Cruising Back in Tyne

After the nostalgia of Saturday’s 1940’s event, I was heading back to the present day on Sunday for another day of location shooting – but with a very different subject matter. It all began during the editing of Big River, when I realised that quite a lot of rather nice bits of film were ending up on the cutting room floor, as it were. I toyed with the idea of a follow up to Big River, but I’m aware that sequels usually disappoint as anyone who has seen Rocky XVIII (Why Did I Come Up Into The Ring?) can testify. So, if another film were to be made with the same subject matter, then it would need to be approached in a different style. Then there was the small matter of some suitable music. As is so often the case, the answer came quite by chance when I heard the Alan Price Jarrow Song on the radio. Ah ha, the eureka moment! I got a copy and made a CD, which was then played endlessly in the car while I worked on various story outlines.

With ideas in place, I decided to use previously unused museum footage for historical sections, but shoot entirely new present day scenes, as I needed some particular angles and ideas if my plan was to work. And that was why I left Grantham at 03:30 on Sunday morning, in order to be at The Angel of The North for dawn. Everything went well, and I got a fantastic sunrise on film with a beautiful fiery orange sky. I can’t say that I particularly like the Angel as a piece of art – to my eye it looks more like Biggles’ Sopwith Camel got shot down by an ASBO teenager with an air rifle, and crash landed on Gateshead, nose first. But it’s iconic, and would look great in the scene I had planned. When the film is finished, don’t bother looking for the Angel – ironically enough, the scenes were deleted! I could have had some extra hours in bed, but never mind.


As always, it was a jam-packed day, so with the Angel in the can, (there's a phrase you don't hear every day) I set off for the short trip to Sunderland in order to dump the car at my mother’s house, as I’d be using public transport all day. Tyne & Wear have an excellent transport system that has defied successive Government schemes to destroy it, although they came close with bus deregulation a while ago. I was going towards Newcastle by Metro, but I wanted to film the view from the cab going over the Tyne Bridge. Metros have an interesting design feature; the driver’s cab is only half width, which means that there is a front passenger seat giving great views of the route ahead.

The front seat is occupied as usual on an otherwise empty train.

The downside is that this seat is always the first to be occupied and the last to be relinquished, except on Friday and Saturday nights, when just pouring yourself onto the train is considered progress. The chances of getting the front seat at Sunderland were non-existent, even early doors on a Sunday morning. As this narrative features a lot of location names, this Metro map will help place the places, as it were.

Starting point is Sunderland, bottom right on the green line.

For that reason, I took the Metro going in the other direction to South Hylton, the terminus at the southern end of the line. I nabbed the rear seat, which of course became the front seat when the train started back on the trip to Newcastle. I’m not quite as daft as I look. A little insane, maybe, although I prefer to think of this as dedication. I now had the front seat all the way to Newcastle, where I got my film crossing the Tyne – although it didn’t end up getting used in the film either. Alighting at Monument in the city centre, I filmed the actual Grey’s Monument itself, and yes, I have used the footage in the film!


My next planned move was to go out to Wallsend to film some blocks of high-rise flats (long story) and on the way back, alight at Byker for more flats. I really know how to have fun on a Sunday morning. However, the Metro didn’t arrive, which was unusual, but one did turn up going in the other direction, to St James. This station is only one stop away and the terminus of the line; it serves the football ground of the same name. I’d heard that the Metro Station was done out entirely in black and white stripes, but never seen it for myself. As you can tell, I’m not what you might call fanatical about football. So I jumped on this train and travelled to St James, which really is finished in the Toon Army stripes, as you can now see:



It’s very striking (did you see what I did there - oh, never mind), and at the top of the concourse, there’s even a football pitch! Different. I suppose on match days, they use the opposing teams' supporters heads for the ball, but I’m just guessing. I went walkabout, and figured that while I was after some modern Tyneside icons, I might as well film the football ground itself. Once I started exploring the area, I found a veritable cornucopia of material to use. The new university buildings are surrounded by equally new glass and steel office structures, and a short walk away were some high rise blocks even more impressive than the ones I’d chosen at Wallsend. It got better – right next to the university grounds were large sections of the original city walls; hundreds of years of history separated by less than 100 feet. Amazing – perfect for the past-meets-present shot I was seeking. I spent a couple of hours poking around St James, and naturally, ditched Wallsend and Byker from the itinerary.

I had no idea that the old city walls still existed - what a find.

As time was still ticking, I decided to head towards South Shields, with a stop off at Jarrow. Back at St James, an empty Metro was waiting, which meant I could have the coveted front seat! It would be a crime to occupy this for one stop – and that was underground – so I decided to make the most of this opportunity and ride out to Byker after all, across the impressive viaduct that gives superb panoramic views of the Tyne at this point. Now Byker isn’t, shall we say, the most salubrious part of Newcastle. But rather than put ideas into your head, here is a picture of Byker Metro station – draw your own conclusions.

The word 'No' springs to mind.

One of the reasons I’d planned to visit Byker on this trip was to see some more iconic (but bloody awful) architecture. There is a huge council estate, built in the 1970’s, called simply ‘The Wall (or Byker Wall). It has won many urban housing awards, and officially is described as being recognisably post modern in design and is indicative of post modernism as a reaction against modernism. This is architectural bollocks for bloody great eyesore. It’s what happens when architects who drive Porsches, snort coke and live in Greenwich think would be absolutely spiffing - as long as they don’t have to actually live in them. Chuck in unlimited public finances from bribed Council Officials, and before you know it, Legoland meets Baghdad Prison. Words cannot adequately explain the visual horror that greets you as you emerge from the Metro, so I present this short gallery that speaks for itself:

Escape is impossible!

