How the Gateshead Flyover could look as thriving green space saved from demolition

Newcastle University’s Farrell Centre launched a competition earlier this year which invited ideas for how the concrete carriageway, which was closed six months ago due to structural concerns, could be repurposed.

Gateshead Council plans to knock down the A167 flyover and hopes that its removal could pave the way for a wider regeneration of the surrounding town centre.

But alternative concepts have illustrated how the 1960s-built flyover could look if it was saved from demolition.

Four winning designs are now on display at the Farrell Centre, on Barras Bridge in Newcastle city centre, which showcase creative visions for how it could be put to different use and become both a thriving civic and environmental asset.

The entries imagine the flyover as a lush green space lined with trees and gardens, which could also become a walking and cycling link.

Suggestions for how the flyover and the space underneath it could be used by the Gateshead community include allotments, markets, play areas, repair shops, performance spaces, and sports facilities like basketball courts and football pitches.

Farrell Centre director Owen Hopkins told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that, while he does not expect the competition to change the flyover’s fate, he hopes that the designs could spark a conversation about the future of Tyneside’s wider infrastructure – including  the Central Motorway.

He said: “The council has decided what it wants to do and that is their role, but what we wanted to do was to use this as an opportunity for a counterpoint. We are not necessarily trying to influence or change any decisions that have been made, it is about showing the possibilities for when other situations like this inevitably occur.

“There is a good amount of flyovers and ageing bits of concrete infrastructure. We feel at the Farrell Centre that there are opportunities to creatively reimagine those.”

The four winning entries, all of which will also receive £250 from the Northern Architectural Association, were:

• The Gateshead Renewal, by EcoResponsive Environments;
• Flyover Commons, by Tonkin Liu, Ash Sakula and OURI Labs;
• Community and Connectivity in Nature: Reclaiming the Flyover for Gateshead, by Colour;
• Gateshead Urban Pier, by Max Cooper-Clark.

When the design contest was launched, Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon said that the flyover could not be retained as it was no longer safe and would cost millions to continually maintain for years to come.

He added at the time that the structure cuts the town in two and was “preventing the widescale regeneration we want to achieve”.

It is expected that demolition work on the flyover will begin in the autumn, though detailed plans are yet to be finalised, with hopes that it will be gone by the close of the 2025/26 financial year next March.

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Anneliese Hutchinson, strategic director for Economy, Innovation and Growth at Gateshead Council, said: “We really welcome the finalists for the Farrell Centre’s competition taking such an imaginative approach. Many of the ideas put forward are not actually reliant on the flyover remaining in place.

“So there might be potential to integrate some of these ideas into our wider

regeneration plans for the town centre and nearby neighbourhoods.

“The condition of the structure does mean we need to get it demolished, rather than repair and re-purpose it.

“We know the next few years offer fantastic opportunities to bring new development to Gateshead, as well as finding new uses for older buildings, as with the work ongoing to turn the Old Town Hall into high specification, modern homes.”

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