The Creative Class and its Impact on the Gentrification of Artistic Neo-Bohemian Neighbourhoods

A Case Study of the Ouseburn Valley Artists Quarter, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, U.K.

Jamie Brockbank, Cambridge University Department of Geography, jtrb3@cam.ac.uk May 2006 Publication

Candidates Statement
This dissertation represents essentially my own unaided work and its length does not exceed 10,000 words excluding footnotes, bibliography, maps, diagrams, table and appendixes as specified. I have made every effort to reference ideas or evidence which are not my own original work. My thanks to Dr Al James and Andrew Currah for their guidance and support for my investigation in the allotted supervision time.

Acknowledgements
My investigation would not have been possible without the kind support and assistance of Newcastle City Council, the Ouseburn Trust and the areas artists and workers. Whilst it would be impossible to single out everyone who assisted me or was interviewed or surveyed, my particular thanks go to: Dale Bolland and his team at the Ouseburn Regeneration Centre Peter Kay and Kirsten Luckins at the Ouseburn Trust Neil Murphy, Colin Percy, Paul Rubenstein and Mark OSullivan at Newcastle City Council Sue Woolhouse and the studio tenants of 36 Lime Street Nick James at the Mushroom Works Andy Balman and Ronnie Forster at the Biscuit Factory Paul Miller for providing the contacts at Newcastle City Council PMOB for being such an excellent host in Shincliffe, Durham

Table of Contents
Candidates Statement......................................................................................i Acknowledgements...........................................................................................i Table of Contents .............................................................................................ii 1 Introduction Artists, Gentrification and Creative Cities : the case of the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle..............................................................1 2
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4

Literature Review ......................................................................................4

Artists, Gentrification, and Cultural Consumption ................................................................. 4 Cultural Regeneration, Urban Renaissance and Creative Cities............................................ 5 The Creative Class, Neo-Bohemia and Yuppification.......................................................... 7 Urban Politics of Gentrification and City Living ................................................................... 10

3
3.1 3.2

Contextual Background on the Ouseburn ............................................12

The Ouseburns Development as an Artist and Creative Quarter ....................................... 13 Ouseburns Past Regeneration................................................................................................. 14

Methodology ............................................................................................15

4.1 Data Collection .......................................................................................................................... 15 4.1.1 Questionnaire Design ............................................................................................................. 16 4.1.2 Questionnaire Sampling and Response Rates ........................................................................ 17 4.1.3 Interviews............................................................................................................................... 17 4.1.4 Lime Square Property Advertisement Discourse Analysis .................................................... 18 4.2 Limitations................................................................................................................................. 19 4.2.1 General ................................................................................................................................... 19 4.2.2 Questionnaires........................................................................................................................ 19 4.2.3 Interviews............................................................................................................................... 20

Data Interpretation ..................................................................................21

5.1 What is the Ouseburns significance in Newcastle City Councils wider urban vision, and can Ouseburn be considered a neo-bohemian neighbourhood?...................................................... 21 5.1.1 Newcastles Creative City Vision and Ouseburns Significance............................................ 21 5.1.2 Ouseburn as a Neo-Bohemian Creative Hotspot.................................................................... 25 5.2 What are the notable characteristics of the creative workers operating in Ouseburn and how do their attributes and politics compare with other members of the Creative Class? .......... 26 5.2.1 The Distinctive Characteristics of Ouseburns Creative Workers.......................................... 26 5.2.2 Quaysides Encroachment into Ouseburn: Yuppies or the Creative Professionals?........... 29 5.3 Is Ouseburns authenticity threatened by yuppification, the buzz to bland cycle and the artist gentrification cycle, and if so do Floridas Creative Cities prescriptions ameliorate or exacerbate these tendencies? .................................................................................................................. 31

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5.3.1 The Lime Square Development Raises Fears of Ouseburns Yuppification amongst the Artist Population............................................................................................................................................. 31 5.3.2 Ouseburns Future Regeneration Threatens a Buzz to Bland and Gentrification Cycle ..... 32 5.3.3 Do Floridas Creative Cities prescriptions ameliorate or exacerbate these tendencies (in neo-bohemian neighbourhoods)?.......................................................................................................... 35 5.4 What urban governance challenges do neo-bohemian neighbourhoods present and how can these be feasibly met?....................................................................................................................... 37 5.4.1 Affordability and Diversity: Necessary Regulation or Protectionist Obstacles to Development?....................................................................................................................................... 37 5.4.2 Why Sustainable Urban Governance in Neo-Bohemian Neighbourhoods Matters, and Pointers to How it Can be Achieved..................................................................................................... 39

Conclusion......................................................................................................41 6 Appendix ..................................................................................................43

6.1 Questionnaire Quantitative Data Presentation ...................................................................... 43 6.1.1 Educational attainment........................................................................................................... 43 6.1.2 Business Type ........................................................................................................................ 43 6.1.3 Factors Cited by Firms in their Decision to Locate in Ouseburn ........................................... 44 6.1.4 Likert Scale Attitudinal Responses ........................................................................................ 45 6.1.5 Additional Demographic and Business Information .............................................................. 46 6.1.6 Lime Square Apartments Advertising www.limesquare.info.............................................. 47 6.2 6.3 Annotated Questionnaire ......................................................................................................... 50 List of Sources Interviewed in Person ..................................................................................... 54

Bibliography ............................................................................................55

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The Creative Class and the Gentrification of Artistic Neo-Bohemian Neighbourhoods

A case study of the Ouseburn Valley artists quarter, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Introduction Artists, Gentrification and Creative Cities : the

case of the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle The trend for artists to seek out cheap industrial workspace, which then acts as a catalyst for regeneration and gentrification, is a well documented and significant socioeconomic and cultural trend in post-industrial cities since the 1970s (e.g. Zukin, 1982, Leys, 1996 and 2003). Urban artists have often been pioneers of neighbourhood renewal by adaptively recycling (Dickinson, 2001) declining or derelict industrial spaces through sweat equity, such as the warehouse loft conversions in SoHo, Manhattan or those of Castlefield, Manchester. Low rents, spacious and authentic historical buildings, the gritty character of such depressed inner city areas and the clustering of other creative types combine to attract artists high in cultural, but low in economic, capital to gravitate towards these initially often seedy or depopulated neighbourhoods. It is these 1st generation artists and creatives who are often instrumental in initial revitalization and repopulation and the emergence of a trendy neo-bohemian (Lloyd, 2002) character to the neighbourhood. But by pioneering the recovery of neglected areas, the urban artist commonly acts as the expeditionary force for the inner-city gentrifiers, (Ley, 1996) with the surfeit of meanings in places frequented by artists becoming a valued resource for the entrepreneur. (Ley, 2003). The result is that artists often unwittingly act as the stalking horses for the desires of investment capital to revalorize urban neighbourhoods. (Cameron and Coaffee, 2003).

Property developers and individual gentrifiers (Beauregard, 1986) become alert to the emergence of a rent gap (Smith, 1983) to profitably exploit, leading to an influx of new higher income residents and investment capital. This invariably causes a displacement of the artistic pioneers and a shift from cultural 1

production to cultural consumption as, the moderate cost of living necessary to maintaining the balance of cultural offerings in neo-bohemian neighbourhoods is confounded by the classic growth machine pressures for ever rising rents and property prices. (Logan and Molotch, 1987).

My investigation will incorporate the contemporary work of charismatic US urban theorist, Richard Florida, to reinvigorate this longstanding theoretical and policy debate. Floridas Creative Class (2002) and Creative Cities (2003 and 2005) theorisations have permeated urban governance policy worldwide with bewildering speed and acceptance. By heralding the dawn of a new kind of capitalism based on human creativity, and the need for funky forms of supply-side interventions by urban authorities to develop people climates valued by creatives, Floridas work is intimately connected to the neobohemian neighbourhood (Lloyd, 2002).

Floridas creativity agenda champions buzzing, trendy and bohemian neighbourhoods, seething with the interplay of cultures and ideas, and the requisite tolerance, diversity and openness which we are assured will lead to thriving human interaction and innovation. The fabled Creative Class choose to gravitate to these neo-bohemian enclaves which satisfy what Peck (2005) describes as a craving for, authentic historical buildings, converted lofts, plenty of coffee shops, art and live music spaces, indigenous street culture and a range of other typical features of gentrifying mixed-use, inner-city neighbourhoods.

Much of Floridas celebratory writing lionizes the work, play and consumption habits of the Creative Class, which Marcuse (2003) critically assesses as, an engaging account of the lifestyle preferences of yuppies. Markusen (2005), argues therefore in distinguishing artists from young professionals as, occupations included in the creative class have very different urban preferences, politics and impacts on urban form and community life.

My investigation focuses on Newcastle-upon-Tynes Ouseburn neo-bohemian neighbourhood (Lloyd, 2002) as a case study-based lens through which to 2

critically examine Floridas Creative Places impact on the buzz to bland cycle (Minton, 2003), yuppification (Short, 1989) and the artist gentrification cycle. I seek to examine possible linkages between Floridas (2002) Creative Professionals and processes of yuppification, whilst I will consider Markusens (2005) contention that the artists and bohemians of Floridas (2002) Supercreative Core have distinctive characteristics and politics vis--vis the rest of the Creative Class.

