Like most other children, Saturdays were always the highlight of my week. Each morning, following an hour rejoicing the end of school with Gordon the Gofa, I’d skip along to Denton's Café in Gateshead for a sausage sandwich; my impish giddiness tempered skilfully by my patient parents. Then, whilst they saw to the weekly shop at Tesco I'd be given free reign to explore Trinity Square in full: the Indoor Market with its tropical-fish-filled pet store and the Mecca that was The Sega Store where I salivated over The Sega Menacer Gun; dreaming of the day I might have enough shrapnel saved to afford it. This no doubt sounds a bit naff, but the sentimentality that these recollections afford me is something I know I will keep on standby for the remainder of my life; to be indulged like childhood fantasies of unattainable toys, when what you've got in the present doesn't inspire enough joy.
Trinity Square was of course enveloped by the dim, gray overcast of Owen Luder's Brutalist Car Park. I spent pre-adolescence within the murk of this severe concrete and so came to associate my childhood with its grimace. Not only that, but growing up I've come to appreciate what it stood for; post-war Britain's reaction to the devastation it suffered from 1939 - 1945. It was symbolic of resilience and austerity; a sneering presence which somehow called to my mind Ballard with its ominous banks of cold stone. Of course, the Car Park was ugly enough to invite almost unanimous derision. Finally, in 2010, viewed by many as an atrophy to the progression of the heavily-developed region, the scar in the skyline was removed.
Somebody else saw beauty and appeal in Luder's foreboding creation though and this was Mike Hodges, who in 1971 had a film to make. . The Trinity Square Car Park was a totem to an architectural movement which was very much of its time and with time, has become synonymous with the film Hodges was to make. Indeed, the car park even took on the Moniker ‘Get Carter’ and Gateshead became part of the industrial, gritty backdrop that Hodges found ideal for Jack Carter’s revenge. Now heralded as the greatest British film of all time (Total Film), Get Carter not only impacted upon its own industry, influencing countless other films within its genre, but it had a huge cultural impact on the North East as well. Locations where keys scenes were filmed have taken on iconic status as monuments to a moment in time prior to regeneration.
Mike Hodges explains his choice of location:
‘It was important that Jack Carter came from a hard, deprived background, a place he never wanted to go back to. The only place that had survived the developers was Newcastle. The visual drama (of Newcastle) took my breath away. Seeing the great bridges crossing The Tyne, the waterfront, the terraced houses stepped up each side of the deep valley. We’d got there in time. But only just.’
This year Get Carter is 40 and just like Michael Caine’s titular character, Mike Hodges now returns to Newcastle on 11th March. Tyneside Cinema is marking the anniversary with a season of celebratory events supported by Northern Film and Media and sponsored by East Coast Trains. A retrospective programme of Hodge’s major film and TV work is planned throughout March, with a special Get Carter screening and Q&A session with its director occurring amid the festivities. There will also be an exhibition entitled ‘The Art of Get Carter’ at the cinema and Gateshead based architectural photographer Sally Ann Norman will be presenting footage of The Trinity Square Car Park I so adore at the Tyneside Bar Tuesday 1 – Friday 25 March.
Tyne Idols Tours have put together a two hour tailor made Get Carter location tour on Sunday 13 March, offering ticketholders the chance to follow Jack Carter’s footsteps. Chris Phipps, media historian notable for co-producing The Tube, is one of the brains behind Tyne Idols:
‘The cityscape of Newcastle and Gateshead has changed drastically in the 40 years since the release of Get Carter…we aim to show the “essence” of Get Carter, to give a taste of how Tyneside was in 1971 before decades of redevelopment.’
Thankfully, our heritage was committed to film before it was torn down by its new custodians; development subsidiaries of Tesco. City homogenisation deemed The ‘Get Carter’ Car Park too ugly and not in keeping with the current aesthetic. When we start ignoring history and we start to bypass character in favour of acceptable beauty we start to lose something of our cultural identity; something the Trinity Square site and Get Carter had a huge effect upon.
As Owen Luder said, ‘Gateshead has lost its two front teeth.
Trinity Square was of course enveloped by the dim, gray overcast of Owen Luder's Brutalist Car Park. I spent pre-adolescence within the murk of this severe concrete and so came to associate my childhood with its grimace. Not only that, but growing up I've come to appreciate what it stood for; post-war Britain's reaction to the devastation it suffered from 1939 - 1945. It was symbolic of resilience and austerity; a sneering presence which somehow called to my mind Ballard with its ominous banks of cold stone. Of course, the Car Park was ugly enough to invite almost unanimous derision. Finally, in 2010, viewed by many as an atrophy to the progression of the heavily-developed region, the scar in the skyline was removed.
Somebody else saw beauty and appeal in Luder's foreboding creation though and this was Mike Hodges, who in 1971 had a film to make. . The Trinity Square Car Park was a totem to an architectural movement which was very much of its time and with time, has become synonymous with the film Hodges was to make. Indeed, the car park even took on the Moniker ‘Get Carter’ and Gateshead became part of the industrial, gritty backdrop that Hodges found ideal for Jack Carter’s revenge. Now heralded as the greatest British film of all time (Total Film), Get Carter not only impacted upon its own industry, influencing countless other films within its genre, but it had a huge cultural impact on the North East as well. Locations where keys scenes were filmed have taken on iconic status as monuments to a moment in time prior to regeneration.
Mike Hodges explains his choice of location:
‘It was important that Jack Carter came from a hard, deprived background, a place he never wanted to go back to. The only place that had survived the developers was Newcastle. The visual drama (of Newcastle) took my breath away. Seeing the great bridges crossing The Tyne, the waterfront, the terraced houses stepped up each side of the deep valley. We’d got there in time. But only just.’
This year Get Carter is 40 and just like Michael Caine’s titular character, Mike Hodges now returns to Newcastle on 11th March. Tyneside Cinema is marking the anniversary with a season of celebratory events supported by Northern Film and Media and sponsored by East Coast Trains. A retrospective programme of Hodge’s major film and TV work is planned throughout March, with a special Get Carter screening and Q&A session with its director occurring amid the festivities. There will also be an exhibition entitled ‘The Art of Get Carter’ at the cinema and Gateshead based architectural photographer Sally Ann Norman will be presenting footage of The Trinity Square Car Park I so adore at the Tyneside Bar Tuesday 1 – Friday 25 March.
Tyne Idols Tours have put together a two hour tailor made Get Carter location tour on Sunday 13 March, offering ticketholders the chance to follow Jack Carter’s footsteps. Chris Phipps, media historian notable for co-producing The Tube, is one of the brains behind Tyne Idols:
‘The cityscape of Newcastle and Gateshead has changed drastically in the 40 years since the release of Get Carter…we aim to show the “essence” of Get Carter, to give a taste of how Tyneside was in 1971 before decades of redevelopment.’
Thankfully, our heritage was committed to film before it was torn down by its new custodians; development subsidiaries of Tesco. City homogenisation deemed The ‘Get Carter’ Car Park too ugly and not in keeping with the current aesthetic. When we start ignoring history and we start to bypass character in favour of acceptable beauty we start to lose something of our cultural identity; something the Trinity Square site and Get Carter had a huge effect upon.
As Owen Luder said, ‘Gateshead has lost its two front teeth.