Newcastle City Centre east of Northumberland Street is a dump. Not alone, just the easiest one to reach.. This decay of what was once real and genuine replaced by machine age ambition stems from planning group think that was rolled out by just about every city and town council in the land more than half a century ago. A corporate Modernism on the cheap, that everywhere became bleak, desolate and alienating, as it rapidly aged.
The big players are deserting the High Street for cyber space and shopping is being transformed into a increasing ribbon development of fast food and beverage outlets selling froth and starch. The cycle of digging up Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Northumberland Street one after the other, each time subtracting from what point there was to each, less and less a city one wants to to spend time in The only places that have any identity left are the one's left out of the Great Leap Forward of the 60s.
Princess Square makes the point better than words. This is what the Shining Bright Future the planners envisioned looks like when concrete rots in line with blind ambition. Comfortless destitution, no nostalgic grandeur that was never there in the first place to be admired in decay.
