Gateshead 20th Century
Shephards of Gateshead, the biggest and the best store
Shephards of Gateshead have what you're looking for
There's so much to see, and the car park is free
Come shopping at Shephards for the whole family
...traces , still, of the "dirty lane"
See www.getcartertour.co.uk
Go visit 25 Coburg Street, preferably in a red jag
Click on the banner below to see Bill Hartmann's new site about Gateshead which includes the car park and indoor market
West Street
Here's a poem what I wrote back in the 70s
Nebody here ever grouses
We diven't mind wer sooty flues
We diven't mind wer ootside loos
Slums decayed with neglect
That what he says... the bloody architect
He says we diven't want wor two-up, two-doon
He says "We'll give you modern flats to occupy"
Aye, little boxes in the sky
Wi waalls of plastic glass
And lawns of concrete grass
His borth was pre-destined fate
His faatha had a big estate
And he may have been a porfect fool
But he went to public school
Where he was taught te decide
Where the people should reside
Ye knaa, his mansion's Edwardian style
His garden stretches half a mile
His missus wears a posh mink for
And ne surprise, she's a Cooncillor
In chamber waalls of wood veneer
She helps to forther his career
Does he like coloured plastic
Concrete and bitumastic?
Would he swap his silk and lace
To live in a place
That he says with aall his pomp
It's what the people really want
Left click to enlarge
Noo, the Cooncil aall applaud
They've won a Civic Trust Award
Ne more pop-in neighbours, passers-by
We've got concrete walkways in the sky
Who cares if the rents have soared?
Who cares if the bairns are bored?
The plastic faded, the work was shoddy
And now, ye can't find anybody
Not from the Cooncil, nor the folks roond here
Who thought them flats were a good idea
They've all var nye disappeared
With a huge Cooncil debt, uncleared
We've got wor hooses back, ne sooty flues
Wi' centrally heated inside loos
When I think of aall that condensation
We got ne money, but the compensation
Is that the Architect that screwed this toon
Was still banged up... when the flats came doon
Jon Bratton c 1973-1993
The
3 pics above are *The old and new in contrast, *St Cuthberts Village
and the *Balmoral Drive Towers being demolished in 1987 
Left click to enlarge