Rocket and Staithes

Another quick snapshot... Difficult to get out and about at the moment!

Let me introduce you to Dunston Staithes and the Dunston Rocket.

The Staithes were used to load coal on to ships and were operational from the late 1800s until the late 1970s. They are both a Listed Building and Scheduled Ancient Monument, but were unfortunatley affected by fire in 2003, so a chunk is missing out of them. The area around the Staithes riverbank was derelict, but now has Wayne Hemingway-designed new housing.

And the Dunston Rocket, design by Owen Luder, the same man who designed the Get Carter car park (now demolished, just recently, to be replaced by Tesco. Gateshead will soon be called Tescohead...!). The Rocket was built in the early 1970s and is scheduled for demolition as it is immune from listed status.

Whatever you think of it, the design is amazingly striking. You can't see from this photo, but the bottom has flying buttresses from the ground to the 5th floor. It's incredible to me now that a local authority commissioned such a building and then failed - or couldn't - look after its upkeep.