Ouseburn provides a highly-relevant case study because artist-led regeneration since the 1980s has transformed this former Victorian industrial district into a trendy and increasingly sought-after location for creative industries and young professionals. Capitalising on this success, Newcastle City Council recently initiated a major development drive to greatly expand residential and business capacity to further its Creative City economic vision and boost middle-class city living. But many of Ouseburns artistic pioneers fear displacement from their studios and the loss of the areas distinctive character as the area becomes gentrified from Quayside.

With this context in mind, I set myself the following research questions:

1. What is the Ouseburns significance in Newcastle City Councils wider urban vision, and can Ouseburn be considered a neo-bohemian neighbourhood?

2. What are the notable characteristics of the creative workers operating in Ouseburn and how do their attributes, politics and vision for the area compare with other members of the Creative Class?

3. Is Ouseburns authenticity threatened by yuppification, the buzz to bland cycle and the artist gentrification cycle, and if so do Floridas Creative Cities prescriptions ameliorate or exacerbate these tendencies?

4. What urban governance challenges do neo-bohemian neighbourhoods present and how can these be feasibly met?

Literature Review

2.1 Artists, Gentrification, and Cultural Consumption

Glass (1964) coined the term gentrification to describe the changes she observed in the social structure and housing market of parts of inner London, with the academic literature explaining the phenomenon now very extensive. Gentrification can be summarised broadly around those explanations focusing on changes in class composition (Ley, 1981; Hamnett, 1984), gender relations (Bondi, 1991) and cultural orientation (Ley, 1996 and 2003), and the opposing Marxian analyses (Smith 1979, 1987, 1996) reasserting the primacy of economic supply-side factors, the rent gap and a, back to the city movement by capital, not people.

Rather than becoming bogged down in the broader gentrification debate, however, my study focuses on an important facet within it: the role of the artists as pioneers of gentrification. This trend has been empirically demonstrated, with Ley (2003), for example, showing that, in the four largest Canadian cities, the presence of artists in a census tract has frequently led to a rapid increase in property prices, whilst the US National Endowment for the Arts found that cities with the highest percentage of artists in the labour force had the highest rates of gentrification. (Gale, 1984).

Zukin (1987) uses her case study of artist-led gentrification in the Lower East Side of Manhattan to argue that, the mutual validation and valorisation of urban art and real estate markets indicates the importance of the cultural constitution of the higher social strata in the advanced service economy. From the 1970s, loft living became a sought after lifestyle choice for this influx of middle class 2nd generation gentrifiers (Zukin, 1982) due to an aesthetic conjuncture in which artists living habits become a cultural model for the middle classes and the old factories become a means of expression for a postindustrial civilization. (Zukin, 1988).

She demonstrates how demand-side factors such as the middle classs economic valorisation of the aesthetic disposition and the historic urban fabric frequently lead to a rapid increase in rents and property prices that the original low-income artists can often ill afford. An artist gentrification cycle results with 1st generation bohemian pioneers being displaced (e.g. from SoHo in 1980s) and forced to seek out new districts offering authenticity and affordability (e.g. Brookyn). Zukin (2001) elaborates by arguing an artistic mode of productions emergence, in which the cultural and lifestyle attributes of increasingly entrepreneurial artistic enclaves are marketed and manipulated methodically by developers to cultivate market opportunities and generate profit.

There is an inherent tension in laissez faire development and gentrification, however, as the free market invariably leads to economic capital subsuming cultural capital and a buzz to bland cycle in which, before too long the area is overrun by theme pubs, expensive restaurants and mock loft apartments and with the artists and locals priced out the distinctive quality of the place that people found attractive in the first place is lost. (Minton, 2003)

2.2 Cultural Regeneration, Urban Renaissance and Creative Cities

Cultural regeneration initiatives emerged internationally from the late 1980s in cities from Birmingham to Barcelona partly as a reaction to the limitations of harder economic regeneration and urban boosterism (Short, 1989; Fainstein, 1994; Smith, 1996). But more significantly, cultures ascendancy in policy circles has been driven by underlying post-Fordist restructuring (Amin, 1994) which privileges a symbolic economy (Lash and Urry, 1994) and post-modern commodification of place and culture (Harvey, 1993; Philo and Kearns, 1993).

The idea that culture can be employed as a driver for urban economic growth has become part of the new orthodoxy by which cities seek to enhance their competitive position, (Miles and Paddison, 2005) but the term cultural regeneration is a notoriously fuzzy concept (Markusen, 1999) plagued by

multiple meanings and conceptual overlap. In practice, however, it can essentially be separated into the 2 main approaches of capital intensive topdown iconic projects, symbolised by the Guggenheim museum Bilbao effect, and the increasingly popular alternative of promoting smaller-scale bottom-up cultural projects, such as the Temple Bar cultural quarter in Dublin.

Simultaneously, an overlapping creativity agenda (Porter, 1995; Landry and Bianchini, 1995; Hall, 1998; Florida, 2003, 2005) has arisen arguing that clusters of knowledge industries, the creative milieu and the Creative Class are essential ingredients in city survival and growth. This diverse school views urban renaissance through the arts and creative industries, as one of the few remaining strategies for urban revitalization which can embrace the effects of globalisation and capture the twin goals of competitive advantage and quality of life which culture, somewhat optimistically, might offer. (Evans, 2005)

Central to the creative cities vision are creative industries, defined as, those activities which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property. (DCMS, 2003). According to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, they are one of the UKs fastest growing economic sectors, accounting for 7.9% of GDP and 1.95m jobs (2001).

There is even now a Minister for Creative Industries, whose recent keynote speech argued that, Richard Floridas work may have real implications for policy it suggests that cities can regenerate themselves through creativity, as Gateshead and Manchester have done. (Purnell, 2005). He goes onto state that, The Rise of the Creative Class suggests that cities that are diverse, tolerant and have a high quality civic infrastructure are overwhelmingly those that have thriving creative sectors.

As central government champions a national imperative to turn Britain into the worlds hub of economic creativity, (Miliband, 2005) it has become increasingly de rigeur to argue that the creative industries are at the heart of our policies for strong regions and vibrant cities (Jowell, 2006) and they make a 6

vital contribution to the objective of reasserting Englands 8 Core Cities as engines of national growth. (Miliband, 2005). London continues to lead as Britains creative hub, (GLA, 2002, 2004) but provincial Core Cities such as Newcastle are promoting their cultural renaissance to assert their credentials as dynamic Creative Cities seeking to nurture and attract the Creative Class (Florida, 2002).

2.3 The Creative Class, Neo-Bohemia and Yuppification

Richard Florida (2002) asserts that cities or regions exhibiting high levels of the 3 Ts of Talent (university degree attainment), Technology (high-tech workers) and Tolerance (bohemians, gay men and foreign born as measured by indices) correlate with a higher level of economic development than in cities lacking these. He argues that attracting and retaining high-quality talent in the form of the Creative Class is the most important factor in a city becoming one of the economic winners of our age.

The Creative Class is defined as those who engage in work whose function is to create meaningful new forms and is estimated to total 38m Americans, or some 30% of the workforce. Classified by occupational classifications, the Creative Class consists of a supercreative core, including scientists and engineers, professors and poets, and artists and actors, and a much larger set of creative professionals who work in a wide-range of knowledge-based occupations in high-tech sectors, financial services, the legal and healthcare professions and business management (Florida, 2002).

Florida trumpets the importance of bohemianism because, without diversity, without weirdness, without difference, without tolerance, a city will die. Cities dont need shopping malls and convention centres to be economically successful; they need eccentric and creative people. By nationally correlating his bohemian index and technology pole rankings, Florida cites boho techpoles such as San Francisco, Boston and Austin to argue that the presence and concentration of bohemians in an area creates an environment or milieu that

attracts other types of talented or high human capital individuals (this) in turn attracts and generates innovative technology-base industries.

Florida (2003) highlights the primacy of lifestyle factors that extend beyond standard quality-of-life amenities. He contends that, what creative people look for in communities are abundant high quality experiences, an openness to diversity of all kinds, and above all else, the opportunity to validate their identities as creative people. We are told that the Creative Class prefer indigenous street-level culture: a teeming blend of cafes, sidewalk musicians, and small galleries and bistros, where it is hard to draw the line between performers and spectators. (Florida, 2005).

Integral to such places creative appeal are uniqueness and authenticity, typically found in multi-use urban neighbourhoods (Florida, 2005) and deriving from a dynamic mix of urban grit alongside renovated buildings, a distinctive music and cultural scene and a sense of character and identity absent from suburbia or identikit neighbourhoods. Like Mintons (2003) critique of the buzz to bland cycle, Floridas writings abhor the theme park model of urbanism (Sorkin, 1992; Zukin, 1995) in which the heterogeneity of the edgy neighbourhood have been replaced by the generica of sanitised venues of consumption.

