Newcastle Gateshead - Revisited - Essay Example

Newcastle Gateshead - Revisited Introduction: Cities never stay still; they are always changing, consciously or unconsciously trying to be something else. Cities are places where people strive to overcome the negative effects of past and current circumstances and struggle to create meaning, joy and hope in the place that history has located them (Lancaster, 1995, p. 7). The concept of 'landscape' alternates between definitions of aesthetic and scientific values within heritage protection, and an understanding that draws intangible associations such as identity, social history and a sense of place, thus providing an important focus for local communities (Stewart, 1996). Landscapes are usually taken for granted and become so much a part of everyday life that they go unnoticed, till something happens to disturb the placidity. A landscape is never static; as cultures evolve, the concept and ideas underlying the definition of landscape also change. Landscapes contain myriad aspects, those of family history, familiar landmarks, historic buildings, art and antiques, plants and animals. Concerns with regard to landscape conservation are so widespread and growing so fast that it becomes extremely difficult to define a landscape. Most interpretations of the landscape reflect personal and collective self interest - things valued as mine or ours. Societies may be modest about what they are but are always proud of what they were. The Environment Act of 1995 places a duty on National Park Authorities aimed at 'conserving and enhancing natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Park' and 'promoting opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of areas by the public'. National policy explicitly defines 'heritage' as ancient archaeological remains, sites and historic structures, and thus largely conceives of landscape in terms of the role it plays as a setting or backdrop for these remains, structures or sites. The time-depth this framing brings with it is clear: 'heritage' is to be defined more closely in line with the impressions it has of the past, as opposed to the impressions it may leave in the present. As such, the idea of heritage, and thus landscapes, as a process in itself is overlooked (Ross, 1995). In recent years, the world's waterfronts have provided a particular focus for culture led regeneration. Marshall (2001, p. 3) describes the waterfront as space "in the city which allows expressions of hope for urban vitality". "These waterfront redevelopment projects speak to our future, and to our past. They speak to a past based in industrial production, to a time of tremendous growth and expansion, to social and economic structures that no longer exist. . . ." (Marshall, 2001, p. 5). In this paper, we revisit the regenerative development work carried out in Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside and the West End to discover whether the stated objectives of the project have actually been achieved and to examine how the new developments have achieved different results in localities adjacent to each other. Landscape and Regeneration The meaning of the English word landscape both encompasses framed views of specific sites and the scenic character of whole regions; it applies equally to graphic and textual images as to physical locations (Daniels and Cosgrove: 1989). Landscape holds a broad intellectual scope as a theoretical concept across the arts humanities, and social sciences. It is easy to theorise and redefine landscape into distinct parcels of 'culture', 'history', 'environment', 'prehistory', 'associations' and 'nature' (Cosgrove, 1998, Olwig, 2002, Corner: 1999, Smith: 2003, Bender: 1993), but what and how does one combine these to define a landscape that takes all these within its ambit. How a person interprets a landscape depends upon the individual's background, knowledge and experience. The opinion of the 'expert' and that of the 'common man' on the street may, and is most likely to, be substantially different as to what represents the landscape of a particular geographical or urban area. As a result, issues relating to restoration become even more difficult to resolve especially when the authentic landscape - against which to measure success and the very legitimacy of the restoration - itself is an unresolved issue. A landscape is like any other form of heritage and brings with it cultural meaning, a sense of belonging and an identity for the resident communities. The term 'landscape', is not limited to the description of a vista or as formally understood in both English national and international policy documents, such as 'historic landscapes', or 'areas of natural beauty' or 'national parks', as such. Rather, the description encompasses a broader meaning in that the term 'heritage' better defines some landscapes that are imbued with associations that take them beyond the formal descriptions. Just as some, but not all, buildings become heritage places that have their own identity and cultural meaning; some landscapes are incomplete unless considered in the backdrop of the culture and historic relevance of the area. Indeed, the role and importance landscapes have for communities is often underplayed by a rather one-sided focus, made up of the sum of bounded spaces defined in archaeological terms (Ross, 1995). Where the ownership of