Two great things about living on Tyneside: lots of gravel tracks and lots of public art. Much of the art is on those gravel tracks, so I put together a 100km route to show off my favourites and plenty more in passing!
Strava file: https://www.strava.com/activities/10400067046
It’s a mild if Breezy December morning and I’m off to see a giant spoon in a field as you Do so here we are by the spoon as it’s known to all sunre uh although it’s official title is eat for England and it’s meant to signify this is where your food comes from this isn’t actually the first piece of public art I’ve passed today I did go past the the Jan drill
Heads the old pit Heap whe slid uh to signify the the the coal industry that was there and there’s a huge huge amount of public art in the Northeast but particularly on some of our off-road cycle routes so today I’ve stitched together 100 km route that uh picks out
Some of my favorite pieces of art whether they’re large and famous or small and quirky so let’s get on with it I think this is the only one I before silver L been past this one a few times but I’m not really sure what it is street art Two sculptures here by f a gray and this one shows all the river Crossings between the ferry North and South Shields right down to Newburn Bridge we are going to be going through the third from the top The Pedestrian cycling tunnel cuz it’s a lot of fun he
This is by far the the most famous piece of art on this road it is of course Anthony B 20 M High whole 54 M from tip to tip famously bigger than a boing 757 sat on its tail and the wings have been designed to press the statue down in Wind rather
Than sort of make it fall over so it’s it’s Quite a feat of engineering here it’s also thought to be one of the most viewed pieces of Art in the world because way one running past East Coast Mainline Beyond it uh so for a lot of
People just been d s this is this is a sign they’re coming home to p He Oh oh the old Transformers robots in disguise for the last 10 miles we’ve been riding up the the Sunderland Branch at the CC and this is the most famous piece of art on the on the SE to se Terrace novalis by Tony Crag and it represents a a level
And a theodolite that the engineers who built all the wagon ways have been riding on would have had to use now I’ll be riding down the other branch of the the C to see back towards Newcastle Oh So I’m finishing on the the Newcastle gates at keyber which must be one of the the highest concentrations of public art anywhere you could find but the find my favorites really difficult cone by Andy goldsworthy Andy goldsworthy normally makes stuff out of natural material so they decay in place
But because this is the sight of an old iron furnace he he made it out of steel uh so it’ll be here forever but it is really quite hard to find uh because they the terrain is not kind this is a piece of public art that’s
Closest to home so I think I’ll say goodbye now I’m knackered so I can just theice Me
6 Comments
Fantastic video thanks for sharing. Some very familiar locations/pieces of art and some new ones too. Coming home on the train used to be indicated by the illuminated blue star at Newcastle breweries!
Great for sharing, near the spoon is the shroud and not too far from there is the killingworth hippos,though they are not perhaps on a true cycle route
Nice idea for a video Gareth and you seem to have a lot of trail art around your way 👍 Cycling is great way to see things for sure.
Thanks Gareth, liked this one very much. Would like to do the C to C sometime myself, with some better weather and warmer temperatures. Looking out for the next one.👌👍💪🏻
Love it. A few places i didnt recognise. Good going. There is a really long piece of art along askew road, but ladt time i was passed it was well overgrown.
Great video. Do you have a Komoot file for the route?