In contrast to many urban blandscapes, Lloyds (2002) example of the neobohemian neighbourhood in Wicker Park, Chicago, encapsulates seamlessly the place-based markers of authenticity the Creative Class desire. With clear parallels to Zukin (1982), Lloyd describes how the cultural and historical depth of the former-industrial inner city spaces become a source of identification for urban residents. Moreover, the association of Wicker Parks gritty spaces with creative energy has helped initiate an increasing presence of media and digital companies, so that that the neighbourhood resembles New York Citys East Village with, similar intersections between high-tech, high art and consumption evident. (Lloyd, 2002).

Rather than a segregation of consumption venues, workplace and residence, Wicker Park is characterised by the promiscuous mixing of such locales within the neighbourhood space. But Lloyd (2002) cautions that, an acceleration of investment into an area like Wicker Park generates contradictions, including conflicts among competing capital interests, with the original 1st generation artistic gentrifiers (Zukin, 1982) being increasingly priced out of the residential market by an influx of wealthy young professionals purchasing a consumption stake in the neighbourhood. Consequently, local artists often articulate their ideological antagonism towards an image of the privileged urban resident the yuppie. (Lloyd, 2002).

Smith (1986) describes how yuppie was coined in 1984 to refer to those young upwardly-mobile professionals of the baby-boom generation, who are supposed to be distinguished by a lifestyle devoted to personal careers and individualistic consumption. Deemed to be the product of an altered occupational structure stemming from the post-Fordist shift of increasing white collar managerial, financial and professional employment, these new middle class are heavily represented amongst gentrifiers. (Laska and Spain, 1980).

Shorts (1989) polemical critique berates how yuppie gentrification leads to a process of yuppification (which) involves the destruction of an existing community and its replacement by a new one with consequent changes in the meaning and use of space. Jayne (2006) elaborates by arguing yuppified 9

consumption spaces, not only economically displace lower-income residents who cant afford higher rents and taxes, but also culturally displace the longterm resident through the proliferation of exotic restaurants and wine bars. Florida would publicly lament this gentrification cycle in which the 1st generation cultural producers and bohemians are replaced by cultural consumers and commodified spaces, extinguishing much of the neighbourhoods authenticity and indigenous street culture that the Creative Class seek (Florida, 2005). But Peck (2005) argues that the Creative Class themselves are the yuppies eroding cultural authenticity and neighbourhood cohesion.

To investigate the tensions arising from the Creative Class impact on neobohemian neighbourhoods, my survey and interviews profile Ouseburns artists characteristics to assess Markusens (2005) claim that artists as a political interest group have very little in common with most occupations in Floridas misnamed Creative Class. I examine whether members of the Creative Class make up Ouseburns 2nd generation gentrifiers and, if so, what impact they make on the areas existing artist workforce.

2.4 Urban Politics of Gentrification and City Living

Smith (in Sorkin, 1992) relates how the global economic expansion of the 1980s and the restructuring of national and urban economies towards services, recreation and consumption have propelled gentrification from a marginal preoccupation of the property industry to the cutting edge of urban change internationally. Resurgence in city centre living (e.g. Nathan and Urwin, 2005) is closely linked to cultural regeneration, a process in which city boosters increasingly compete for tourist revenue and financial investments by bolstering the citys image as a centre for cultural innovation but often they pit the selfinterest of property developers, politicians and expansionary cultural institutions against grassroots pressures from local communities, (Zukin, 1995) as Battery Park City or London Docklands demonstrate (Fainstein, 1994).

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UK public policymaking recognises now that the short-term imperative for many property developers to return profit alongside the financial and electoral pressures on the local authority to achieve best value, often seem to contradict the longer-term need of ensuring a neighbourhood has a sustainable quality of place (Minton, 2003). The DCMS (2004) recently cited that apparently successful culturally-led regeneration of run down areas and buildings can lead to the rapid breaking up of spaces for higher value single-use spaces such as lofts, offices and retail outlets this cycle is now familiar in artist zones in regenerated cities such as Berlin, Toronto and Londons Hoxton.

During the 1980s Hoxton was characterised by run down buildings but its potential was recognised once colonised and regenerated by artists. The area is now sought after in London, with upmarket bars, cafes, galleries, clubs, residential conversions and high profile residents, but the impoverished artists credited with leading Hoxtons regeneration have been displaced as squats and low-cost accommodation have been replaced by expensive loft-style living.

But implementing the rhetoric of investing in diversity (DCMS, 2004) to counter extremes of gentrification involves a complex juggling act between the needs of a broad coalition of interests: government, business, developers and the local community. Community residents fighting developers often confront the whole set of economic and social processes that underlie development, with higher property prices and rates structuring power relations so that, gentrification elicits the approval of local political leaders, who correspondingly moderate their support for displacees. (Zukin, 1987). Consequently, Kunzmann (2004 in Evans, 2005) assesses cynically that, each story of regeneration begins with poetry and ends with real estate.

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Contextual Background on the Ouseburn

The 100ha Ouseburn regeneration area is located 2 miles east of Newcastle city centre and borders relatively deprived Byker to the east, and the affluence of East Quayside to the west. The areas geography is defined by the tidal Ouseburn river valley, flowing with the steeply sloping topography from north to south, and the 3 Ouseburn bridges spanning the Valleys historic Lime Street centre and village green.

The Ouseburn was a crowded 18th century Victorian heavy industrial quarter centred around the Cluny whisky bottling factory and Lime Streets warehouses, served by barges navigating upstream from the Tyne. The area depopulated and deindustrialised from the early 20th century, but from the late 1970s artists and entrepreneurs on low incomes began to rent low cost property or renovate derelict buildings in Ouseburn.

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3.1 The Ouseburns Development as an Artist and Creative Quarter

Leading artistic pioneer, Mike Mould, paid 30,000 in 1980 for the disused Victorian warehouse on Lime Street. In partnership with friends, meagre savings and considerable sweat equity were invested into gutting and converting the spacious lofts into artist studios. The 36 Lime Street co-operative formed in 1985, with the sites 45 studios and workshops awarded a RIBA Community Enterprise Award and Prince Charles seal of approval in a 1988 visit.

Although many businesses in the area remain garages, scrapyards or storage, the converted Biscuit Factory commercial gallery opened on the Valleys western fringe in 2002 and 2 further floors of studio space housing 30 artists and craftsmen opened in 2005. The Mushroom Works warehouse conversion also opened in 2005 as an artist-led gallery with 12 studio spaces. Meanwhile, the converted Quayside Business Development Centre (QBDC) provides subsidised business facilities and 40 serviced office spaces for ICT related start-up SMEs.

The Valley is often praised for its vibrant and characterful local pub and music scene, most notably the converted Cluny bar on Lime Street which is widely regarded as Newcastles leading alternative live music venue. Cultural amenities are boosted by the popular Stepney Bank stables, boating, the recent eco-centre and city farm. The areas burgeoning reputation as a cultural and creative hotspot has attracted creative industry firms, which now account for 100 out of a total of 300 Ouseburn small firms, to move into converted premises.

From left to right: QBDC, 36 Lime Street, the Cluny live music bar

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3.2 Ouseburns Past Regeneration

The charitable Ouseburn Trust was founded by local activists in 1996 with the aim of maintaining the Valleys distinctive heritage as an urban village in the face of encroaching private sector residential development from East Quayside.

The Ouseburn Trust and Newcastle City Council combined to form the Ouseburn Partnership and 2.5m of Single Regeneration Budget funding facilitated Ouseburns initial grassroots-led regeneration since the late 1990s. Funds have supported start-up business grants, historically-sensitive conversions and soft-infrastructure improvements such as environmental cleanup, public art, conservation area status and cultural festivals.

Widely praised, Ouseburns regeneration was shortlisted in 2003 for an OPDM sustainable communities award in recognition of preserving the areas distinct character, the mixed-use urban village vision and the active participation and leadership of community stakeholders. However, the Ouseburn Partnerships 2003-10 strategy promises a much more controversial step-change to accommodate the areas burgeoning creative industry and residential demand.

Ouseburn Regeneration Strategy 2003-10 Vision By 2010 the Lower Ouseburn Valley will be a thriving sustainable, urban village in a unique riverside location within the City of Newcastle. The best heritage features of the area will have been preserved and enhanced within a vibrant townscape and an attractive landscape that will reconnect people with the diverse natural environment. A wide range of businesses especially those related to creative, innovative, multi-media and cultural activities will be prospering in the area. The Valley will also be home to a stable mixed residential community. A wide variety of services and leisure opportunities will be available for residents, employees and visitors to the area.

