A record of various stages in construction of Thompson House, an urban redevelopment project in the Groat Market area of Newcastle, commissioned by Newcastle City Planning Department. The building housed the new Evening Chronicle offices. The film includes interesting views of the surrounding buildings and skylines revealed by the empty site. Men are at work on the redevelopment site. High angle views of the partly demolished old Chronicle Offices building in the Groat Market area. Back on...

A record of various stages in construction of Thompson House, an urban redevelopment project in the Groat Market area of Newcastle, commissioned by Newcastle City Planning Department. The building housed the new Evening Chronicle offices. The film includes interesting views of the surrounding buildings and skylines revealed by the empty site. Men are at work on the redevelopment site. High angle views of the partly demolished old Chronicle Offices building in the Groat Market area. Back on street level, piles of rubble lie in the redevelopment site. Cars and Evening Chronicle newspaper delivery vans with signage “Sunday Sun” are parked on waste ground. The camera pans down from the upper floors of partly demolished buildings to ground level as a postman walks into shot. Various shots of the empty site bordered by remaining buildings. Workmen are on the site with a stationary crane with attached wrecking ball. A truck pulls away from the site. A high angle shot records building material, works vehicles, workers and scaffolding on site. Construction is in progress on new buildings with a tall crane aiding the work. The camera zooms in on builders at work on scaffolding (some unfocused shots). A low angle shot from Groat Market documents the new Chronicle office building, with McAlpine signage on façade erected scaffolding, sited next to the old Black Boy Inn. [Note: During the 1960s many parts of Newcastle were designated Comprehensive Development Areas (CDAs). T. Dan Smith, City Councillor 1950-1965, and William Burns, Chief Planning Officer, initiated a modernisation programme with widespread demolition of Victorian and Georgian parts of the city and construction of new urban motorways, parking facilities, commercial buildings and housing.]