The ugly gasometer

What would you do with it?

Looking at the agenda for the meeting of South Tyneside Council’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday I see that they are to consider the recommendations of the Resources and Regeneration Scrutiny committee, and somewhere in that report is a reference to the ugly gasometer in Oyston Street, South Shields.

Of course, if you were to build a new town centre from scratch you wouldn’t choose to drop one of these ugly, but necessary, monstrosities into it’s heart would you? However it was put there many years ago when we were more or less in control of our own energy supplies (pre Gazprom days) and perhaps we are kind of stuck with it now. However the scrutiny committee report appears to make no specific recommendation about the old gasometer, so what would you prefer to happen with it?

Personally, I’d like to see some application for a community grant or charitable funding to create South Shields biggest ever community art project. I’d like to see the old brute painted with some pictures illustrating the energy and vitality of our young people in South Tyneside. I can envisage gigantic eggs cracked open on it’s lower half with a variety of happy smiling faces of all colours and creeds rising out of the top half. Something, bright, innovative, and cheerful - just like enterprising Geordie kids!

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

A big spike

First of two observations

At Christmas time the roundabout at the head of Ellison Street in Jarrow (at it’s junction with the A185) was decorated with a very nice looking LED illuminated tree, it blew over in the wind. I understand that South Tyneside Council leased the tree for the duration of the Christmas festivities, now a huge big “spike” has been erected on the roundabout, it is inscribed with what look like hieroglyphics from a distance and appears to have a weather vane on the top.

Does anyone know what it is or what it represents? More to the point what does it cost and who is paying for it?

It looks artistic, but does it have a meaning or purpose?

Have you taken a trip from South Shields to see it yet?

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Banksy CCTV

Image shamelessly lifted from The Daily Mail

I love this, in fact I’ve loved most of the Banksy pieces that I’ve seen, he’s just ever so anarchistic, and slightly libertarian.

This gets an extra gold star for having been enacted under the snooping nose of a CCTV camera!

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

What is multiculturalism?

It’s what we have here in South Shields

We had the first settled muslim community in the country, we had Iraqi bargemen protecting our Roman fort Arbeia (the place of the arab), and we have had Yemenis and other nationals settled and living in South Shields since 1894. As far as we know there have only ever been two racially motivated large scale incidents in South Shields and they were in 1919 and 1930.

Since the arrival of Ali Said who opened the first Arab Seaman’s Boarding House in August 1909 in the Holborn riverside district of South Shields, we have welcomed Chinese, Vietnamese, Bangladeshis, Indians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Moroccans, Albanians and countless others, yet we all seem to get along just fine with many second and third generations talking with our familiar Geordie accent.

So how do we do it?

We are hospitable first, open hearted and generous people, fair, with a sense of what is right and what is wrong, for years our households operated an “open door” policy with our neighbours, we converse easily and profusely, and our community spirit was strong, rich, and welcoming despite never being being amongst the most affluent areas of the UK. We just get along with each other, simple as!

We share the same schools, we share the same foods where we can, we respect each other’s religions and learn to understand differences in cultures without allowing those differences to hinder personal relationships, I guess that makes us more tolerant. We appear to accept and welcome diversity and the richness it brings.

If you are to visit us from other areas of the country between now and the 5th. May, then why not take a little time to drop into the Baltic Centre at Gateshead to see Last of the Dictionary Men . It’s an exhibition by photographer Youssef Nabil and film maker Tina Gharavi, the driving force behind the exhibition. It will feature photographs of the 13 remaining first generation settlers, taken in black and white and then hand-coloured using old-fashioned techniques popular in Nabil’s birthplace, Cairo. The men also talk about their experiences in video portraits.

The exhibition is completed with a film of the visit that Muhammad Ali made to South Shields in 1977 when he had his marriage blessed at the Al Azhar mosque. Here’s a Tyne Tees Television video clip of the event.

British Library still reluctant to lend out Gospels

“Christian hub” plan for priceless Gospels

The Newcastle Journal carries an interesting story this morning about formative plans to build a “sub-section” of the British Library at Palace Green, Durham in order to house the Lindisfarne Gospels as part of a Christian Hub. The plan, supported by the university and by North East MPs, also has the backing of the head of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.

Yet once again an official from the British Library plainly snubs the notions that we can securely and safely look after the ancient manuscript, or that visitors and scholars would be willing to travel to the North East to view it. Sir Colin Lucas, chairman of the British Library Board, said:

“The Lindisfarne Gospels are of fundamental importance to a heritage that reaches far beyond the region in which the manuscript was produced.

“Visitors and scholars come to the British Library to view and study it as one of an unparalleled collection of devotional manuscripts which form the foundation literature both of Christianity and other great religions. The British Library Board would be seriously derelict in its obligation to provide access to these manuscripts for people of all faiths and nationalities, if we allowed this collection to be broken up by removing one of its greatest treasures.”

Does he somehow imagine that Islamic, Sikh, Jewish, or Buddhist (or other) scholars would stay away simply because the Lindisfarne Gospels were displayed in a facility within the Palace Green of a Christian World Heritage Site? The British Library’s arguments against loaning the Lindisfarne Gospels to their natural homeland get more specious every time the subject is broached!

Has anyone considered that people from South Shields or other parts of the North East might not, or cannot, make the journey to London to view our own heritage? 

