Monument to a North East great, which has a vital role
HANDS up if you’ve heard of Parsons’ Polygon...
It might sound like some complicated schooldays maths or physics concept – but it isn’t.
It’s something much closer to home and, if you’re regular visitor to Newcastle city centre, you might have walked past it umpteen times. It also serves a surprising, hidden purpose.
We return for another instalment of Tyneside Revealed, where we uncover some of the historical curiosities that often go unnoticed in our region.
Parsons’ Polygon is a unique terracotta obelisk, designed by artist David Hamilton, standing in one of Newcastle city centre’s busiest thoroughfares, Blackett Street.
Every day, nearby old Eldon Square attracts office workers and shoppers who relax in the pleasant green area that surrounds the 1923 World War One memorial. Most are probably oblivious to Parson’s Polygon.
The artist used the commission as an opportunity to provide a monument to the great North East engineer Charles Parsons (1854–1931), the creator of the famous Turbinia, the steampowered vessel which achieved 35 knots.
The designs pressed into the clay are abstracted from Parsons’ engineering drawings, creating a work which David Hamilton saw “not as a statue of the man, but a symbol of his stature among engineers around the world”.
The funky 3.5 metre artwork – the faces of which are decorated in tribute to Parsons – also conceals an interesting secret.
It doubles as an air shaft to Monument Metro station below, and replaced a utilitarian metal box when it was installed in 1985.
In September 2016, Parsons’ Polygon was Listed by Historic England.
A Nexus spokesman said: “Thousands of people pass by Parsons’ Polygon each and every day and they probably don’t realise that it’s an air vent for the Metro station beneath Grey’s Monument.
“The installation was a creative means of hiding a vital piece of infrastructure that serves one of the busiest railway stations in northern England.”
It joined works by iconic artists such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth on Historic England’s list of important postwar public art.
It was the first time one of Metro’s many artworks had been listed, and also the first time any structure built for the Metro system, opened in 1980, was recognised in this way.
Nexus, formerly the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, has commissioned more than 40 major pieces of public art since construction began on Metro, most of which can still be seen today at stations.
They include the 100-metre light wall Platform 5 (2009) by Jason Bruges Studio at Sunderland station; the giant sculpture Opening Line (2004) by Danny Lane at Gateshead; Bob Olley’s popular Famous Faces (1996), also at Monument; and Basil Beattie’s imposing mural Magic City (1987) at Manors.
The Nexus spokesman continued: “We continue to seek opportunities and external funding for new commissions through the Art on Transport programme, most recently displaying a temporary work Home by Alex Godwin at Byker this spring, thanks to grant support from Arts Council England.”
As for Blackett Street, it was named after a distinguished Novocastrian called John Erasmus Blackett who was lord mayor of Newcastle four times, in 1765, 1772, 1780 and 1790.
It was built between 1824 and 1826 by the man who masterminded the layout of modern Newcastle, Richard Grainger, and followed the line of the Northern section of the old Town Wall.
In the early 1970s many of the buildings on the western section of Blackett Street were demolished to make way for the new Eldon Square shopping complex.