the regeneration project or development is assumed to be vested in the development authority and not with the local community, distrust, dissatisfaction, and a reluctance to participate are bound to result (Waterton, 2005). The de-industrialisation of cities has created a set of circumstances in which policy-makers throughout Europe and beyond have sought to explore the possibilities for a post-industrial future (Miles, 2005). The development of Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside offers an example of a culture-led project that appears to be succeeding. But can investment in such projects deliver what policymakers ask of them More pointedly perhaps, at what level, if at all, do such projects engage with the identity of a city and its people And what went wrong in the West Side development Much of the debate around the significance of iconic projects of this kind are tied up with concerns as to whether or not such investment can effectively ameliorate the consequences of deindustrialisation. In this context, McGuigan (1996) identifies a series of urban regeneration schemes frequently led by flagship cultural projects during the 1980s in cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol and Cardiff (see Cowell and Thomas, 2002; Bassett et al., 2002). The problem with these sorts of developments, according to McGuigan is that they actually articulate the interests and tastes of the post-modern professional and managerial class without solving the problems of a diminishing production base, growing disparities of wealth and opportunity, and the multiple forms of social exclusion (McGuigan, 1996, p. 99). "Architects who think only in terms of the power of scenic space, ignoring the exigencies of community and place, run the risk of producing landscapes of social inequality like those of the great eighteenth-century British estates It is also possible, however, for architects to shape environments that foster the desire to maintain the continuities that maintain a collective sense of commonwealth, rooted in custom but open to change" (Olwig, 2002, 226-7). Olwig (2002) examines the history of the concept of "landscape" in the English language, noting that its usage in English can be traced back to its use in 1605 in "The Masque of Blackness" in the sense of theatre stage design. This, he argues, is of more than antiquarian interest. "The Masque of Blackness" was, in the theatrical staging, a dramatic or aesthetic representation of the land and the "landscape" or setting of the land was designed, utilizing developments in painting and cartography of perspective, to emphasize a representative notion of monarchy. Urban renewal projects must account for the feelings and aspirations of the resident communities if they are to be successful. Most importantly, the culture of a place is an essential ingredient to the success of culture-led regeneration (Jayne, 2004). My own blunt evaluation of regeneration programmes that don't have a culture component is they won't work. Communities have to be energised, they have to be given some hope, they have to have the creative spirit released (Hughes, 1998, p. 2). The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) (2004, p. 22) itself recognises that the initial economic surge produced by a large project "can be difficult to sustain unless it is part of a wider regeneration and unless it is formally rooted in the community". Synthesis must take account of a multiplicity of meanings and uses across a number of social axes, and balance these with loaded questions as to 'who decides'. Conflict, then, must be used to blow apart the subtle politics of heritage and lead us towards a dynamic and integrated system of management entered into via negotiation and debate (Waterton, 2005). The agendas for urban renewal all state the need for 'developing a sense of place' showing the patronising attitude of the developmental authorities who assume that this has not been already established by the resident community. More significantly they overlook the role that the land has played in the lives of the community. Therefore the need to expand the definition of landscape beyond the physical and tangible to include values, meanings and aspirations of the community and the historical (heritage) and cultural significance of the area (Pearson and Sullivan, 1995). The European Landscape Convention (ELC) is the first international treaty specifically on landscape. It became effective from 1 March 2004. It is a Europe-wide agreement that aims to promote the protection, management and planning (including active design and creation) of Europe's landscapes, both rural and urban, and to foster European co-operation on landscape issues (ICOMOS-UK/IUCN UK ELC Workshop). The following is an extract from the leaflet printed for the cited workshop working papers. ELC stresses the following principles, which we have examined Put people - from all cultures and communities - and their surroundings, at the heart of spatial planning and sustainable development Recognise that landscape exists everywhere, not just in special places and, whether beautiful or degraded, is everyone's shared inheritance Increase awareness and understanding of landscape and its value, as a unifying framework for all land-use sectors Promote a more accessible, integrated and forward-looking approach to managing inherited