There always seems to be a corner of this part of the city I don't know or never explored. Sometimes we just don't know what is on our doorstep.
I came across Ballast Hill by accident, looking for a parking spot with a friend. What I saw made me want to return with a camera. Luckily fine days are not infrequent this summer. So I wandered in from Byker Bridge, skipping across when there was lull in the early afternoon traffic.
Somehow everything was a bit unexpected from the beginning ...
Part of an allotment tucked away. This bit of Byker overlooking the Lower Ouseburn was once packed with small and dirty industries, with plenty of byways that didn't suit either motor vehicles or planners. I imagine I was on one such, now a walk way over grown with buddleia and brambles ...
Next surprise. Ponies.
Another reminder of the pre-internal combustion engine era when much was moved by 'horses' and cart.
The way afterwards was familiar. True, but increasingly smarter. It's easy to forget how 'left behind' this part of the inner city was until recently. Lots more apartments and with this, a natural anxiety amongst some that the character of the Lower Ouseburn will be lost.
As I predicted in these pages ages back, the arrival of white Porches tends to spell trouble.
The loss of industry left behind a lot of unwanted property. Some, like the Berger Paintworks, after brief spell as an alternative space, were levelled. The Cluny was saved, by a ad-hoc theatre company known as The Buvver's who went about in wjhat must have beena barely legal van when I first walked down in tot he Lower Ouseburn decades ago.
This effect where by artist's, makers and performers moved into often dingy and dodgy places in the older cities across the world is by now well understood. The newcomer's rarely make bad neighbours; they have learned to work operatively and with imagination make what was grimy seem almost exotic. This happened in the Lower Ouseburn alongside larger enterprises in London and NewYork to mention two other places I saw this happen.
As I predicted in these pages ages back, the arrival of white Porches tends to spell trouble.
The loss of industry left behind a lot of unwanted property. Some, like the Berger Paintworks, after brief spell as an alternative space, were levelled. The Cluny was saved, by a ad-hoc theatre company known as The Buvver's who went about in wjhat must have beena barely legal van when I first walked down in tot he Lower Ouseburn decades ago.
This effect where by artist's, makers and performers moved into often dingy and dodgy places in the older cities across the world is by now well understood. The newcomer's rarely make bad neighbours; they have learned to work operatively and with imagination make what was grimy seem almost exotic. This happened in the Lower Ouseburn alongside larger enterprises in London and NewYork to mention two other places I saw this happen.
Trouble is, having show the way, the artists are usually pushed out by money ...
To be continued
To be continued