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Methodology

4.1 Data Collection

Due to the scarcity of residential property currently available in the Valley, the surveys target population was limited to firms at the following 4 key clusters, accounting for the majority of Ouseburns cultural and creative firms:

Founded 1980 and the first, and still the largest, artist and creative cluster 45 workshops and studios in converted Cluny warehouse Co-operative run on strictly non-profit basis

Founded 2005 by craftsman, Nick James, to meet expanding studio demand 12 workshops and studios in converted warehouse Artist-led not-for-profit management

2 floors exhibiting local artists work at marked up prices 30 basement workshops and studios opened in 2005 Commercial business venture founded in 2002 by Andy Balman

Council-run business incubator for SMEs 40 offices occupied at preferential rents

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4.1.1 Questionnaire Design [See Appendix for annotated Questionnaire]

Section 1 - Respondent Details - banded age categories and omitted income for sensitivity, whilst I attempted to apply Mintons (2003) brain gain thesis by enquiring about North East roots. Walk to work and postcode data aimed to assess the urban village model.

Section 2 categorises firms against the DCMSs 11 creative industry categories, and seeks indications of the firms age, staff size and expansion prospects. Section 3s 10 attitudinal questions utilise a bi-polar 5 point Likert Scale, allowing evaluation of statements drawn directly from the 2003 Regeneration Strategy (see questions 1, 2, 3 and 6), and hypotheses regarding preferred future development (questions 4, 5, 7 and 8).

Questions 4 and 5 compare 2 developments nearing completion, starkly differing in size and conception, in order to assess which type locals would like to see more of in the Ouseburn. I chose Lime Square, a 115 one or two bedroom 6-storey luxury apartment complex bordering East Quayside, to symbolise one extreme of large-scale, new-build, private-sector commercial development marketed at young professionals.

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This contrasts with the Woods Pottery conversion designed by Project North East, a not-for-profit public-private partnership with an excellent record of sensitive historic conversions for businesses. These live/work units on Lime Street symbolises the alternate regeneration vision of small-scale, aesthetically pleasing, historically sensitive and mixed-use development.

Likert Scales advantages include clarity, simplicity and speed of completion, recognising respondent tolerance and fatigue concerns.. Limitations include the closed question format, the risk of attitude forcing or patterned response, and of central tendency or acquiescence bias (Parfitt, 1997). Pilot survey feedback helped reduce these inherent risks and checked timing and phrasing. 4.1.2 Questionnaire Sampling and Response Rates I established credibility, trust and access with my sites gatekeepers to facilitate a self-administered simple sample survey of all studio tenants present at 36 Lime Street, the Mushroom Works and the Biscuit Factory. I used a concise preprepared introduction, stressing the questionnaires brevity, purpose, and opportunity for respondents opinion on issues affecting them personally. A number of respondents became engrossed, allowing for extensive interviews and opportunities for participant observation to naturally develop, which I carefully recorded.

I elicited very high response rates (c.80%) but, despite staggering surveying over 1 week and employing repeat round-up visits, numerous studios were vacant due to irregular hours (24 hour studio access). Revealingly, response rates dropped to 25% at QBDC, due to requirements to deposit and collect questionnaires from firms pigeon holes.

4.1.3 Interviews Multiple interview sourcing (see appendix for full list) allowed me to draw upon a variety of stakeholder perspectives. (James, 2005). Whilst questionnaire design necessarily involved deduction and hypothesis-testing, my interviewing

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was based principally on the grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) technique of inductively building theory. This allowed me later to compare literature to theories emerging from my results, and reduced the risk of twisting results to fit a priori theoretical deductions.

I typically treated my semi-structured interviews as a social encounter, warming up the interviewee and developing a rapport. (Valentine, 1997). Initially straightforward open-ended questions allowed respondents scope to raise new issues for categorisation (e.g. commercialisation of art) that I might not have anticipated (Silverman, 1993), or to independently reinforce existing key themes (future affordability concerns). I would clarify emerging themes by repeating them back, and probe my evolving list of existing core categories with hanging (Valentine, 1997) or controversial questions, whilst avoiding leading statements.

The mental gymnastics of maintaining structure whilst allowing the spontaneity of the interviewees own flow were challenging, but there were seldom ethical or vulnerability concerns besides maintaining my personal and political neutrality. I dressed in accordance with my respondents and recorded key notes during interview. I verified daily these notes and quotations against Dictaphone recordings and I would separately add additional personal impressions and updated my coding and theory building.

4.1.4 Lime Square Property Advertisement Discourse Analysis Being unable to questionnaire survey or interview residents of the unfinished Lime Square due to the (future) March 2006 completion date, I opted to analyse the advertising and marketing of the development. I wanted to assess the profile of the target audience, the manner in which Newcastle and Ouseburn were marketed, and the rhetorical parallels with Floridas Creative Places work.

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4.2 Limitations
4.2.1 General Case studies offer rich data with high validity, whilst situating and interpreting data within their wider context (Yin, 2002). Criticisms of case study reliability overlook the notion that the case study inferential mechanism relies upon, the cogency of the theoretical reasoning, rather than the statistical representativeness of the case (Mitchell, 1983).

Nevertheless, common criticisms levelled at qualitative cultural economic research include a lack of engagement with big public policy issues (Peck, 1999), cherry picking of examples and quotations (Markusen, 1999), inability to replicate or verify the research (Yeung, 2003), and what Martin (2001) describes as, the drift towards thin empirics and anecdotal, single use case studies.

Countering these risks, my research questions engaged with contemporary (inter)national policy dilemmas, whilst an inductive theory-building methodology limited researcher bias. Triangulation of data sources and collection methods, and the Likert Scale, bolstered empirics and scope for replication for a future comparative study (e.g. repeat study in Ouseburn 2015). Regrettably, however, my case studys temporal depth (James, 2005) was constrained and multi-site national comparison (Markusen, 1999) between Ouseburn and Hoxton or Castlefield, for example, was infeasible.

4.2.2 Questionnaires My questionnaire design negated closed-question rigidity constraints with its open comment section. In hindsight, however, some questions proved superfluous (e.g. Q9), whilst assumptions of participant awareness were occasionally over optimistic. For example, a number of respondents at QBDC and the Biscuit Factory were unaware of the Lime Square or Woods Pottery

19

developments, whilst many QBDC respondents felt detached and lacked the marked engagement of 36 Lime Street respondents.

4.2.3 Interviews Qualitative material generated by interviews is rich, detailed and multi-layered, producing a deeper picture than questionnaires. But their fluid individuality precludes replication, with corroboration attainable only by similar studies or complementary techniques (Burgess, 1994). By being personally reflexive, I recognise that my positionality as a non-Geordie student shaped the questions I asked, my interpretations of responses and the value judgements I assigned.

Below: Looking north over Ouseburn tidal river to 36 Lime Street warehouses

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Data Interpretation
[See Appendix for Data Analysis]

5.1 What is the Ouseburns significance in Newcastle City Councils wider urban vision, and can Ouseburn be considered a neo-bohemian neighbourhood?
5.1.1 Newcastles Creative City Vision and Ouseburns Significance Like other former industrial powerhouses, Newcastle and Gateshead underwent traumatic deindustrialisation from the 1970s, and were once viewed as bleak symbols of urban decline and social unrest (e.g. 1991 Scotswood riots). Now they receive national acclaim as flagship cultural regeneration success stories, with John Prescott applauding how, Newcastle and Gateshead are working together to regenerate a riverfront that offers world class cultural attractions against the Tynes spectacular backdrop. (ODPM, 2004).

Between 1987 and 1998, Newcastles Quayside was regenerated as part of the Tyne and Wear Development Corporations property-boosterism approach (Harvey, 1989). Transformed from a rat infested swamp (Miles, 1998), Quayside is now a Docklands-style landscape of panoramic riverside walkways adorned with modern art, luxury waterfront apartments, large-scale offices, and an influx of upmarket hotels, bars and specialist leisure or shopping venues.

Gateshead Council post-1980s regeneration process has privileged culture as a catalyst, with the popularity of Anthony Gormleys Angel of the North proving the tipping point for the subsequent, top-down surgical approach of iconic projects attracting international investment and publicity,1 financed by Lottery, European and Arts Council funding. Gateshead Quays cultural renaissance centres upon the iconic 46m BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts, 1950s flour mill opened in 2002, and Sir Norman Fosters 70m Sage Gateshead concert hall (2005), with the 22m Millennium Bridge (2001) and forming a circuit between the Quays, creating a Central Tyneside district (Miles, 1998).
1

Paul Rubenstein, Newcastle City Council Head of Economic and Cultural Affairs

21

Richard Floridas Creative Cities vision was cited explicitly as Newcastle and Gateshead recently combined to recast their image as a singular world-class creative city (Visit Newcastle-Gateshead, 2006) to launch the unsuccessful Capital of Culture 2008 bid. The iconic live-work-play arenas of Quayside and Gateshead Quays frame central Tyneside as a vibrant, cosmopolitan, and happening place in which art, music, and lifestyle thrive (Zukin, 1995).

Miles and Paddinson (2005) situate such strategies within a broader UK trend in which, Floridas work resonates deeply with the regeneration agenda and has captured the imagination of policymakers. For example, the DCMS (2004) Culture at the Heart of Regeneration report states that, Florida argues that cities will only thrive if they are able to attract the new breed of creative, skilled people who want to live in places with high-quality cultural facilities.