landscapes and shaping new landscape The ELC is relevant to our contemporary view of landscape. It puts emphasis on the whole landscape, not just on the "best" bits; it puts people at the heart of landscape protection, management and planning; it takes a democratic rather than elitist view of landscape. It also adopts a realistic view about the inevitability of change in landscape. Urban Renewal Dissecting landscape's capacity to 'naturalize' social or environmental inequities through an aesthetics of visual harmony, geographers and art historians have long recognized that 'Georgian' landscapes, superficially paradigms of English social and environmental order, were often painstakingly constructed by rapacious landowners in the course of destroying more communal but less profitable fields, farms and dwellings. (Barrell: 1980, Bermingham: 1986, Daniels: 1999) In the creation of landscape, impoverished labourers were removed from the landlord's view and relocated in 'model' villages. Promotion of urban renaissance through the arts and creative industries may be viewed as one of the few remaining strategies for urban revitalisation which can resist (or embrace) the effects of globalisation and capture the twin goals of competitive advantage and quality of life which culture. The current cultural resurgence has also been fed by Porter's 'new economic model' of city competitiveness (1995) and 'lifestyle' indices of diversity, the creative milieu and 'class' (Landry, 2000; Hall, 1998; Florida, 2004), as essential ingredients in city survival and growth. The extent to which cultural facilities and programmes positively contribute to the regeneration of areas and neighbourhoods which have been subject to economic and physical decline, and multiple social problems-unemployment, poverty, crime, poor amenities, education and housing-has become a more central concern of governments and regeneration intermediaries. This is particularly so in view of the duration of this phenomenon, its replication in post-industrial and developing cities world-wide and the growing call for evidence to support the claims which are made by city and cultural organisations in their pursuit of substantial capital funding and leverage. Sharon Zukin (1991), meanwhile, refers to 'quixotic' urban renewal projects that simply remain unproven as far as their economic benefits might be concerned. The development of cities such as Bilbao and Porto represents both a localisation of global and economic social forces and a location in a world capitalist order. As Zukin (1991) points out, the success of such developments is perhaps, dependent upon the degree, to which the reinvention of the urban landscape fits in with, rather than being foisted upon, the identity of the place concerned. An alternative interpretation would indeed be that a lot of culture-led investment inevitably produces placeless forms of cultural representation (Dicks, 2003). From this perspective, culture-led regeneration projects all too often rely on formulaic development plans producing standardised results; what Short (1989) calls the new international blandscape "sterile and lacking in imagination" (Owen, 1993, p. 15). Such cities are only distinguished from each other on artificial grounds-grounds constructed symbolically by the marketer. Dicks (2003, p. 82) points out that the underlying rationale behind flagship redevelopment projects is, in the above context, to generate new consumer demand by attracting new visitors and shoppers to the city and thus "is rarely directed primarily at improving the quality of life of existing residents". Dicks discusses the redevelopment of Cardiff Bay as an example of regeneration that could be accused of distancing the project from its locality and thus from the existing local culture. Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside has in recent years undergone a remarkable transformation. Millions of pounds of public and private investment have revitalised the Quayside both in the eyes of its people and, perhaps even more so, in the eyes of the outside world (Minton, 2003). This revitalisation centres around three iconic pieces of architecture: the BALTIC Contemporary Art Gallery built for 46 million; the SAGE Gateshead Music Centre designed by Foster and Partners at a cost of 70 million and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge built at a cost of 22 million which in combination have served to redefine an area of industrial decline. According to DCMS figures, the total of around 250 million investment by Gateshead Council on the Quayside in order to construct these world-class arts, leisure and residential developments has in turn generated over 1 billion in private-sector funding. The Quayside development is therefore a key ingredient in what Moore and Abbas (2004) describe as the yet unexplored symbiotic relationship between culture and place, but more specifically perhaps, the relationship between cultural history and space. Given the public reception of the Quayside developments, common-sense would suggest that the Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside represents something of a success. In stark contrast is the new regeneration programme a policy initiative targeted at the West End of Newcastle. The Government has committed 73m to the 'Newcastle Gateshead Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder' which