Where there's muck

Council Depot building June 2020. It's demise has been over stated

More on the Culvert beneath the City Stadium a.k.a. my Battlefield the Beautiful. It seems my informant's ideas about the rest of the Council's building in Sandyford coming down is incorrect. Scaffolding against the remanent shed is being used to create a new gable end. Watch this space.

Meanwhile some very friendly locals with an interest in all things Lower Ouseburn put kindly drew may attention to Peter Shearer's facebook group Classic Photographs of Newcastle and of the East End.

A link to the facebook group is here. You would need a facebook account to open this link. It would be worthwhile because Mr Shearer has compiled a great portfolio of photographs from every decade almost to the begins of photography, among them this one of the construction of the Ouseburn culvert from 1906.

Image: North East Heritage Library

The photograph is taken from higher ground possibly somewhere close to modern day Warwick Street. The closest bridge we see is the N.E.R. rail bridge, though whose arches we can see the columns supporting the Byker Road Bridge. Just thinking about the relationship between this image and what's there today is a bit boggling! The immense amount of material dumped to fill in the space above the culvert top snaking towards us!