Tyneside is undergoing an amazing transformation as it re-invents itself as a modern city with a vibrant cosmopolitan culture. The new Tyneside has a buzz about it. It's no longer a case of 'coals to Newcastle' but of 'cool culture on Tyneside The area's cultural heart is pumping with new life as it sees itself as a major European city like Milan or Madrid. At night it buzzes with people out for a great night out or taking a late evening stroll on the riverside promenade.

All quotations from Visit Newcastle-Gateshead 2006 (VNG, 2006) http://www.visitnewcastlegateshead.com/

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Creative industry clusters, currently employing 26,000, are also presented as integral to the North Easts future, as, the reputation of the region as a hothouse for creative minds is extending far outside its boundaries, with graduates drawn from across the globe and many examples of creative professionals relocating here. (One North East, 2005).

Minton (2003) adds that, cities with soul are proving increasingly attractive to mobile knowledge-based workers, whose willingness to move for greater quality of place is giving rise to the brain gain phenomenon. With parallels to Florida, she argues that, creative professionals are increasingly choosing to live in cities like Newcastle and Gateshead which provide the authenticity and sense of identity they seek.

These trends combine in Mintons (2003) survey of 70 Newcastle and Gateshead firms in the creative industry fields of architecture, PR, advertising, web design and TV / film production, which revealed that, a growing number of creative, highly skilled professionals are now being attracted by the quality of place in cities like Newcastle and Gateshead. 54% of firms said that they were increasingly employing people from outside the North East, whilst 25% said they recruited a majority of their employees from outside the region. The Labour Force Survey (ONS, 2003) supports a wider shift from a brain drain to a brain gain, reporting that 2002 was the first year for a decade with a net migration into the North East.

Nathan and Urwin (2005) believe that, the growth of city centre living is the most visible symbol of urban renaissance, with such populations (1991-2001) growing 40% in Liverpool (to 13,500) and nearly 300% in Manchester (to 10,000). Although Newcastle and Gateshead are figureless, there is ample anecdotal evidence2 of, affluent young professionals from all over the country snapping up properties on Quayside.3

2 3

Times Property Supplement, 2006 Kings Sturge Property Consultants, Grey Street, Newcastle

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But despite the cities apparent success at attracting the Creative Class to live and work, urban policy remains sensitive to Floridas prescriptions as we are informed earnestly that, Professor Richard Florida believes that the key driver of any areas economy lies in the creativity and cultural lives of those that live, work and study there. So is the North Easts Bohemian Index high enough to regenerate its urban areas, or is it still viewed as an industrially centred, cultural desert? (One North East, 2005).

Ouseburns status as a neo-bohemian neighbourhood and one of Newcastles three key cultural clusters makes it crucial therefore to Newcastles wider creative city vision, despite its small population and modest local economy.

Above: Central Tyneside as seen from Ouseburn at sunset

Above left: Millennium Bridge, looking East towards Quayside and Ouseburn Above right: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts in Gateshead 24

5.1.2 Ouseburn as a Neo-Bohemian Creative Hotspot Whilst self-identification as a bohemian neighbourhood (Q10) was only moderately strong (QBDC +9% to Biscuit Factory +29%), there are strong parallels between the Ouseburn and Lloyds (2002) study of Wicker Park, Chicago, whilst Paul Rubenstein4 labelled Ouseburn as Newcastles Hoxton.

The areas creative population continues to be attracted by the cultural depth of the Ouseburns embedded Victorian industrial heritage, reflecting that, it is not merely the cheap rents and large empty buildings that bring the artists flocking. A strong sense of history, embedded local culture and identity, are also appealing to creatives who crave authenticity and gritty realism. (Minton, 2003). Mirroring Lloyds (2002) findings in Wicker Park, Dale Bolland5 confirmed that the association of Ouseburns gritty post-industrial aestheticised spaces with creative energy had helped attract new media and high-growth creative firms, such as Karol Marketing or the Cluny music recording studio. Andy Balman6, reiterated that we are glad that we located The Biscuit Factory in the Ouseburn Valley. The area is well known for it creative vibe and we wanted to build on this excitement.

My survey confirmed the expected concentrations of creative industries (100% of firms in 3 of my 4 locations) and Mr Bolland spoke of demand outstripping office capacity, with price rise and buyouts as semi-mature firms full of creative types want to live and work in such a funky area. Nick James7 described, huge waiting lists for studios at 36 Lime Street and 25 people on mine already at the Mushroom Works. But there was agreement that the Ouseburn is, definitely happening now, but it wasnt before. The place has completely flipped in 5 years: people used to say why are you down there? Now they want a place

4 5

Paul Rubenstein, Newcastle City Council Head of Economic and Cultural Affairs Dale Bolland, Newcastle City Council Head of Ouseburn regeneration 6 Andy Balman, owner of The Biscuit Factory art gallery and studio 7 Nick James, furniture maker and founder of Mushroom Works studios

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themselves.8 Nick James reiterated this newfound popularity, with architects, marketing people and film directors wanting to tap into the trendy bohemianism.

The survey revealed, however, that QBDC was actually a small-business cluster with 73% of its firms not creative. In contrast to the emotional attachment to Ouseburn expressed elsewhere, QBDCs lack of engagement was captured by the comment9, I only come here to work; I have no knowledge of the Ouseburn area and the facilities it provides. Consequently, QBDC acts as a useful proxy to compare creative and non-creative firm characteristics.

5.2 What are the notable characteristics of the creative workers operating in Ouseburn and how do their attributes and politics compare with other members of the Creative Class?
5.2.1 The Distinctive Characteristics of Ouseburns Creative Workers My surveys and interviews identify a set of distinct urban artist characteristics, consistent with those recognised by Markusens USA research (2005). Markusens definition for artists encompasses writers, musicians, visual artists and performing artists, however, whilst I employed the DCMSs wider 13category creative workers definition, clear parallels can still be drawn.

Firstly, the Ouseburns creatives display markedly high group educational attainment, with 64% of Lime Street/Mushroom Works and 72% of Biscuit Factory respondents possessing a university degree or higher, in contrast with only 36% at QBDC or 10% in the wider North East. These findings approximate the Chicago Artists Survey 2000, which revealed degree attainment at 87% for artists and 25% for the wider metropolitan area (Markusen, 2005), and Leys (2003) categorisation of artists as members of the middle class due to their high levels of cultural capital and education.

8 9

Anonymous Biscuit Factory respondent Anonymous QBDC respondent

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Secondly, the majority of respondents were self-employed, with mean total employees per firm just 1 at Lime Street/Mushroom Works and 2 at the Biscuit Factory, and operate in artistic networks (Becker, 1982) and symbiotic relationships (Markusen and King, 2003). The majority of creative respondents stressed the importance to their business of co-operative setups (55% surveyed at 36 Lime Street) or the artistic network (86% at the Biscuit Factory), with Sue Woolhouse10 describing, the small networks of friends who support each other through bartering or nominal payment.

Mr Bolland makes a crucial distinction between cultural industries run by lifestyle individuals, and high-growth creative industries. Ouseburns cultural industries comprise almost entirely self-employed craftsmen and fine artists whose minimal incomes make them dependent on cheap rents, but they provide a wider public good through their contribution to the areas reputation as a cultural hotspot, mirroring Lloyds (2002) findings from Wicker Park. Meanwhile, Ouseburns commercially-oriented creative industries in the design, publishing, television, film and music sectors can afford to pay a secondgeneration premium to buy into the creative milieu.

The Ouseburns level of creative entrepreneurialism varied, with the artist-led Mushroom Works praised for, offering a balance between low rent and the need to attract commercially viable businesses.11 Nick James, spoke of the realities of needing to make money, whilst criticising how, for some arty farty types profit is a dirty word. The Ouseburn Trust reiterated this message by explaining how many at 36 Lime Street, were weekend water colourists, ingrained in the hippy way.12 They cautioned that some people there have their head in the sand, and that the majority are lifestyles businesses that may be unable to cope with the future demands of the Valley.13

Deutsche (1996) describes how artists are frequently disdainful of the capitalist system and its commodification that dumbs down the creative act into the
10 11

Sue Woolhouse, 36 Lime Street secretary and glass artist Peter Kay, Ouseburn Trust 12 Kirsen Luckins, Ouseburn Trust 13 Peter Kay, Ouseburn Trust

27

language of money and requires the sacred space of their studio to be ravaged by the gangsterism of the art world, an ideological current evident in the Valley. For example, The Biscuit Factory, which exhibits local artists pieces for between 20 and 20,000, was derided by some as, a garden centre that appeals to posh people, and all about money with 100% markup plus VAT,14 Andy Balman chastised as, a pure businessman taking money off artists.15

In summary, there is strong evidence of the Ouseburn artists left-leaning politics (Markusen, 2005) and suspicion of commodification (Deutsche, 1996), summed up by one artists remark that, my generation are all old left-wingers, socialists, and anarchists. We find capitalism repugnant, but I believe we have to deal with the real economy.16

Above upper: Arts and craft products of Ouseburns cultural industries

Above lower: Sue Woolhouses glass workshop and studio at 36 Lime Street

14 15

Sue Woolhouse, secretary 36 Lime Street Nick James, furniture maker and founder of Mushroom Works 16 Tim Kendall, 36 Lime Street furniture maker

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5.2.2 Quaysides Encroachment into Ouseburn: Yuppies or the Creative Professionals? Aware of the market possibilities, developers are now consciously meeting the demand for centrally located dwellings for young monied non-child households in Newcastle. Much of the success of Quayside riverside apartments, such as St Anns Quay and Mariners Wharf, has been their ability to market a luxury riverside living lifestyle much cheaper than in London, offering a best bet for personal investment17.

