St Cuthberts Village- Tyneside Brutalism
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- This video covers the history of windmill hills and st cuthberts village. This was a modernist housing scheme which replaced victorian terrace housing. Before later being demolished following the deterioration of the flats. This video looks at the permission homes replacement as well.
/ jordanconnorreeve
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Late 70s early 80s.i worked as a removal man. I remember Women crying with Joy when we were moving them out of St Cuthberts Village. Just another monstrosity inflicted on Gateshead folk in the late 1960s, like the Flyover and Multi story car park.
The research and presentation of these videos is just brilliant.
Thanks Martin!
For a short while I taught at St Marys School the children coming from St Cuthbert's village, the kids were lovely and there was a strong community spirit. The council homed some Vietnamese Boat people there and the locals collected furniture etc for them. One old lady was in the tower block and she would not leave the flat being so happy she had found a peaceful place to live away from war.
You may have been a teacher of mine, I was born 1970 and moved into Bulmer Walk when i was 2yr old till i was 14yr old. The dental hospital next door i also attended for check ups.
I went to St. Mary’s near that time. I befriended one of the Vietnamese kids and used to go to their flat for dinner. The food was incredible.
@@BernadetteMcNally-ok8pz I remember them moving in the end of Bamburgh Walk towards windmill hills end, i used to play in the passage with my cars with one of the children back then.
Yes - that’s where I went for dinner. My family were agog when I told them what we ate. There was also at least one Pakistani family - my sister was friends with the daughter.
I never lived in the village, but very close to it. After decades away from Gateshead and at the age of 57 it still makes an occasional appearance in dreams, especially variations on the open middle part, but with a much steeper vertiginous slope to the ground and more elaborate and bizarre walkways.
I did have schoolfriends who's parents had flats there, and my memory is off an unusual determinedly modern layout, but warm and welcoming once you were in. It was just running the gauntlet getting there...
There may have been a boiler explosion or two but Manny (the guy you reported problems too) was sitting in my mothers kitchen when a large explosion sent fireballs out the windows at the end of Bellshill Walk where a woman turned on her gas from a calor gas heater then sat on her stairs towards her front door and lit up a cigarette, nearly 55yr old now and will never forget that moment.
Great video. I live on the site now at the highest point and yes it's a fantastic view.
I love that Sunbeam.
My aunties were moved from lower Cuthbert Street to the tower blocks at Beacon Lough. The flats were horrible to live in and suffered from terrible mould damp and condensation as did the low rise housing. It was a lonely desolate place. The planners destroyed their lives.
Great video, I lived just off Coatsworth Rd right next to St. Cuthberts Village when I was a kid back in the late 80’s early 90’s. I remember it being a right dump and wouldn’t go anywhere near the place, seemed quite dangerous too.
I lived on Rectory Rd and wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the place. What a dump
Just a couple of pronunciations off - the u in Cuthbert is like the u in custard, rather than an oo sound. 'Lough' as in Beacon Lough is pronounced 'loff'. It's a characteristic of Geordie English to pronounce gh in proper nouns as an 'f' sound. Just like the gh in Redheugh is pronounced like an f.
I liked how he said it. Cuthbert's links to Newcastle are tenuous. Why would a Geordie pronunciation come into it
its also a characteristic of geordie to say shut the fuck up you muppet
The gh in words like lough is nothing to do with Geordie English. The word lough is pronounced like cough.
Loving your content Jordan! You should cover some history on Low Fell; a lot of history around there.
Thanks Jack, I will have to look into some history there
Yeah the Facebook page is great, there is actually two of them,, there was a reunion about 15 years ago in the crown pub,, it was a great night,, I’d love another one,, funnily enough my Mam was a “dinner nanny” too at St Mary’s when I went there!! I seem to remember we were of similar age, my birthday is Christmas Eve 73 xx
Yes - I’m autumn ‘73. Maybe if there’s another reunion they could post on here. I have so many lovely memories of it all. The gorse at the bottom of Windmill Hills, being milk monitor, pretending to be evacuees, making dream catchers, Christngle …. We didn’t have much but we had a lot of fun.
