Trinity Square (Gateshead)

Trinity Square is a shopping and leisure centre situated in Gateshead, North East England. Spenhill Developments, a division of Tesco PLC. began work on the site in 2010 and opened the multi-use scheme in 2013.

The new centre was constructed on the site of former multi-storey car park and shopping complex going by the same name, which originally opened in 1967.

The former Trinity Square was noted for its Brutalist architecture produced by Rodney Gordon when he worked for the Owen Luder Partnership. The car park had a prominent role in the 1971 film Get Carter, so is commonly referred to as the "Get Carter car park". The demolition of the car park structure itself started on 26 July 2010 and was complete by early October of the same year.

A contemporary public square was constructed and completed with an impressive 27ft sculpture, "Halo", by artist Stephen Newby.

Trinity Square is now home to one of the largest Tesco extra stores in the country, a nine screen fully digital Vue cinema, Health Centre, office accommodation, and Northumbria University student accommodation, and also includes a mixture of independent and national establishments.

Trinity Square was nominated for the 2014 Carbuncle Cup for the ugliest building of the previous 12 months.

The car park was designed in 1962 by the Owen Luder Partnership when Brutalism was regarded as the cutting edge of architecture, but by the time that it opened in 1967, interest in the movement had begun to decline. The building's raw concrete weathered poorly, and by the time Get Carter was filmed in 1970 the car park had already become patchy.

The Multi-storey car park had seven tiers of parking decks. These were raised above the adjoining shopping centre by a "forest" of piloti columns. The decks on the north face had a slight curve creating a wave effect. There were two supporting towers containing stair and lift access. Each level of car park was therefore uninterrupted, so that when viewed from a distance the sky was visible through the structure. A cafe unit in a contrasting box structure sat above the top tier of the car park connected to the access towers by an expressed glazed 'bridge' and an open walkway. The cafe had large windows providing views across the Tyne Valley.

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Wikipedia