Newcastle's Lost Neighbourhood of Scotswood

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This video looks over 5 major developments and changes within the History of Scotswood and the West end of Newcastle. From Amber films capturing the demolition of Scotswood in the 1970s, the Noble street flats, Cruddas park and the Rise development in scotswood. This films aims to tell the story of an entire neighbourhood, through the creative reuse of existing documentary films (Creative commons).

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Music: Epidemic Sound

ABOUT JORDAN REEVE

A full-time planner, Jordan Reeve specialises in creating videos about the built environment to tell its stories. The topics cover the historical development of cities alongside psychogeography-style walks, which aims to uncover the urban environment as well as pose questions about the space and place in which we live, work, and play. He lives in Newcastle Upon Tyne and attempts to showcase the modern face of a former industrial city, which is still finding its way in regeneration.

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[Jxw]

Completely baffles me this channel doesn’t have ten of thousands of subscribers, it’s so well edited and put together

[steadynumber]

Well done city planners. You managed to achieve what the Luftwaffe couldn't.

[Silphwave]

My great uncle Jimmy Gregg died earlier this year. The latter years of his life were sadly plagued with Alzheimer's. He'd often repeat the same phrases and the number one thing he always said was "I'm a Scotswood lad!".

He could still remember things about Scotswood and was always so happy when he was talking about it. This video gave me a better understanding of why he looked back so fondly on his days in this area.

[TheGreatest]

Whoever thought that people would lose their community and be happy living in a block of high rise flats must have been mad. Or more likely they just didn’t care and got a back hander for giving the go ahead.

[ejoldman]

An excellent video Jordan, heartbreaking, but exposing the criminal vandalism of politicians seeking self satisfaction against the wishes of whole vibrant communities.

[grahambell]

A superb video chronicling the housing of the West end of Newcastle. Thank you for sharing Jordan👏

[mikefandango]

Give this lad a like and help this channel take off, it deserves it!

[-Deena.]

I used to live on Shafto Street. The first time I went to the local shop at the top of the hill, the woman said ' Are you new here?' I was a bit taken aback but said yes. She said 'Well if you ever need anything on tick, just let me know hinny'. That was Scotchy. I bought a cast iron frying pan from a junk shop there for 25p. I still use it 40 years later.

[BABYCHAOS]

Brilliant video, really interesting. My Nana grew up on Scotswood Rd. She was always very proud of where she came from.

[georgeyoung]

In March I spent a night at the Holiday Inn Newcastle at the Metrocentre Gateshead, on the fourth floor with a room on the Tyne side looking over the river and what I now know as Scotswood. Not being from the area I had no idea the history that I was looking at but wondered then what devastation had caused such a desolate place. Id forgotten about it until now watching your video. The new estate, the Rise looked ugly to my eye. Now I know it's a tragedy in short sightedness, poor planning, and greed. Excellent video.

[bettyprice]

It makes me sad seeing the way things used to be. Each house that goes is another nail in the coffin of our once great society.

[iancogdon]

Excellent video, informative and moving in equal measures. I grew up blissfully unaware of the impact these "developments" were having on local communities. A lrage proportion of out current social problems must have resulted from these changes. Very sad but great work, well done

[jimmyskyblue]

Post war Architects had absolutely no imagination. Great video btw

[Rita]

Thank you Jordan, very well done. I live in Summerhill and am happy that it was not demolished (although it had become very run-down by the 1970s). Since then the whole area has been gentrified and shows what can be done privately (there are still residents here who bought their houses very cheaply 40 or more years ago!). The Council would never have been able to renovate all the houses in the West End though.

[RLukeDavis]

Many thanks for putting this on record. It really is shocking.
I worked with older people in Elswick for years and their sense of community (in care homes) was a wonderful thing to see.

Small thing, the reason they changed the orientation of the streets built parallel with the river is that it's an area of water run-off (down the hill) so the basements and lower floors of those buildings constantly flooded and had serious erosion issues.
Many of the people I worked with had lived in them, they were apparently a nightmare.

Good luck, well done, I've subscribed
❤

[impablomations]

My first flat 30 years ago was in Cruddas Park. The towers were an absolute dump. The rubbish chute was frequently backed up past my floor (5th) which left the hallways stinking. They had ventilation shafts running the height of the building that had vents in each flat. This meant that I could hear my immediate upper & lower neighbours when crapping while I had a bath, and also when my upper neighbour frequently beating his wife. Only lived there for 2 years and swore I would never live in a high rise again.

[giofish]

Very informative and enjoyable. Continue the good work you are doing, Jordan!

[iandougall]

I'm from the other side of Newcastle but I know those barren urban prairies between Scotswood and the river. They depressingly remind me of the inevitable failure of top down, command driven development policies. Why do we always have to demolish things?

[Randomaited]

Fantastic video. So much of 'regeneration' for the past 70 years has been so bad, not because of any particular architectural or urban planning philosophy, but because planners and developers have always pushed a top down approach to redevelopment that has always excluded the communities of people, particularly working class communities, from having any real say in the matter. Whether that was led by local government in the 1950s-70s, of by private sector developers only concerned with profit today, it's always led to displacement, alienation and exclusion. I doubt very much whether the present iteration in Scotswood and elsewhere will be much different in the long run, but time will tell I suppose

[marcross]

Absolutely fantastic movie, so well put together. Loving the channel!