino is almost finished. According to the Journal there has been alot of interest in the building.