Visiting the “largest piece of Public Art” – Temenos, you have to walk through the heart of “Middlehaven”.
They have the catchy name, they have the marketing, they have the logo.
They also have a wasteland of rubble and weeds, with only a few filled plots.
Yes the Middlesbrough College building is stunning, and the football stadium at least ensures the area gets the punters in, and yes the tax building does contain my personal file!
But these single buildings and the giant piece of art work can’t get away from the fact that the rest of “Middlehaven” is currently rubble.
Now I could have been unfortunate and I’ve arrive the very weekend after all the demolition teams have moved off site, and just before all the big cranes and builders move on site to build “Middlehaven”.
But, I don’t think, even weeds, grow that fast.
This leaves a question.
At what point does regeneration grind to a halt and officially just become a wasteland.
At what point would that wasteland go back to being a regeneration (does the first luxury flat a regeneration make?)
Hopefully, it’s all just a blip and once this “slight dip in the economy” has been gotten over then “Middlehaven” will become the rival to the loft apartments of Gateshead and the swanky flats of Liverpool’s Albert Docks, but I’m afraid to say I’m not convinced.
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