Tip Top

Old Berger Paints factory Portland Road

The great thing abut Nature is that it never goes away. Roman cities or abandoned coke works are all the same, a problem to overcome. In time Nature does not succeed merely. It is.

Last century I read a book by the then new kid on the block Richard Mabey. It was a Book Club Associates publication entitled The Unofficial Countryside. Mabey went on to much fame and admiration, but for me, this little book is one of the best he ever wrote that I have read.

The idea behind The Unofficial Countryside was simple. It was about the 'countryside' we carry about with us in our everyday lives, the one we meet on our errand and window gazing, on public transport or walking down a street. That nature which we have shuffled off into a sub category. Mabey brought this into focus and showed how it is the living part of something that fuels our imaginations and is root and branch to that other Nature most of us watch on television or the internet.

The Guardian gives an artful plug to a newer addition to the literature of the unregarded by long time friend of the paper, Stephen Moss here.

Some juicy quotes:

"[Moss] quotes the environmentalist Chris Baines who said that one way to improve the biodiversity of an arable field is to build a housing estate on it. “This may sound glib, but he was being entirely serious,” writes Moss in his new book, The Accidental Countryside. “Most arable fields are monocultural deserts, with virtually no wildlife, whereas Britain’s gardens are often home to a suite of former woodland birds and other wild creatures.”

Suburbia, liberally festooned with bird feeders, paid up ecologically responsible gardeners (or fewer irresponsible ones) is home to a diversity of invertebrates and small or not so small birds that makes the Green Belt seem like a particularly blighted slice of emetic emerald desert.

"Moss argues that in terms of boosting biodiversity, it could be better to build on fields than rewilded brownfield sites.

“This is quite controversial,” he concedes. “Not everyone will agree with me. But fundamentally what I’m saying is, if your brownfield site is in the middle of Finsbury Park [in London] and it’s an old garage that’s not needed any more, of course you should build housing on it. The problem is, the word brownfield is used for anything where there has been some kind of industrial build.”

He might easily be talking about Battlefield the Beautiful or a dozen other such similar places within a few miles of it.

High Hopes

The stump

Towers are back in mode. For a short while the realities of putting families – almost anyone apart from Howard Hughes types – hundreds of feet up, fell out, so to speak, of favour. Huge social problems and prodigious amounts of tranquillisers* called for a re-think. Now land prices have shot up as quickly as the new 'apartment blocks' that are placed on tiny sites.

The image above is of a monumental scheme in London, aimed at investors no doubt. Note the utter cynicism of placing a quintessential English summer scene – a village cricket match! – in such a Bladerunner setting. Are there any people working in Public Relations who have a soul to lose?

A link here to an excellent overview of the current situation across the country.

Newcastle has mostly escaped the effects of bleak high rise; few really big schemes and one of the biggest, Cruddas Park, hideous as it was in so many ways, has been successfully re-generated with demolition and a full face lift. Judging by the placid aspect of the area today, I must assume the cladding is fully safe.

Au Revoir T. Dan Smith. Cruddas demolition in progress

More on this subject soon.

* 'Valium Towers' became a nick name for one scheme I was shown in Scotland last century.

Raison d'être

Ouseburn: Into the culvert ©2020

A walk on a grey day to search for the first signs of spring. As I walked I mused on the origins of my Battlefield, a.k.a. the City Stadium and the infilling of what must have been a grubby gorge running down to the Tyne; if only they had waited until the Industrial Revolution Mk. I had run its own course! What a fine little dene we would have had!

Recent heavy rain had swollen the Ouseburn and gushed over the weir into the dark culvert to carry its brown waters towards the Tyne and the sea.

The Council had also been busy tiding up. Almost a first. It won't last. Nature has a way of fighting back.

Photographic record of the walk – including a peek at some very discrete allotments – here (off site link)

Going Up

Newcastle on New Year's Day 2020. Image © Anton Deque 2020

The Guardian feels Newcastle is going up – link to full article here.

"Newcastle Creative and unpretentious, the city has a vibrant food, drink and arts scene. Boasting a completely regenerated shopping centre in Eldon Square and with loads of trendy craft ale spots, mini golf courses and axe-throwing bars springing up, Newcastle’s bustling city centre has become increasingly upmarket. The historic Bigg Market area, once known for disorderly behaviour, has had a multimillion pound makeover and now has modish bars, businesses and restaurants among the old heritage buildings."

Writer Lucy Campbell might actually have visited the city. Perhaps. I hope so. But this description of what this city has to offer is less than you might read on a plug to join one of our three 'uni's'. I have no idea what 'axe throwing' is. Surely not, er, axe throwing? Newcastle's favourite past time speciality from the 9th century makes a come back?

"Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne are experiencing the fastest rises among northern cities in the number of escapees arriving from the capital, according to separate data from the Office for National Statistics, which indicates a possible shift east of the London escape route from the well-worn path to Manchester, Sheffield had a 12% rise in Londoners moving to buy or rent in 2018, followed by Newcastle and Leeds, which both recorded 5% increases."

Your humble correspondent noticed a greater diversity of faces at events – or just more faces – seemed to suggest this trend; more ex-students staying in the city? That and visits down to London. Crazy life style and packed commutes, manageable for a day or two. An article carried in the same newspaper about eighteen months ago related how even well paid by my lowly standards people found that, after expenses, they had no cash left to enjoy the many cultural opportunities presented by London! One interviewee told her own story of getting out of this bind, earning decent money but living in one small room to do so. A conversation with an understanding boss, going part-time plus the occasional 90 minute commute, meant a re-location to the rapidly fashionable Margate a few years back resulted in both a flat and spare cash.

Ms Campbell was pushed for space or I am sure she would have made the point that the north east already has its own HS2 to London; new trains speed to King's Cross (imaginatively, brilliantly regenerated) in around three hours. In the 70s that journey took me over five.

Yes, Newcastle in on the up line alright.

Rays of Hope

A brisk walk on a cold and sunny day around the open space of Battlefield a.k.a. City Stadium, almost certainly for the last time this year amid feelings of relief that many possibly bad outcomes for this patch of urban green space have been held at bay (for now ...) and my own disbelief at the transformation of a shabby and perhaps doomed to be short lived greening initiative last century has produced this increasingly mature habitat! I turn in from the busy streets of speeding traffic and here all around me is a woodland! The spans of a great piece of 19th century engineering, beautifully crafted are framed by soaring trees against the sweep of a winter sky. Birds flit between the branches and the track is strewn with fallen leaves and berries, braced for winter and waiting for spring.

As 'they' say, the best things in life are free.

Photographic slideshow here (off site link)

All good wishes and a happy New Year