Multi-storey Car Park

Trinity Square, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
Owen Luder Partnership 1964-9
Unlisted

The Gateshead Car Park is a good example of the Brutalist style – raw exposed concrete defining the character of the building and its exterior. It was built from designs by Owen Luder (subsequently RIBA President). The slightly curved building is of a massive, yet sculptural appearance. Two expressive stair towers and the restaurant box sitting on top of the building cleverly counterpose the strong horizontality of the main block. The use of beton brut and the sculptural qualities of the car park define it unmistakably as a ‘Luder’.

The car park is a local landmark and an impressive building by one of Britain’s most important post-war architects. There are current plans to demolish the building. The aim set by the council is to reshape the centre of Gateshead in favour of a ‘European City’ of a more traditional form. The current application is far from that idea, though: DLG Architects from Leeds have designed a shopping centre and a car park on the site of the existing multi-storey car park. These plans have not been approved yet and the local planning authority, although keen on demolishing the car park and determined to create a better town centre for Gateshead, has expressed an unwillingness to recommend the current application. The current owner of the site, Tesco’s, would like to increase the size of the proposed building in order to fit a ‘Tesco Xtra’ store of massive dimensions.

An outline planning permission of 2000 that gave permission for the car park’s demolition may expire before the current scheme or its appeal can be considered. In practice, there is likely to be a long process of appeals and possible new planning applications by other architectural firms and developers.

The future of the car park has not been determined yet and The Twentieth Century Society has suggested adding it to the local list in March 2004 in order to stress its architectural interest. The building is in a run down state since no maintenance work has been carried out in the past few years. Nevertheless, the majority of the car park is still in use and the possibility of its refurbishment should not be excluded.

After the demolition of the Tricorn Shopping Centre in Portsmouth in March 2004, another Owen Luder building, the council could learn a lesson and treat the car park in a more imaginative way. Parts of the building could no doubt be retained, including the restaurant on top of the building that allows for breathtaking views across the town - it could well be restored and used again.

The car park became famous in 1971 when it featured in the movie ‘Get Carter’ – it has since been part of British cultural memory and is commonly described as the ‘Get Carter Car Park’.

Cordula Zeidler

Current Status
January 2006
The Car Park has had much press recently, including an appearance in Channel 4’s ‘Demolition’ series in December 2005 and in Radio 3’s ‘Between the Ears’ in autumn 2005. The situation remains uncertain as the building is still unlisted, but planning permission for a new building in its stead, granted in 2000, has expired. This could be a spark of hope for the car park.
In April 2005 the Twentieth Century Society ran a workshop at Nottingham Trent University (see www.c20society.org.uk/docs/press/0505_nottingham.html) and asked Design students what they would do with the building in order to save it from dereliction and demolition; much creative thought was produced and we hope that an option for reuse might be realised, now that the building is a well known and much debated Brutalist media star.

Further reading
Interbuild, March 1962, pp 19-21
Buiding Design, no 1452, 2000, Aug 11, p 6

Contacts
Gareth Arnold, Gateshead Council, Civic Centre, Regent Street, Gateshead, NE8 1HH, T 0191 433 3473

Image credits
Photographs Sarah Duncan