15 plans that nearly came true
FOR the most part we take for granted our day-to-day surroundings.
The streets of our towns and cities may change slowly over years and decades, but we probably don’t pay too much attention.
Behind the scenes, however, teams of town planners, architects, builders and developers are constantly dreaming up ways to improve our urban environment.
Many of the ideas bite the dust, and we should be thankful in some instances.
Imagine, for example, a plan for Newcastle in 1946 which would have seen the city centre we know and love bulldozed then rebuilt to facilitate the rise of the motor car!
With that in mind, how about these 15 plans some admittedly intriguing - for Tyneside which never got off the ground? ■■1. Imagine, in 1965, a redeveloped St James’ Park and a monorail around the city centre, as conceived by ‘Mr Newcastle’ T Dan Smith and the University’s Prof Jack Napper. ■■2. The ‘Tyne Deck’ in 1969: A double-deck motorway and walkway around Newcastle and a concrete platform across the Tyne. ■■3. A Tyne Improvement Commission plan in 1864 considered a Tyne tunnel near where the Swing Bridge sits today. It would have been around 3m in diameter, 174m long, and 12m below the river bed, but never got past the planning stage. ■■4. In 1967, a tunnel below Northumberland Street and a double-deck motorway at Percy Street was considered. ■■5. In the same year, Dennis Clark Slater, architect planner of Cramlington New Town, conceived a 2,000 ft Golden Gate-type bridge that would span the Tyne between the Low Lights in North Shields and Lawe Road in South Shields .
■■6. Little did the public know the Metro very nearly had a train fleet that was to be painted orange. The early designs show the trains with an entirely bright orange livery, before it was decided to go for the iconic yellow and white to match that of the municipal bus network of the 1970s and 80s. ■■7. A bridge between Walker and Bill Quay: As long ago as 1845 when the expansion of the railways was beginning in earnest, there were plans for a ‘Bill Point Bridge’ to accommodate a line running from Berwick to Darlington. The plan was revisited several times until the 1920s. ■■8. In 1925 - at the time the Tyne Bridge would start to take shape upriver - there were plans for a new road bridge between St Anthony’s and Pelaw. Tentative proposals for bridges at this same location were later mooted in 1945 and 1992. ■■9. Back to the Metro: In North Tyneside there was a branch line to Collywell Bay that was completed in 1914 to serve planned housing developments at Brierdene and Seaton Sluice, near St Mary’s Lighthouse. Weeks later World War I broke out – so the trains never ran, the new estates were never built and all the tracks were ripped up, being unused by the 1930s. Had this alignment been retained it would have been a route Metro trains probably would have served. ■■10. In 1990, as crossTyne traffic rocketed, a low-level, single carriageway bridge near Spillers’ Mill on the Quayside was considered, as was a crossing at St Anthony’s, and a second Tyne Tunnel next to the existing one. A new tunnel would be finally opened in 2011, of course. ■■11. And what about Grey Street, Newcastle’s finest thoroughfare? Work on it began in 1835, but an artist’s impression from 1831 envisaged it somewhat differently. ■■12. Moving to football, as St James’ Metro station, a staircase was conceived rising directly inside the football ground, so Newcastle United fans could head straight to the platform from the terraces at the Gallowgate End. ■■13. In 1991, an ambitious plan for a joint Newcastle United-Sunderland FC stadium - St Cuthbert’s Stadium in Gateshead together with a Wembley Way-style grand procession across the High Level Bridge was mooted. Not sure about that one, mind you! ■■14. Then there was the Newcastle United 70,000 super stadium which very nearly happened in 1997 as the club considered moving away from St James’ Park. Several new locations were considered - Little Benton, Newburn Haugh, Walkergate, Woolsington Park, Gosforth Park and Byker - before a San Sirostyle stadium at Castle Leazes on the Town Moor was decided on. The ambitious plan was finally scuppered after protests by environmentalists and local residents. ■■15. And finally, there was the Percy Parr plan for Newcastle’s roads in 1946. To accommodate the growing number of cars, the city as we know it would have been demolished and rebuilt, although in a “Parisiennestyle” reveals Prof MarkTewdwr-Jones of Newcastle University. Thankfully, somewhere sense prevailed!
In 1946, Newcastle city centre would have been demolished and rebuilt to cater for growing number of cars