Designed in the Brutalist style by the Owen Luder Partnership in 1962, it opened in the late 60's. The concrete used was of poor standard, and within years of opening it was showing signs of wear. Changes to the area and Gateshead's urban planning development, meant it's days were numbered, and it closed along with the shopping centre beneath it in January 2008. The site was bought by a Tesco subsidiary for development of a new centre. It was demolished in the late summer of 2010.

Having been to most of the corners of the world, I realised I still had much to see in my own country (assuming the SNP haven't extracted Scotland from the UK at the time of reading) So in 2008 I embarked on a trip to Scotland. Being mostly a Southern and Westerner in the UK, I also hadn't really been North of York before, so sought to correct that with some time in Newcastle. While wandering aimlessly, I spotted this car park standing proudly on a hill on the opposite side of the Tyne in Gateshead. I recognised it from the great film Get Carter with Michael Caine, not the pile of shit remake with Sly Stallone. On closer inspection I found it to be abandoned, and lined up for Demolition. At this juncture I had become aware of the exploring movement sprouting up on the internet, as well as Downfallen's inspiring work. So in some ways, this became my first explore with a dSLR and explorer interest.
Access was a breeze, basically walking up the up ramp and stepping over a 'Do Not Enter' barrier. A police car stopped at the bottom of the ramp on the other side of the road, and I half expected an 'Oiii!', but nothing came. PC Plod obviously not interested. In some ways I felt cheated, but carried on regardless. This is a shot of the front of the car park, with the shopping centre at the base. Taken from Tesco's car park.

Gateshead and Newcastle meet at the River Tyne at the bottom of a low valley, so getting pictures of the lay of the Newcastle skyline is easy.

I was curious as to how one would decide to specifically breakdown at this spot. And if you broke down on the upper floors, that would be an interesting descent. The Tyne Bridge arches it's back in the centre of the picture.

One of the access roads around the base of the car park, also the roof of the shopping centre below.

Some sort of storage area on top of the shopping centre.

A look at the Car Park, isolated from the Shopping centre it makes an strange architectural statement.

The Trinity Shopping Centre looking the worse for wear. Bits of work had started already on demolition. The Shopping centre was the first area to be demolished, after being stripped of asbestos. Near to this point was a stairwell up to the high levels. However I was less brave at this juncture in my exploring and didn't trust the slightly precarious looking boarding to prevent me from falling. This chap did make the climb though, seen here.

Former low rent shops below the car park above.

The two walkways above this area lead to the car park base. The 4th photo on this write up shows that area.

A self portrait looking into the window of one of the gutted shops.

A pool of tears from the car park shows it's sad reflection, as it awaits on death row.