Disappearing Concrete. Well, it was inevitable I suppose, but Owen Luder's 1967 brutalist masterpiece that is the Trinity Square Car Park in Gateshead (better known as the Get Carter Car Park) will very soon be demolished to make way for an expanded Tesco Extra Store. See the first picture for a record of this fine edifice when it was in a better state of repair...

I'll certainly pay a few last visits to Gateshead to mourn this Car Park skyline icon. However, down the road in Hartlepool is another distinguished concrete 1960s construction which I've always liked as much as the Get Carter Car Park. Hartlepool's zig-zag shaped Market Hall isn't really in the same league as Owen Luder's late Modernist creation but is surely of the same spirit and vintage. The above photo was taken by myself during one happy Saturday afternoon visit to this coastal town (which is often mentioned in Clement & Le Frenais' Likely Lads BBC TV Series.) Whenever I wander around Hartlepool's Market Hall interior I'm reminded of simple 60s optimism before it degraded into the cynical creation of today's inter-changeable malls.