East Quaysides Lime Square development boasts of Newcastles simply sublime city living and the citys reinvention as the ideal place to live, work and play with a quality of life second to none. The promotional literatures cast of young, fun-loving, glamorous and sophisticated urban elite urge the target audience of presumably like-minded young professionals to forget the rush hour, take on the town and enjoy more time to spend.

Through these discursive strategies, Lime Square targets itself directly at these time-poor young urban upwardly-mobile professionals with, a life full of work, commitments, movement and meetings, to whom, a central location saves times in journey to work, entertainment and contact with social networks. (Short, 1989). Crucially, Lime Square also presents itself as the gateway to the Ouseburn Valley with, your new home just minutes away from the vibrant life of Newcastles Quayside, yet right next to the burgeoning cool of the Ouseburn Valley an oasis of calm away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

The brochure declares that, its time you discovered whats happening in the Ouseburn, evoking a frontier myth in which glamour and chic are spiced with just a hint of danger and the rawness of the neighbourhood is part of the appeal. (Smith, 1986). Like the Lower East Sides romanticisation, Ouseburn is presented as a state of mind and personality where urban attitude meets boho chic, whilst the developments name explicitly seeks to associate itself with the Lime Street bohemian enclave.
17

David Leslie, Sanderson Young property consultants assessment of Lime Square

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Such apartment developments are being marketed to moneyed young professionals seeking both Quaysides high profile attractions, and Ouseburns more authentic and edgy cultural consumption opportunities and rising social cachet as a chic neo-bohemian neighbourhood. Ouseburn therefore acts a prime example of the kind of, culturally validated neighbourhoods (that) automatically provide new middle classes with the collective identity and social credentials for which they strive. (Zukin, 1987).

Floridas creative professionals group corresponds strongly with the target audience, being occupationally interchangeable with the new middle class (Markusen, 2005) and sharing yuppie lifestyle characteristics and the need, above all elseto validate their identities as creative people. (Florida, 2005). Floridas relentlessly upbeat anecdotal accounts earnestly relate the Creative Classs individualistic lifestyle and consumption habits, which one of his former teachers, Peter Marcuse, (2005) critically assesses as, an engaging account of the lifestyle preferences of yuppies.

When Florida (2005) informs us, for instance, that the Creative Class, crave stimulation, not escape: they want to pack their time full of dense, high quality, multi-dimensional experiences, (Florida, 2005) there is a strong sense of dejavu. One harps back to the hedonistic and self-indulgent individualist philosophy typically associated pejoratively with the conspicuous consumption of 1980s Wall Street yuppie culture or the 1990s dot-com bohemian bourgeois or bobos (Brooks, 2000).

Through my analysis of Lime Squares marketing discourses, I contend that Floridas Creative Professionals are likely to be prevalent amongst the new middle class gentrifiers attracted to such city living corporate developments in neo-bohemian neighbourhoods. I have also demonstrated that Ouseburns Supercreative Core artists, as a political interest group have very little in common with most others occupations in Floridas misnamed Creative Class. (Markusen, 2005), notably the bankers, lawyers, doctors and other members of the Creative Professionals, who they regard as yuppies. 30

5.3 Is Ouseburns authenticity threatened by yuppification, the buzz to bland cycle and the artist gentrification cycle, and if so do Floridas Creative Cities prescriptions ameliorate or exacerbate these tendencies?
5.3.1 The Lime Square Development Raises Fears of Ouseburns Yuppification amongst the Artist Population Lime Square met with strident opposition in Ouseburn, with 36 Lime Street workers (55% negative response to Q4) arguing that, if thats an indication of how the Valley is heading then were in trouble.18 Described variously as horrible, appalling, all about profit and a big lump lauding it over the Valley, Lime Square was generally viewed threateningly as, representing everything we dont want,19 by 36 Lime Streets co-operative workers.

Despite scathing aesthetic remarks that Lime Square has been plonked down and could dully exist anywhere adds nothing to the Valley and has nothing to do with Lime Street 20, chief outcry centred around the perceived, greed coming in now with the speculative developments, 21 and the developments lack of community integration. One graphic designer explained how he wanted, people with a vested interest in the communitys future, rather than national property firms with no stake in the local community.22 Others saw it as aimed at young people or students with rich parents buying up property, whilst vicious rumours circled of a single investor buying up 70 apartments for the buy-to-let market.23

The Ouseburn Trust confirmed that the Ouseburn address has become a brand that developers are keen to market, with, the real Ouseburn becoming blurred with East Quayside. The Trust reiterated their opposition to mono-culture developments which bulldoze existing buildings, stating that they, dont want St Anns Quay and Mariners Wharf apartments replicated in Ouseburn.
18 19

Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 1 Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 3 20 Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 1 21 Sue Woolhouse, secretary 36 Lime Street 22 Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 4 23 Nick James, owner of Mushroom Works

31

Greatly increased private residential developments form the centrepiece, however, of the Ouseburn Partnerships 2003-10 regenerations strategy, with almost 500 new dwellings and over 10,000 square metres of workshop, office, retail and leisure facilities are planned for development by 2008, totalling 12m public sector and 140m private sector investment (OP, 2003). But Mr Bolland explained that the noted antagonism between developers and local interests (Short, 1989; Smith in Sorkin, 1992) means that only 2 major sites are currently being developed.

In contrast to Lime Square, respondents were overwhelmingly positive about the smaller Woods Pottery development (QBDC +32% to 36 Lime Street/MW +64%) which was seen as sensitively considering original character,24 and fitting the Trusts small is beautiful25 philosophy. But such high-quality live/work studios were prohibitively expensive for most traditional artists or craftspeople, and aimed instead at emulators of the artist loft lifestyle (Zukin, 1982), such as designers, media executives and those in advertising26 and the more aesthetically demanding and moneyed members of the Creative Class.

5.3.2 Ouseburns Future Regeneration Threatens a Buzz to Bland and Gentrification Cycle Existing regeneration was praised (QBDC +18% to +50% BF) for dramatically improving the area27 and its moderation and sensitivity, and Ouseburn regeneration officers, Dale Bolland and Peter McIntyre, were widely applauded and trusted. One artist commented how Dale and Peter were supportive of enterprises like ours before they were sexy.28

The Ouseburn Partnerships 2003-10 Regeneration Strategy seeks to maintain the Valleys balance, whilst simultaneously accelerating the pace of
24 25

Anonymous Biscuit Factory respondent 1 Peter Kay, Ouseburn Trust 26 Nick James, owner of Mushroom Works 27 Anonymous Biscuit Factory respondent 2 28 Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 5

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development to meet escalating residential and business demand of this untapped resource29. Mr Bolland explained how current business capacity has been reached and so significant new and refurbished workspace will be developed to meet the escalating demand from arts and culture, ICT and new media businesses. But the strategy reflects the DCMSs (2004) sustainable urban governance concerns by recognising that the key issue is how the opportunities for developing housing, business and leisure uses can be taken without destroying the Ouseburns unique character. (OP, 2003).

A strong protectionist lobby, however, emanating principally from 36 Lime Street, fear that the new strategys implementation will lead to a regeneration frenzy30, the unwanted encroachment of Quayside party city culture31 and the risk of, overdevelopment by overzealous planners.32 Mintons (2003) buzz to bland cycle was highlighted as artists cautioned how, more monolithic 1 or 2 bedroom housing development will ruin the cultural diversity of the Valley and threaten the essence of creativity which brings the development in,33 with Mr Bolland conceding that, private sector developers are concentrating on 1 person flats for yuppies.

Strongest fears centred on an impending, classic gentrification cycle with developers moving in and shitting on everyone else, with, artists and creatives bearing the brunt first. 34 Others described how, the artists will get bought out and the area will become bland posh flats and a playground for yuppies,35 and their concerns that, if overly gentrified the Ouseburn will lose its soul.36 Similar predictions were voiced by policymakers, with Mr Bolland conceding the likelihood of, the standard gentrification model of bohemians being driven out, and the Ouseburn Trust believing that, inevitably things are going to

Dale Bolland, Head of Newcastle City Councils Ouseburn regeneration team Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 6 31 Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 4 32 Ronnie Forster, Biscuit Factory 33 Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 1 34 Nick James, owner of Mushroom Works 35 Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 4 36 Anonymous Biscuit Factory respondent 3
30

29

33

change and artists will sell out. The alternative to this trend is no redevelopment at all.

