There is surely no more exhilarating arrival into any British city than approaching Newcastle by train from the south. After trundling through Gateshead, one suddenly emerges high above the Tyne looking out over a dramatic cascade of bridges. Just visible, peering out high above the city, is the Geordie Cathedral, otherwise known as St James' Park football stadium. Newcastle's - or rather Tyneside's - urbanism is defined by its stark, at times arresting contrasts: the way the railway punches its way through the city; 19th century industrial buildings next to 21st century icons; the elegant neoclassical city of John Dobson et al abutted by the modernistic visions of T Dan Smith, the charismatic impresario who transformed the city in the 1960s and early 70s. Smith, it's fair to say, remains a highly controversial figure, with his legacy forever tainted by his fall and eventual imprisonment for corruption. Yet he, more than anyone else, is responsible for the Newcastle of today. And as one walks round the city and sees what he realised - from the US-style central motorway, and numerous modern housing estates, to his crowning achievement, the Civic Centre - the energy, ambition and sheer radical zeal that drove his project to reimagine Newcastle as a great city-state of the north is still palpable.
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