Anyone who watched the final stage of the Tour de France, as
the riders entered the Champs Elysees past the magnificent Arc de Triomphe, has
felt the power of a sense of arrival.
In architecture and urban design, the psychological and
emotional impact and symbolic resonance of entry routes and gateway points has
been recognised since ancient times. They can take your breath away, or make
you feel welcome. Or not.
Cities around the world have recognised this, and have often
deliberately designed entry routes and gateway points to create a powerful and
positive experience of arrival.
For visitors, such experiences can provide a key first
impression or an abiding memory for their encounter with a place.
I remember the first time I saw Newcastle. It was at night,
and I drove in via the old Pacific Highway route, through Charlestown and over
the ridge-line before the City Road descent . Not exactly the Champs Elysees,
but the spectacle of the lights of the city spread out below did the job for
me.
The F3 Freeway changed all that. Now, the first impression
most new arrivals have of Newcastle is the Newcastle Link Rd and the Lake
Road/Thomas Street roundabout at Wallsend. The first significant building they encounter
is the F1 Hotel.
As a gateway to create a sense of arrival it has its
problems. True, drivers can glimpse the pleasant greenery of Wallsend Park, but
there's nothing that - either directly or symbolically - conveys to a visitor
that they are welcome, or have arrived at a place that might have something
special to offer.
This presents both a challenge and an opportunity.
Development will inevitably spread along the Link Rd (and
who picked that as the name for our
main gateway route?). How we develop and maintain that route, and what we do at
the key entry point, will determine the first impression many visitors will
have of Newcastle.
We need to seize this opportunity before the chance to do
something significant passes us by.
This issue emerged at a recent community workshop conducted
by the Wallsend Business Improvement Association as part of updating its strategic
plan for the Wallsend Town Centre.
Workshop participants noted the potential to present what Wallsend
has to offer to visitors entering Newcastle from the F3: its rich
history and heritage, its "country village" character, and its proximity
to major emerging eco-tourism attractions such as the Blue Gums Hills Regional
Park and the Hunter Wetlands.
To complement this, participants saw opportunities
to promote the new Tramway Cycleway from Glendale to Wallsend, to find new ways
to present the area's history and heritage, and to develop new accommodation
and visitor facilities in the area.
These ideas could form part of a Newcastle Gateway Strategy,
aimed at recognising and taking advantage of Wallsend's gateway status and potential.
This will have to begin with the basics. At the moment, this key entry site doesn't even provide basic information for visitors
to find out what the area has to offer.
The need for some sort of conveniently accessed visitor information facility emerged as one of the key points
from the Wallsend workshop.
How the new council that is elected in September responds
to this will have a significant impact on the future commercial health and character
of both Wallsend and the rest of Newcastle.