The Ouseburn Partnerships strategy seeks to address these concerns with its commitment to avoid homogenous single tenure areas and instead incorporate a diversity of size, tenure and price, and, support for conversions coinciding with the historical grain of the Valley.37 But the current construction of a barrage across the tidal Ouseburns mouth to facilitate, the regeneration of derelict riverside sites into a vibrant canal-side, (OP, 2003) promises major upheaval and community friction within the Valley.

Lower-level 36 Lime Street workers voiced fears that the water-level rise would flood their basement studios, whilst there was wider cynicism that the barrage was acting, as a fillip to developers wanting to build or convert riverside apartments that seek to attract Quayside people. Mr Bolland confirmed that the barrage, as well as effecting environmental improvements, would be a symbolic appeal to developers who want a canal-side environment, but one tenant angrily decried that, I dont want a barrage built so some posh yuppie knob can mess around on his balcony throwing Ferrero Rochers at the ducks in the canal below.38

Many 36 Lime Street tenants were worried about the future I could lose my studio,39 with Sue Woolhouse particularly concerned that the warehouses, new director has been looking to push up rents or sell the place to residential developers. She explained that the co-operatives lack of commercial focus was, fraught with tension as we desperately aim to raise funds as the owner of the building looks to sell to the highest bidder.

Overall, my findings correspond with Zukins (1987) research that existing artists and bohemians, may resent the superimposition of an alien culture with different consumption patterns and an accelerated pace of change on their
37

Dale Bolland, Head of Newcastle City Councils Ouseburn regeneration team Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 4 39 Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 7
38

34

community, and are adversely affected and priced-out by an influx of 2nd generation gentrifiers and cultural consumers, high in economic capital and low in cultural capital. (Leys, 2003).

5.3.3 Do Floridas Creative Cities prescriptions ameliorate or exacerbate these tendencies (in neo-bohemian neighbourhoods)? The established nature of much of Floridas urban prescriptions in Newcastle was confirmed by Paul Rubensteins comment that, One North East RDA paid Florida a lot of money to come to the SAGE Gateshead in 2004 and tell us what we already knew but a lot is also fundamentally common sense.

Peck (2005) argues Floridas Creative Places policies mean that, a premium is therefore placed on the capacity of cities to make their authentic, funky neighbourhoods welcoming to moneyed incomers. He cites Michigans Cool Cities programme as emblematic of this new public policy aim of attracting and retaining those, urban pioneers and young knowledge workers who are a driving force for economic development and growth. (Michigan, 2004).

Consistent with Pecks analysis, central to Newcastles Creative City vision is the public and private-sector place-marketing of authentic neighbourhoods like Ouseburn in order to foster a brain gain of moneyed knowledge workers or Creative Professionals. Peck (2005) criticises such, public validation for favoured forms of consumption and for a privileged class of consumers, in which, indulging selective forms of elite consumption and social interaction is elevated to the status of a public-policy objective in the creative cities script.

But whilst public-sector backed positive gentrification of the inner city is a core component of Newcastles urban policy (Cameron, 2002), Pecks criticisms are misplaced when applied to Newcastle City Councils policy on neo-bohemian areas. The Ouseburn Partnerships regeneration so far has been judged a success by both a cross-section of stakeholder interests and economic, social and environmental indicators, in large part because of its reluctance to

35

indulge selective forms of elite consumption, (Peck, 2005) such as yuppie flat developments.

On the other hand, however, policymakers from Mr Bolland to the Ouseburn Trust highlighted the Valleys evolution, with the protectionist interests of the original 1st generation artistic pioneers (Zukin, 1982) now in friction with the private and public sectors ambitions for major economic regeneration and, welcoming moneyed incomers. (Peck, 2005). Revealingly, my A3 travel to work maps demonstrate how few Ouseburn workers actually live in the Ouseburn regeneration area, suggesting their stake in the community is perhaps not as great as they suggest.

I believe that in the case of Newcastle, Floridas bottom-up creative empowerment strategies do contribute inexorably to the artist gentrification and buzz to bland cycle. Although a more subtle process than the pronounced yuppification evident of much top-down urban boosterism, Floridas prescriptions facilitate the emergence of, and Council support for, an artistic mode of production, in which increasingly entrepreneurial artistic enclaves are exploited for profit. (Zukin, 2001).

I aim to have demonstrated this trends occurrence through my analysis of the Lime Square development and its commodification of the Valley, which is exacerbating trends towards an artistic and buzz to bland cycle. Moreover, the Councils intervention to build a barrage as a fillip to developers seeking to create a canal-side apartment environment indicates that the Council is increasingly favouring the interests of investment capital over cultural producers.

36

5.4 What urban governance challenges do neo-bohemian neighbourhoods present and how can these be feasibly met?

5.4.1 Affordability and Diversity: Necessary Regulation or Protectionist Obstacles to Development? My interviews and surveys reveal general acknowledgement across Ouseburns stakeholders that the gentrification cycle and private development will prevail inevitably in time. But this prediction was accompanied by widespread concerns that the areas transformation from one of cultural production to cultural consumption threatens a loss of authenticity and soul, and hence the erosion of Ouseburns principal appeal. Paul Rubenstein40 situated Ouseburn in the wider cultural regeneration context by likening the areas, organic bottom-up regeneration, to, the artists of SoHo or Hoxton seeking out cheap space in derelict areas. But this grassroots-level regeneration is connected to, and impacted by, top-down property-boosterism, such as Quayside Dockland-style development. Rubenstein revealed a critical engagement with urban boosterisms limitations (Fainstein, 1994) by explaining how, approaches predicated on increasing property prices per square foot clash with the bottom-up approach.

Fully aware of Mintons buzz to bland study in Newcastle, he expressed his concern at the Quayside property price effect and that, increasing gentrification threatens to kill off the goose that laid the golden egg in Ouseburn, with the cultural producers being displaced. He went onto describe how, Ouseburn is on the cusp of major development the test of its continued vitality will be in 2015. But do we want to knock out the scruffiness?

Mr Rubenstein saw his role as, creating a light-touch mechanism that supports mavericks, without acting as the dead hand of the state. We are being extremely

40

Paul Rubenstein, Newcastle City Council Head of Economic and Cultural Affairs

37

sensitive to nurture that at the moment, but this is by far the most challenging urban public policy and planning dilemma.

This challenge centres particularly around maintaining the Ouseburns affordability for low-income cultural producers and artists, whilst continuing to develop the areas economic and residential potential. Cheap rents or rates was identified by 100% of 36 Lime Street and 86% of Biscuit Factory respondents in their top 3 reasons to locate in the Ouseburn, reflecting Lloyds (2002) belief that, a relatively moderate cost of living is necessary in maintaining the balance of cultural offerings neobohemian neighbourhoods provide.

Similarly, there was widespread concern expressed that this affordability risked being, confounded by the classic growth machine pressures for ever rising rents and property prices. (Logan and Molotch, 1987). My survey captured this sentiment with overwhelming agreement (Q8 = QBDC +36% to 36 Lime St/MW +64%) that, future investment and development in the area must be regulated to ensure affordable housing and low business rents for existing locals living or working in Ouseburn.

There were resounding protectionist demands, led again by 36 Lime Streets financially insecure artists, for, the need for planning regulations targeting resources at and positively discriminating in favour of Ouseburns creative people and social enterprises,41 and a call to, maintain a mixed use development of the Valley to retaining its unique features, and, planning regulations to maintain diversity. 42

But 36 Lime Streets longest-serving tenant, Tim Kendall, expressed his maverick dissent at, this mistaken belief that artists have a divine right to subsidised accommodation, and the way in which, lots of people are opposed to any new housing besides that for the mythical starving artist. The Councils Head of Strategic Planning, Colin Percy explained that, people in Ouseburn are being fussy. From a citywide perspective there are more than enough cheap houses, such as 10-20,000 houses in Scotswood, so why should there be a need to focus on affordable housing?

41 42

Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 1 Anonymous 36 Lime Street respondent 3

38

This diverging opinion amongst stakeholders emphasises that the nature and pace of regeneration is not a technical value-free judgement, but rather a politically contested decision that benefiting certain interest groups over others. State institutions play an important role in defining the economic and social value of an urban area through zoning laws, historic district designations and property tax assessments (Zukin, 1982) and structuring the power relations between profit-seeking developers and local community interests, as the Regeneration Strategy and barrages construction demonstrate. 5.4.2 Why Sustainable Urban Governance in Neo-Bohemian Neighbourhoods Matters, and Pointers to How it Can be Achieved Newcastle City Council recognise that external pressures, such as the demand for single high-value private sector-led residential developments like Lime Square and the non-accountability of some developers to interests other than those of profit accumulation, will require intensive management to ensure, the Ouseburns demographic is maintained.43 The Council has therefore appointed what is believed to be the first cultural estates manager in the UK, with manager Liz Archer44 seeing her job as to ensure, a balance between commercial interests and support for artists.

