No need to check opening times at the Forth Lane Gallery. It’s actually the Newcastle lane itself rebranded, open to the elements as it has been for centuries.
This is where artists saw their work ‘unveiled’ this week in the latest and most visible initiative by Creative Central NCL to bring the best of life – and employment – back to the west of the city centre.
Manager Vikki Leaney calls Creative Central NCL “a place-based regeneration project”.
Funded by the North East Combined Authority and Newcastle City Council, it’s dependent on partners who see the value in what Vikki and her colleagues are trying to achieve.
“This project has been talked about for quite a long time,” she told those who gathered at Newcastle Arts Centre before venturing into the new ‘gallery’ in the spruced up lane outside.
“We’ve worked in partnership with Project North East (committed to seeking change via a thriving business landscape, and handily headquartered on nearby Pink Lane) and Mike at Newcastle Arts Centre.”
Mike Tilley is the owner of the arts centre and the reason it exists. He also knows a lot more about this characterful area than most people.
He recalled the scene of dereliction that greeted him when he first saw the proposed arts centre site in 1981, taking in the jumble of linked and long unloved buildings.
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Initially thinking ‘no way’, he then began to see the potential in the mish-mash of architectural history that has long since been realised.
A mindboggling amount of work went into making this place what it is today but previous efforts to make Forth Lane attractive had never quite worked.
“We were really pleased when we were approached by Vikki and Anna (that’s Anna Czigler, economic development officer at the city council) to get something done,” Mike said.
The Forth Lane Gallery plan was set in motion and the selected artists produced their work at the arts centre before it was displayed on the walls defining the narrow thoroughfare outside.
The theme was Pleasure Garden which seems incongruous until you learn that for centuries there was such a thing on an 11-acre plot now largely occupied by St Mary’s Cathedral and the Centre for Life.
“It was a civic pleasure garden where local dignitaries would gather for events and they had a pavilion and a cellar stocked by the council,” said Mike.
“It existed for over 400 years and it was only with the coming of the railways and the building of the central station that this end of town really got developed and commercialised.”
The arts centre site, in a key location bounded by the old City Wall and Westgate Road which follows the line of Hadrian’s Wall, was once home to the powerful Ridley family.
You can see part of it now, forming the arts centre frontage.
The route to the garden just beyond the City Wall ran past their home and artist Rebecca Purnell, who also works at Newcastle Arts Centre as a picture framer, has done her own research.
The Forth – not the pub on the lane but the pleasure garden – was used for strolling, horse riding and also, said Rebecca, for airing laundry. There were football matches, too, though perhaps with rules we wouldn’t recognise.
“I wanted to depict lots of people using The Forth for different things. I hope my piece will make passers-by stop and linger.”
At first glance a tangle of trees, things emerge from her busy painting as you study it closely.
Largely done in acrylic paint, she took care to give it a period feel.
“I wanted it to look a bit like old book pages or a woodcut because that would have been the primary way people accessed art in centuries gone by.”
She likes the fact the artists all produced very different work but accepts that the fate of it is in the lap of the gods.
“I’m prepared for that. I did a little copy for myself but I’m aware my work is at the mercy of the elements now.”
Jed Buttress, best known to arts centre visitors as a curator, cheerfully explained: “I can’t paint or draw so if I’m going to make a mural it has to be sculpted.
“And it has to be made of a material that survives not just the elements but the denizens of the neighbouring pubs.”
His dramatic creation is therefore made of Jesmonite, a composite material used in art and construction, and mounted on concrete.
“It’s hard, heavy and expensive,” said Jed. “I’ve used it before but in different ways. I really went into this project in depth.
“I got excited about making work again. I’ve not shown my own work in Newcastle for a long time so there was a bit of pressure.
“Every single component of that sculpture is made from individual moulds with the idea that I can reproduce aspects of it in an ongoing series.
“The brief was nice and broad but I looked at the history of the place and liked the idea of harking back to something architectural… like a gargoyle or relief carvings.
“It was a challenge. I knew I couldn’t have any fragile pieces or anything too sharp, and I was keen to avoid places where rain could gather.”
Borrowing a trick he once saw on the TV programme Grand Designs, he also coated his piece in natural yoghurt which he hopes will encourage moss to grow.
Laura Sheldon, who tags her work ‘SHELDO’, approached the ancient garden via 21st Century technology, working up her initial design on a computer screen.
“I do a lot of computer-based illustration but I do murals now and then,” she said.
“I’ve done three in The Cluny. I’ve just finished one in Hexham for a bakery called The Grateful Bread. I’m a bit picky about the murals I do.”
The Forth Lane commission was, you might say, right up her street.
“It’s quite a special area for me.
“There was a shop on Pink Lane called Electrik Sheep and underneath was the design studio where I did my first apprenticeship. It’s a kind of cool area of Newcastle.”
Having begun with a garden-inspired green background, Laura moved from screen to stencils and finally to paint.
“It’s supposed to look dark and shadowy with the lighter green representing illumination.”
It’s not the first time Laura has made a mark in this location. Some of her work, commissioned separately, can be seen in The Forth public house.
The other artists who contributed to The Forth Lane Gallery are Chris Fleming, Tullulah Lines and Glenn Malpass (with art direction by Mark One87). And it’s all on view now. Admission free!