@ I’ll definitely let you know, Halcyon days indeed,, I remember I actually got run over whilst I was a pupil at St Mary’s and spent three weeks in hospital on my return to school I was paraded in front of the whole assembly to welcome me back and to show what can happen if you don’t adhere to the green cross code 🤣🤣. I remember Christingles too, I actually looked them up lately because nobody knew about them,, I remember the influx of the Vietnamese boat people and I’m actually still friends with two of them to this day, I remember the demolition of Mulgrave baths opposite the school,, happy times x
I don’t remember you being paraded! Also don’t remember the baths. Amazing you still have kept connections. We moved up to Wrekenton so lost the thread.
There is a nuclear bunker under St Cuthberts Court, used to be an air raid siren on the top. Never suffered power cuts during the 70s, had its own protected power source. I suspect this is why the tower block remains
The Askew arms and the shops on the south side of Askew road were still there in the early days on the top of the village they would have went along coatsworth road , the arrival of vivo spar and laws pretty much finished the small shop
Dougie's shop was always full of us spending our pocket money and the chippy was a once a fortnight treat (or like me 1 free bag monthly after collecting family and friends old newspapers and handing them in)
Lived in beadnell and bellshill walk as a child, was there when they knocked it down, used to love the place. Good to see it again really, I miss the places in a way.
I lived here from 73 to 91. My whole childhood, and a very happy childhood it was, yes we had nowt but we had a community money couldn’t buy, us kids didn’t see the damp or the mould or the heating problems,,, everywhere was our play ground, there was a supermarket a paper shop/ sweet shop/ post office, there was a fish and chip shop and a family friendly pub,, there was youth clubs play schemes boxing clubs and a launderette.. we had a perfect childhood,, they were the best times ever,, everyone I know would happily move back to what was.. it was the bees knees,, we are all still friends to this day,, it’s really ironic that the people who slate the place never lived there,,
Another great video with a fascinating insight to this particular area of Gateshead. As you rightly point out the views are superb......IF the land is developed properly it could arguably become a desirable place to live and work? Fingers crossed then for the council to do the right thing 🤞
Horrendously cold in winter months, I used to babysit on Cestria Walk 🥶
Absolutely fascinating Jordan, I love your videos, the content, the background music, the pacing of them. I like how it keeps cutting like your chopping them, it just seems to work. I only know about this village because of Get Carter. I went looking for all the locations from the film in 2001 and used the remaining St Cuthbert village high rise as a reference. The actual filming of the inside scenes were shot on location too I believe. Caine blew his stack because the camera man messed up in the scene.............anyway I digress, cracking video Jordan 👍
Thanks Michael! Visiting all the get Carter locations sounds super interesting, seen a good website online that shows where they all are. So I’m going to have to try it myself at some point!
@@JordanReeve It’s a shame for you that the car park’s gone, there’s a butcher’s called Get Carter’s on West Street, it’s pretty much right opposite where the entrance ramp was to the the famous car park.
@@JordanReeve Owen Luder has been back up many times to the area celebrating his brutalists buildings. Get Carter car park and the Dunston rocket for example. I met him in 2010 just before they pulled the car park down. What a lovely man, with his big dicky bow tie, what a character :) I think he's still alive, he'll be 93...get yourself an interview with him Jordan, I'm sure he'd be up for it 👍
@@BABYCHAOS26 its nowhere near the entrance ramp its oppossite the entrance to the old market the new tesco car entrance is closer to the car park entrance
Ivy Hodge's exploding gas cooker back in 1968 certainly changed public opinion on high-rise living; sadly before some estates were even completed they were unpopular. I know some blocks in Newcastle were converted to all-electric, and I remember seeing previously fitted blast angles installed in some tower blocks in Sunderland during a recent refurbishment, designed to hold everything together if an explosion were to happen.