I gather from light reading that this area is not regarded as the Shangri-la that the designers promised, so I decided not to hang about. I took some photos as well as scenes for the film that, rather inevitably, didn’t make it to the finished product. Again. Although if you look carefully at one point, the triangular block gets into a river shot. Still, at least I’ve been.

Back to the Metro, and return to Monument in order to change trains for the Jarrow service. To my amazement, although quite full, the cherished front seat was empty again! Three times in one day – there’s more likelihood of finding someone in Byker who knows which contraceptives are easy to use. I therefore filmed another crossing of the Tyne (yes, you’ve guessed). Because of my deviation from the schedule, I decided to postpone Jarrow until later in the day, as I had a boat to catch. Staying on the Metro until South Shields, I alighted here and went straight to the most important place of my trip – McDonalds. Coffee, food and toilets - just what I needed. Suitably discharged and refilled, I set off for the 5-minute walk to the boat. Regular ferries take passengers over the river to North Shields, but today was special – one of the boats was doing a Tyne Cruise up to Newcastle, and I was definitely up for that. I wanted to see all the areas that were out of bounds during my Big River walkabout, as well as the opportunity to view the river from a different perspective. The cruises run every so often during the summer, and this would be the last one of the year, as the Tyne gets a bit chilly come Autumn. It can get so cold that some locals might even have to put something on top of a tee-shirt. But not often.

The boat for the trip actually featured in this scene
from Big River, a nice link between the projects.

The cruise was great; although it didn’t half get windy. Still, this sent the less hardy souls scurrying down to the warmth of the saloon, which made photography a lot easier. The boat began by cruising down to Tynemouth and the pier heads, before turning round and taking us up to Newcastle Quays, passing the sites of many famous industrial names, almost all of which have vanished. A great many new modern housing developments have replaced the shipyards, staiths and industrial giants that formerly occupied the riverbanks. I have to say that whilst modern rabbit hutches with rooms the size of your average fridge aren’t to my taste, these developments do look as if they belong, and have been designed to blend in with the location. Mind you, after visiting The Wall, a prefab hut would look attractive.


We sailed past the remnants of the once great Neptune Yard of Swan Hunter (mentioned in Big River) before the highlight of the tour – sailing into the Quays area, as the Millennium Bridge was raised to allow our passage. From my vantage point at the front of the boat, this was an incredible spectacle. The bridge is made up entirely of curves and looks impressive from any angle. This photo explains things more clearly:


I took this from the adjacent Baltic centre at Christmas, and the graceful design is evident. To allow shipping to pass, the tall vertical arch tilts forward, bringing the walkway up to a 90° angle. It made a spectacular piece of film, although sadly it was too long to include in the film itself. I didn’t want to cut it down, as that would spoil the slow and graceful movement, so I’m thinking about doing a straightforward Highlights of The Tyne Cruise film to show it to it’s full advantage. Once through the Millennium Bridge, the boat described a full circle so that everyone had a good chance to see the fabulous views on offer – and yes, that is most assuredly included in the film! Then it was back downstream to South Shields – a most enjoyable and interesting 3 hours. I saw sights that I’ve never seen before – old and new – and with so much construction work going on, the face of the river is still changing dramatically.

One of the last two cranes at Neptune Yard.

Back on dry land, I fortified myself with another McCoffee, before boarding yet another Metro for the short hop to Jarrow. I was heading for Morrisons, of all places. Not because I’d suddenly developed an interest in shopping – no way. My ‘more reasons to visit Morrisons’ was reason 159 – The Jarrow Crusade Sculpture that is right outside the main entrance. This has pros and cons; finding it was dead easy, but filming it in the middle of a retail park and trying to make it look as if it were anywhere but a retail park is problematic. This picture reveals the location:


Apparently, Morrisons paid for the sculpture, so they got first choice as to where to place it. Whilst a supermarket carpark is less than ideal, I suppose I should be grateful they didn’t stick on the deli counter. I shot some film, and you can judge for yourself how successful it is. Fortunately, because it was Sunday and well after 5pm, hardly any people were about, which made life a great deal easier.

Well, it was a wrap as they say – I had everything I needed and was pretty tired. Time to go home – except that there was nobody home as my mother was travelling back from France, and I would pick her and her friends up from the station later on. I was in no rush to return to the house as there was nothing on tele, so decided to stay on the Metro system and go all the way out to Newcastle Airport, simply because I’d never done that before. Did I mention how exciting my life was? Oh yes. I used to travel part of the route back in ’84 when I left school, as my first job was in an office at Regent Centre. The rest of the line to the Airport was virgin territory, so I settled down for the ride.

Well, that was interesting.

I got out at Airport, and realised that the rear of the train consisted of the original Metro prototype cars, which have been restored to the 1976 style Tyne & Wear PTE livery. I took some shots, but the camera couldn’t really cope with the gloom at that point.


Consequently, I nipped across the platform and jumped aboard a southbound Metro – this would take me through Newcastle and then all the way to Sunderland without a need to change, which was nice – and I discovered that for the fourth time in one day, I had the front seat. Whey hey! Also, this particular Metro had seen the washing plant within the last six months, so the window was reasonably clean – another stab at the Tyne Bridge beckoned. I’m pleased to say that not only did I get the desired footage; I even used it! So it must have been divine intervention that sent me to the Airport.

I clocked up some miles by Metro during the day, and all for a £3.90 Daysaver ticket – you can’t argue with that. Later in the evening I had to drive to Newcastle Station to collect the OAP's back from France and the apparent horrors of Eurostar. That drive made me glad that I'd chosen Metro as my preferred transport for the day - but that's another story...

The new film is the final stages of editing as I have a few days off work - watch this space.