Lindisfarne Gospels - too remote up North

Pompous arrogance of British library

The latest response from the British Library to requests for the Lindisfarne Gospels to be displayed in the North East display a pompous arrogance beyond belief, with their assertions that they, or we, would be unable to look after the historical manuscripts in such a “remote location”.

British Library secretary Andy Stephens said it would be “seriously derelict” in its duty if it allowed its collection of important religious manuscripts to be broken up by allowing the Gospels to return to their birthplace.

I wonder just how much does Andy Stephens know or understand about the North East, we are only 3 hours away from London by train, 45 minutes flying time from the capital,  five hours driving time, remote? We are hardly trying to display Bede’s illuminated works on the Shetland Islands!

It is this pomposity which makes the British Library seem so remote to us, for heaven’s sake, and if he thinks we are incapable of looking after thje famous manuscript whilst it is displayed closer to it’s home the he must think we are all uneducated, unthinking Philistines. It is not beyond the bounds of capability to ensure that the Lindisfarne Gospels are displayed in this region for North easterners to see and appreciate the importance of our own contribution to the country’s history, art, and culture.

I have in the past supported any moves to display the Gospels at Durham Cathedral, or better still St. Paul’s Jarrow, and I will continue to say that we would use a “can do” attitude that would open the eyes of the likes of Mr. Stephens.

With Jarrow and Monkwearmouth being considered as World Heritage sites it would only be fitting that the Lindisfarne Gospels be loaned to the region for a lengthy period on display.

We are not trying to steal them from the British Library Mr. Stephens!

Related posts 

• Lindisfarne Gospels 
• Cabinet Minister backs book bid
• Heritage site for Jarrow 
• Lindisfarne Gospels - update 
• British Library shuns Gospels appeal 
• Blair to support Gospels appeal for North East 

Another North East success story

Ian Storey sings at La Scala

I used to travel through Chilton some years ago when I worked in Bishop Auckland, picking a workmate up there. A quiet Durham pit village typical of the area, little was I to know that it would spawn an operatic tenor who is now taking the world by storm.

Last night Ian Storey wowed the La Scala in Milan in front of six Prime Ministers and Presidents, Storey, 49, practised for up to 10 hours a day over six months for the role of Tristan in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with the renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim and the revered director Patrice Chéreau.

He was born the son of a coal board clerk and grandson of a miner, so last night’s red carpet splendour was a long way from Storey’s upbringing among the brick terraces of Chilton, Co Durham.

Although his parents were musical, with his mother, Mary, playing the church organ for 44 years and his father, Walter, a good bass baritone, like most Chilton families they earned their money through coal. Storey said:

“All of my ancestors were coal miners. Opera was something that as far as I understood was a rich person’s pastime.”

Since beginning his serious singing career in 1991, he has performed with Opera East, Opera North and Scottish Opera. Now, he says his phone will not stop ringing with offers, including an invitation by Plácido Domingo to play Othello in Los Angeles.

Here is a short audio clip of Ian Storey singing Or son sei mesi from Act II of the Italian opera, La Fanciulla del West by Giacomo Puccini, consider it this weekend’s entertainment.

Not sure whether to listen to some music, or listen to the Chelsea vs Sunderland match as I put the tree up.

Festive Arts and Crafts Market

Marquee for South Shields Market Place

This could be interesting, an arty crafty market next Wednesday. It has reawakened my imagination about how our Market Place might look, if it were under canvass, a la elements of the Royal Quays or Dalton Park.

Worth a thought?

Most market traders are gone by 3.30 p.m. on market days, which doesn’t offer much comfort for someone wishing to do a bit of shopping after work. Do they leave early because they have a long way to travel, or is it because they are fed up with the weather? Would a “dry” market help out?

Tyne makeover

Public art programme for Tyne gateway

I was interested when reading Tony Henderson’s article in yesterday’s Journal about vaguely outlined plans for a public arts programme to promote the Tyne Gateway and wondered what others think of the ideas?

Where exactly is the Ballast Hill in South Shields? Somewhere on the Lawe, Greens Place, River Drive? They are mostly built on former ballast hills, but where exactly would they plan to build a viewing platform? What sort of landscaping ideas do they envisage for the Lawe Top? Why do we need to illuminate the piers and lighthouses? Why do we need a ship spotters guide when we know what boats and ships look like?

I can see some merit in introducing further public art projects which may help promote tourist opportunities but it could be so easy to fritter away £3.25m on small projects which may end up being of little significance. I think we need some clarity on exactly the two councils (North and South Tyneside), the Port of Tyne Authority, One NorthEast, the Arts Council England and other bodies have in mind.

Laser projections from the two lighthouses might be an interesting concept if it could be achieved without compromising the safety of shipping, so might a gigantic glass enclosed eye bridge like the Millennium Bridge at Gateshead (can you imagine, being able to walk along the pier and then to Tynemouth), just me off on my pipe dreams again!

The weekend entertainment

Bob Dylan

I thought I’d share a little of Bob Dylan with you this weekend, to me he is always enigmatic, a bit like like some football players. You never know just which one will turn up to the game, the superstar playmaker who can turn a game in minutes, or a mediocre layabout just there to pick up the wages (a la Frank Lampard). Dylan’s live performances have similarly always suffered from inconsistency. However this is not a live performance, but a great early video, and there’s another thought about Dylan, great songs, often performed better by other artists.

Enjoy Subterranean Homesick Blues.