All electric definitely was the way to go, but I remember hearing about the fitted blast angles. However they did little to change public perception I believe
I lived in one of the main tower blocks above The Bridges in Sunderland for 15 years.
Instant slum from the day the first brick was laid
Gateshead today looks like a war zone, the luftwaffe did less damage to Gateshead than the Liebour run council has done
The council has no shame or vision for the town
It was concrete as far as i remember as a child
I lived in one of the walks off the walkway at the bottom of the Village - as we called it - 1978 to 1982. Lowick. Like anything, there were good and bad points. I still dream about the walkway. As a 5 year old child, it was sort of space age. The good: the stucco rooftops which had no divisions were lovely and bright in summer. Full of plants and pets (ferrets!) - like a discovery park. The community centre discos and activities were great and The Mitre pub (get it: St Cuthbert’s 😉) was very community minded. There was a Spar and a laundrette(?) Also, there were small holed cubby dens underneath the ground walkways and a great park and not far to the Library, school or the Tyne of the brambles on the rail yard. To us, it was all adventure. The split level was quite groovy.
On the negative side: the rubbish chutes were not a good idea (the smell of rotten split open waste in sumner was disgusting), the inner build quality was poor and, as commented, the council did not maintain the halls or the buildings well enough. And as residents and families moved out, it was filled with some less socially minded people.
My overall memory is off feeling on the edge of a world, like a limbo - between the town and the river.
It was also never Coothberts: it’s pronounced as it is normally - Cuthbert’s.
And thanks for this video, Jordan - it’s a different perspective when you’ve lived in a place. I live on the North Downs in West Berkshire now in another close community - village with a small v - but I think there is much less social cohesion and community spirit than there was in the Village.
I remember you Bernadette, Wow we were little kids, I think
You lived in Hexham walk, same as us, number four we lived… we then moved into Lowick walk, My name is Richard Curry I have a twin brother Craig and two older sisters Deborah and Denise.. I remember you having curly hair I think..it’s great to read your memories,, take care,, x
@@richardcurry827 Think i went to the same school as Denise, Chester Place then Hillhead.
@@Wayne70 yeah she definitely went there,, she was born aug 70, did you live in the village ??, I
Recognise your name..
I did have curly hair - they used to call me Shirley Temple. Very droll!
That tower block still standing, I lived at no4.
This place reminds me of a similar estate I lived in in Hulme, Manchester. Similarly only lasted 25 years and had to be demolished. Apparently the builders neglected to set the concrete properly so it literally crumbled away. Im sure there were lots of these cheapo system built nightmares across the UK .
My father was the architect who designed Saint Cuthbert's Village. I disagree that this was brutalist architecture. As a resident has pointed out, the design might seem dated by today's standards, but at the time it was developed with modernisation and a better standard of living in mind. My father developed split-level apartments, the first of their kind back then, and was considered so innovative that it was officially opened by then PM, Harold Wilson.
See my reply. There were good points. I did live there once.
Hello, I don't suppose he still has any technical drawings or photos or something like that which you could share with me and fellow residents? I lived there and love collecting what images I can about the place.
Oh, and if you could, could you ask him if this design of block was ever copied anywhere? From time to time people had told me there were copies of this in Eastern Europe but no one could say specifically where.. I didn't have any faith in that, though. I think they just knew something similar.
I loved the split level apartments as a visitor. I also don't have particularly negative feelings about concrete especially interspersed with greenery. Still gives me a warm feeling when see renderings of this sort of thing.
Every neighborhood is eventually at the mercy of it's residents and getting that mix right seems like pure alchemy.
My brother was (is) an electrician for Gateshead council; when vandals smashed the lights in the covered walkways, they replaced the original fittings with unbreakable flush fittings. When the did that, vandals started spraying black paint over the lights rendering then useless. Not sure you can design that kind of behaviour out of a place.
May have been considered innovative for its time but I bet your father wouldn’t have allowed his family to live there. Hideous.