is now developing plans to acquire and demolish unwanted houses and support new investment in the newly cleared sites. The West End, currently experiencing low housing demand and substantial housing abandonment, will be a prime focus for intervention and the HMR Pathfinder is likely to undertake a major clearance programme in the area and on a scale not seen since the 1960s (Robinson, 2005). The Pathfinder's draft prospectus states that this is an 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve the permanent renewal of housing markets in deprived areas'. There is emphasis on finding solutions which are sustainable over the long term so that the problems of Scotswood and West Benwell, for example, are 'tackled once and for all' (Newcastle Gateshead HMR Pathfinder, 2003). This latest policy intervention is a response to a major problem, characterised as 'housing market failure' and attempts to grapple with a complex and interrelated set of factors which have resulted in severe local imbalance between housing demand and supply. These initiatives have met with a lot of scepticism and doubt which is evident just beneath the rhetoric (ibid). Despite several attempts in the past to regenerate the West End a solution is yet to be found. The West End essentially consists of Benwell, Elswick, Scotswood and West City wards and has a very complex history. The area was essentially a 'company town' with the local populace finding stable jobs and reasonable wages in the local industry - coal mining and small scale industry on the banks of the Tyne. However, with the deindustrialisation in the 1970s the traditional economic base of the area disappeared. This resulted in high unemployment, deprivation and population decline. The former industrial sites were cleared and redeveloped as business parks which provided employment not to the local residents but to suburban commuters; adding to the problems. This area has been subject to numerous programmes of intervention in the past but all have failed to halt the decline. In the West End, the 'riots' or 'disturbances' of September 1991 were perceived by many as demonstrating the severity of the area's problems, and its detachment and exclusion - and the consequences that can result from a failure to respond. At that time, Government started to change tack and formulated a new policy initiative, City Challenge. This was to involve a 'holistic' approach to the problems of disadvantaged communities and would be delivered by local partnerships which had to include not only all the relevant agencies but also - and really for the first time - local residents. In the West End various attempts had been made by the City Council in the late 1990s to formulate regeneration strategies, notably the West End Regeneration Strategy and the Scotswood Plan, but these really came to nothing. And then the City Council developed a radical new strategy called 'Going for Growth', formulated in 1999. This was an attempt to develop a long-term (twenty year) overarching strategy for the whole city - with profound implications for the future of the West End. At its core was the view that previous attempts to regenerate the poorest areas of Newcastle have failed and that it was time to bite the bullet and change the city - particularly by redevelopment to attract and retain more affluent people. If things had gone 'right' for the West End, the area would have revived, its disadvantage relative to the rest of Newcastle would have reduced and housing demand and supply would have been reasonably balanced. It is realistic to imagine the West End still disadvantaged but not experiencing severe difficulties. A much more optimistic or ambitious scenario would have had the West End experiencing real 'urban renaissance'. That is not too far-fetched. After all, the West End does have the benefit of being close to the city centre and, in a different economic and policy context, it could have been subject to at least some gentrification. So who or what is to be blamed is it the companies that closed down, or is it the politicians; the city council; the housing department; the planners or is it the local society It is important to appreciate that the West End has been continually weakened by emigration, by stigma, by criminal activity and by top-down imposition of 'solutions'. There is a long history of policy-makers doing things to the people of the West End for their own good, because the policy-makers know best. But it says much about the spirit of the place that there are still people prepared to fight for their communities, organising campaigns, going to meetings, joining partnership organisations and supporting community projects. There is no doubt that the West End is still in trouble and that something needs to be done. References: Barrell, J. (1980): The Dark Side of the Landscape. The Rural Poor in English Painting 1730-1840, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Basset, K., Griffiths, R. and Smith, I. (2002): Testing governance: partnerships, planning and conflict in waterfront regeneration, Urban Studies, 39(10), pp. 1757-1775. Bellinger, E. G., Saul A. J. et al. (Eds) Urban Waterside Regeneration: Problems and Prospects, pp. 15-21. London: Ellis Harwood. Bender, B. (1993): Landscape: Politics and Perspectives, London: Berg Bermingham, A. 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