Gateshead is an industrial city that has changed its image in recent years, becoming a place where you can see high-class contemporary architecture. Its symbol is the spectacular Millennium Gateshead Bridge.
Although the city has medieval roots, it is in vain to look for monuments from that period. Already in the 18th century, due to the discovery of coal deposits in the vicinity, a rapid industrialization process began. Ironworks and numerous factories were built, and the industrial development of the city meant that at the beginning of the 20th century it was called "the ugliest city of England". Individual gems, such as the Victorian residence of Saltwell Towers, designed by the famous architect William Wailes and surrounded by Saltwell Park, could not change that.
In the second half of the 20th century, when the great industry in the region began to decline, the authorities concluded that the city needed revitalization. The most disfiguring post-industrial buildings were demolished, but high-class contemporary architecture found its place here for good only at the turn of the 20th and 20th centuries. Among its icons are the Sage Gateshead concert hall, the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, which presents temporary exhibitions showing what is happening today. the most current art trends and the Millennium Gateshead Bridge. On the outskirts of the city, on a hill in 1998, a metal sculpture of the Angel of the North was erected, symbolized by Antony Gormley.
