I used to spend a lot of time in Newcastle when I was at the National Gallery because we had a close and enjoyable relationship with the Laing Art Gallery;  but I only ever really remember the walk from the station to the Laing up Grainger Street.  

Today I went to the opening of the new Farrell Centre and was told beforehand that if there was one thing I should see, it was Ralph Erskine’s Byker Estate which, of course, I’ve known about, but never visited.

So, I walked from the glories of Dobson’s Central Station:-

Down past the Lit and Phil:-

To the quayside:-

And so up to the Byker. It seems that these big monolithic estates which inspired such horror in the 1980s have now matured into relatively sylvan and well established communities:-