Hi Jordan - I never thought I would be interested in Urban Planning - but I do find your videos interesting for the "back stories". As an urban planner of the future, I am interested in your views around cities going forward. I live in Australia (ex Newcastle)- A lot of my colleagues now work remotely from home (various cities) - visits to the City office are not required so much - obviously there is a lot of office space available these days.
Do you think the nature of cities have now fundamentally changed due to the effects of Covid - or will things revert back to pre-covid.
As a planner you obviously have to take the long term view - I am interested what you think as that future Urban planner.
Keep up the good work :)
Hi Simon, I think the concept of urban planning can stray into lots of different things, but my favourite is the history of towns and places and how that should shape their development. Im glad you like the channel!
I think there will be a shift into more hybrid working in the future, with more collaborative spaces in current office blocks. However as someone starting out in their career, going into the office is invaluable for someone like me to learn from their colleagues. This is not as easily done online and I think coming together as a team is always benefical to new starters.
My wife lived there in the 70's and 80s and I married her in the 90's and we're still going strong 🙂
Yes, I'm years late with this video, but here are some thoughts. You showed the flats by the flyover in he middle of Gateshead, where my brother in law grew up. And you also showed Harlow Green - I grew up next to those flats. There's a huge difference between the two. The former were basically stranded in a labyrinth of concrete walkways and underpasses, dominated by traffic. As a result, and also because of proximity to a (if not thriving at least busy and shop and then pub filled) town centre antisocial behaviour was always a prpoblem. Whereas the three blocks of flats in Harlow Green and Allerdene are surrounded by green spaces, largely because of the long history of coal mining in the area. The flats highest up the hill are literally right next to old coal shafts (the scrubby patch of woods just to the North of them), with several others dotted around the estate. This means that in places the housing suffers, with springs having popped up in different places leading to persistent dampness in some homes, but it also means that there are plenty of open, green spaces and a fairly airy and open skied feel to the whole space. It also helps that this is all on a steep hill, commanding quite amazing views over the Team Valley to the other side (and on a clear day more hills beyond - Pontop Pike and Consett being prominent). Add to that the flats were upgraded in the 80's changing their darker grey colour scheme to the more modern, brighter cladding and they became much warmer, dealing also with any condensation problems. So these flats rarely really suffered from the out of the way places, dark walkways and antisocial behaviour that people tend to associated with them.
One other thing to note specifically about St. Cuthberts was that it both got a great deal of public sympathy and input of resource when there were waves of Vietnamese refugees, but that didn't convert into longer lasting support from the community or councillors. I remember listening to a discussion about this way back when I was a child, and a councillor was most scathing of the idea of helping that community out. This is going back to an openly, overtly racist era. For all the obvious faults of St. Cuthberts Village, you can't ignore just how badly it was treated because of who was there too.
Its was St Cuthbert's Village as in St Cuthbert of Lindesfarne, not Coothberts.
My brother lived there it was a hell hole his front door had metal plate over it
Nearby was Clasper village and that last not much longer than St Cuthberts. Not a great place to live.
No one consulted ordinary working people about the type of accommodation they wanted to live in back in those days and brutalist architecture was just a way of reducing unit costs and building times.
Building control and planning in those days neither rigorous or devoid of corruption and many blocks suffered from dampness, water ingress, cold bridging, poor heating and poor ventilation from the outset.
To compare Shieldfield/Jesmond with St Cuthbert’s ignores both the radically different geography and demographic. A fairer comparison might be with Cruddas Park.
It is also important to remember that the council in those days played a gate keeper role and ensured that people ended up in particular developments or districts using criteria which are quite abhorrent in this day and age.
The failure of certain brutalist/modernist housing developments was as much due to these policies and the abject failure to canvas the opinion of prospective tenants, as the poor real world execution of the schemes.
Thanks for the very detailed breakdown mate, I realise my comparisons were based more of construction projects from a similar period rather than wider criteria.
