I'm not talking about Dunston born Gazza's brain leaving the planet earth - I'm actually referring to Derwent House - dubbed the 'Dunston Rocket'. Time has been called on another one of Gateshead Council's brutalist structures. Like Trinity Square multi-storey (The 'Get Carter' car park) before it, demolition work has started on the spaceship shaped tower block - only this time, unlike Trinity, Sly Stallone didn't lend his weight try to get this one saved. Amazingly someone still tried to get this listed with English Heritage. They failed.
Designed in the 1960s the Derwent had 30 storeys and 196 dwellings, plus an underground car park which became a haven for drugs and crime, and was thus sealed off long before the building was condemned. 1300 residents once lived in this concrete slum but have been long gone for awhile amidst water supply and damp problems.
Still it's a fantastic example of brutalist design not often seen in these parts of the woods. Most have long since gone and other than major metropolises down south, there are not many existing strucutres in Co Durham.
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