Reflections on the Tyne

Yesterday early evening as I was making my way towards a music lesson at the Sage, I was struck by the view from the Millennium Bridge, as indeed were a number of 'proper' photographers with their expensive looking tripod mounted cameras. Undeterred, I took out my mobile phone and captured this picture for posterity.

Pausing to take in the scene, I reflected upon how much it has changed in the past 20 years or so. Considering that some of my ancestors lived and worked in the slums and chemical works that dominated the Gateshead banks of the Tyne in the mid 19th century, I wondered what they would make of it all. In fact my destination, the Sage, was built upon the very site where they spent the majority of their adult lives.  This picture of the Gateshead Cement Works on South Shore Road dates from about 1850.

I was lost in thought about past times for a few minutes until I remembered my purpose for being in that place. As L. P. Hartley wrote (in 'The Go-Between'), "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."