Can you say what criteria they used?
What job do you do? Seems to me like you do something to do with planning or architecture.
I work as a planning consultant
Fella.
If you got rid of the music in the background of this video that's very distracting and off-putting. You will have a great video here. Please re upload this video but without the music. It totally overpowers your voice. However a very well researched video.
Thank you for uploading it.
Pure.
Thanks for the honest feedback I appreciate it
Used to go out with a girl at the bottom end of the estate (Tracy sykes, spelling probably wrong 🙈) used to think they were very modern at the time as I grew up in a old Victorian house but looking back I would of hated living in them now.
Great video but your pronunciation is a little off for some of the place names. Overall though great video and I've subscribed
Just a few things, Heaton and Jesmond are not in Gateshead, it's Cuthbert not Coothbert, this part of Askew road is 40mph.
I was about 5 when me and my family spent about 6 months in this place while the houses on our estate were being low standard badly refurbished or as the council put it modernised, the flats were okay and it just a short trip to the shops on Coatsworth Road or Gateshead Town centre so using no corner shops was a lame excuse, the problem was the residents and their kids who ran riot, those kids most of them ended up in the same high school as me and they were always in trouble and on leaving school most of them turned to crime and drugs, the area would have been okay but it was left lawless.
I would be surprised if Gateshead council still own the land as the have sold every other bit of available land to developers.
I use to live there, Cuthy's village 85 - 91...Warenford walk.
It was a shithole, but had great views of Newcastle, handy too. walk to and from the toon, no taxi's need after a night out. You could hear the bands play at James park and the roars of the football crowd or sunbathe if you had a roof terrace (good times )My mate said, there was a murderer hiding under the redheugh bridge( like the goldengate murderer) although I didn't believe him... I'd often sprint across it...😂😂
Lived on Bamburgh walk St cuthberts village
Interesting, now Ouseburn part 3, Ouseburn part 3! or Helix or Ochre yards. Thank you very much ;)
Helix is coming soon, do not worry!
You're quite right, we have a lot of this sort of thing in the former East Germany (still called the "new federal states" 30 years later - some of the "old" ones are only 70 y.o.), but being pernickety, I would call into question your description of the architecture as "brutalist", which I understand as more Le Corbusier & Co - in Germany we call this style "Plattenbauweise", "prefabricated elements construction". Ferroconcrete skeleton, prefabricated cladding, drywall internal partitioning, bob's yer uncle. A term I have heard used is the "high rise estate", which always contained five-storey blocks as well as towers. "Brutalist" needs to have the aesthetic of the concrete bunker i.m.h.o. Again, you focus rightly on the social issues. These were solved in E. Europe in quite a different manner. Not to be recommended.
Have you seen any in Germany which are very similar to these? I don't mean the tower block, just the lower ones. I'd heard there were copies somewhere in Europe but that's all and it may have just been a rumour.
@@virtualvalium Try the outskirts of any medium - large East German city.
Who was Saint Coothbert?
Cuthbert innit
nice vlog i live near there
Who is this coooothbert? It's cuthbert! It's really off-putting when you pronounce common names wrong!
I wonder why English schools don't teach this style of presentation, say a few words... stop, move a few inches, start talking again, stop etc etc etc... maybe because it is annoying, pointless, they aren't trying to be american replicas
Nice one Toni
Shame as it was very good except for this hipster editing..
My family come from this area
sound not in sync
Cheers George. Got this mic that’s more of a pain to use than it’s worth aha
Beacon Lough is pronounced Bee-con-loff.
I hate that bridge, I purely hate that bridge have lots of unhappy memories crossing it, it’s a magic bridge coz no matter how far along you are it just never seems to end when walking across it #justsaying
Clueless
They have just replaced one set of problems for another set of problems simple as
This man needs to give up what he's doing he has no clue about the village are people who lived there and for saying the no shops are pubs in the area don't no where he's getting that from he's completely deluded