Exhibition shows 'loss of community and emptiness'

An exhibition of photographs of a now-demolished urban landscape captures "the loss of community and emptiness", the artist behind it has said.

Peter Benson spent more than 30 years documenting the clearance of the area between Newport Bridge and the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough.

Fifty of his images, some of which date back to the 1960s, feature in an exhibition called Welcome to Teesside which opens on 27 April at the town's Heritage Gallery.

Benson said: "The empty buildings, houses, garages and warehouses were like a monument to the past, that dispersed local heritage that had been lost as people were moved out."

This project started while he was a student at Cleveland College of Art and expanded to include Port Clarence, High Clarence, Haverton Hill, Seaton Carew and Hartlepool, all of which were to become parts of what is now Teesside.

Benson said the few people still living in the area would ask him why he was there with his camera.

"They would tell me to go and take pictures of something pretty," he said.

"Part of my interest, I guess, was that contrast between the wonder and splendour of the coast and the North York Moors but in the foreground you have this industrial heritage."

Occasionally the police would come along and check what he was doing, particularly if he went into empty buildings, but after a while "people just got used to seeing me".

He said he hopes the exhibition will be of interest to all age groups.

"Older people will be reminded of what was once there, but I hope younger people will come in and be able to see and understand more of how previous generations lived and what they experienced."

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