The integration of sustainable urban governance commitments into the Ouseburn Partnerships future regeneration strategy reflects the Councils view that, artists as a group make an important, positive contribution to the diversity and vitality of cities, and their agendas cannot be conflated with neo-liberal urban political regimes. (Markusen, 2005). Significantly, artists contribute public goods45 of cultural production and a creative vibe, which are vital inputs to a neo-bohemian neighbourhoods authenticity, but that are fatally eroded by the buzz to bland cycle.

Peck (2005) explains that, Florida concedes that the crowding of creatives into gentrifying neighbourhoods might generate inflationary housing-market pressures, that not only run the risk of eroding the diversity that the Class craves, but, worse still, could smother the fragile ecology of creativity itself. I argue that Floridas
Paul Rubenstein, Newcastle City Council Head of Economic and Cultural Affairs Liz Archer, Newcastle City Council Cultural Estates Manager 45 Dale Bolland, Newcastle City Council, Head of Ouseburn Regeneration
44 43

39

Creative Places vision based on authenticity and indigenous street culture, is undermined severely, beyond the short-term, by the artist gentrification and buzz to bland cycles.

As the Ouseburn Partnerships regeneration objectives argue, it is strongly in the longer-term interests of public and private stakeholders in neo-bohemian neighbourhoods to seek initiatives to nurture the positive, and counter the negative aspects, of the cycles in order to maintain the loveability of the area. (Markusen and King, 2003). But how can these objectives be achieved feasibly when the artists lack economic capital and the Council have multiple priorities, seek best value economic and rate returns, and wish to avoid acting, as the dead hand of the state46?

One international role model is, Artspace, an artist-led North American not-for-profit company founded in 1979 in Minneapolis historic Warehouse District to counter the artist gentrification cycle. It is now one of USA and Canadas leading property developers for the arts, with a mission to create, foster and preserve affordable space for artists by combining roles as landlord, developer and manager.

Artspaces flagship Tilsner Artists Co-operative in St Paul development, cited by one 36 Lime Street questionnaire respondent as their choice of area most similar to the Ouseburn, saw a former Victorian warehouse converted into a thriving live / work loft community of 66 artists and their families. Meanwhile in Toronto, Artspace is currently the landlord for tenants in 206 affordable studio, live/work units, with The City of Toronto funding 10% of the annual budget demonstrating the potential for public-private partnerships to achieve shared objectives.

Above: Artspaces Tilsner Artist Co-operative warehouse, St Paul, Minnesota, USA

46

Paul Rubenstein, Newcastle City Council Head of Economic and Cultural Affairs

40

Conclusion
Through my surveys and interviews I have shown firstly that Ouseburn does indeed share many of the characteristics of a neo-bohemian neighbourhood (Lloyd, 2002), such as artist-led regeneration facilitating development as a creative industry hotspot. I aim to have highlighted Ouseburns crucial significance to the Council and One North Easts Creative City vision by showing that as an authentic neo-bohemian neighbourhood it contributes to a brain gain of knowledge workers and creative industries attracted to the quality of place of Newcastle city living.

Secondly, my research has underlined the distinctive characteristics of Ouseburns Supercreative Core (Florida, 2002) artists, such as high educational attainment or self-employment, and suspicion of commodification (Deutsche, 1996). This contrasts with the attributes and values of the Creative Professionals (Florida, 2002) who help make up the 2nd generation gentrifiers and therefore, I concur with Markusen (2005) at, the implausibility of artists common cause with other members of Floridas Creative Class, such as scientists, engineers, managers and lawyers, many of whom exhibit similar lifestyle characteristics and locational decisions to young urban upwardly-mobile professionals (Marcuse, 2005).

My analysis of the Lime Square development serves to highlight, thirdly, that Ouseburns authenticity is indeed threatened by yuppification, the buzz to bland cycle (Minton, 2003) and the artist gentrification cycle, which a diversity of stakeholders acknowledge could erode the authenticity so-central to Ouseburns appeal as a creative place. On balance, I contend that Floridas Creative Class prescriptions have inevitably exacerbated the above tendencies in Newcastle and Ouseburn, and I caution that this trend will ultimately undermine the authenticity and quality of place, the Creative Class crave, (Florida, 2005) with, gentrification threatening to kill off the goose that laid the golden egg.47

I finish by focusing on the urban governance issues of affordability and diversity in neo-bohemian neighbourhoods and their tensions. Through interviews with diverse stakeholders at a variety of scales, I have highlighted the urban public policy
47

Paul Rubenstein, Newcastle City Council Head of Economic and Cultural Affairs

41

challenge posed by such neighbourhoods and show how Newcastle City Council are seeking balanced development that seeks to break the gentrification and buzz to bland cycles before their negative ramifications set-in.

Further research is required, however, before accepting Pecks (2005) claim that Floridas creative empowerment policies are so pervasive and popular in urban policy circles because they, do not disrupt these established approaches to urban entrepreneurialism and consumption-orientated place promotion, they extend them and can be met in relatively painless ways by manipulating street-level facades, whilst gently lubricating the gentrification process.

Ironically, this one-size-fits-all analysis of neo-liberal policy implementations ignores Pecks (1999) own earlier observation regarding the significance of the, paradox that while the policy formulation may be globalising, implementations and outcomes remain stubbornly embedded at the local level. Whilst I agree that Floridas Creative Cities vision, as Peck (2005) laments, will typically work quietly with the grain of existing development agendas, framed around interurban competition, gentrification, middle class consumption and place marketing, I believe my Ouseburn case study demonstrates that these processes and outcomes vary by place and can be counteracted (or exacerbated) by the agency of local public and private stakeholders.

Peck is right to emphasise the political economy analysis of the implementation of Floridas Creative Cities theorisations, and to recognise that culture can be used as a sop to distract attention from the underlying power relations that impose themselves on communities (Evans, 2005). But he is mistaken, however, to automatically assume that state institutions will generically employ zero-sum entrepreneurial urban strategies (Harvey, 1989) favouring the development of neo-liberalised landscapes. My case study demonstrates how Newcastle City Council urban governance objective in Ouseburn is to employ a light touch mechanism48 that in fact counters the production of buzz to bland landscapes and seeks to break the artist gentrification cycle.

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Paul Rubenstein, Newcastle City Council Head of Economic and Cultural Affairs

42

6 Appendix
6.1 Questionnaire Quantitative Data Presentation
6.1.1 Educational attainment
36 Lime Street & Mushroom Works
0% 9%

Quayside Business Development Centre

0% 18%

36%

27%

64%

No Qualifications HND

O/A-Levels Degree or above

No Qualifications HND

46% O/A-Levels Degree or above

Biscuit Factory
0% 14%

North East Average (DfES, 2002)

10% 8%
14%

32%

72%

No Qualifications HND

O/A-Levels Degree or above

50% No Qualifications HND

O/A-Levels Degree or above

6.1.2 Business Type

36 Lime Street and Mushroom Works 4 2 4 1 Biscuit Factory 1 4 1 1 Quayside Business Development Centre 1

Business Type Design (furniture and graphic) Fine art or antiques Crafts Video and multimedia IT Advertising Other / non-DCMS creative Total Total DCMS creative definition % DCMS creative definition

1 2 7 11 3 27%

11 11 100%

7 7 100%

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6.1.3 Factors Cited by Firms in their Decision to Locate in Ouseburn

3 most important factors cited in firms decision to locate in Ouseburn

36 Lime Street and Mushroom Works

Biscuit Factory

Quayside Business Development Centre

Affordability
1st

Affordability (86%) Artistic network (86%) Cultural hotspot (57%)

Good parking (91%)

(100%) Co-

2nd

operative setup (55%) Artistic

Facilities and space (82%)

rd

network (45%)

City centre location (64%)

Factors Cited by Businesses in their Decision to Locate in Ouseburn

Other

City centre location

Good parking

Heritage and character

QBDC

Cultural and creative hotspot

Biscuit Factory

Co-operative setup

36 Lime Street and Mushroom Works

Artistic network

Facilties and space

Affordable rents and rates

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

% of respondents who cited factor in their top 3 reasons to locate their business in Ouseburn

44

6.1.4 Likert Scale Attitudinal Responses

Q1 - Existing rengeneration developments have been successful in protecting and enhancing the distinct heritage and character of the Ouseburn Valley

Q2 - Ouseburn is becoming a sought after businbess location for the culture, creative and ICT sectors of the Newcastle economy 70% 50% 30% 10%

70% 50% 30% 10% -10% -30% -50% -70%

36 Lim e St & Biscuit Factory MW

QBDC

-10% -30% -50% -70%

36 Lim e St & Biscuit Factory MW

QBDC

70% 50% 30% 10% -10% -30% -50% -70%

Q3 - Increasing private-sector development in Ouseburn is good for my business and I would like to see a more dynamic, efficient, competitive and entrepreneurial business environment

Q4 - The Lime Square apartments represent the kind of development I would like to see more of in Ouseburn 70% 50% 30% 10%

36 Lim e St & MW

Biscuit Factory

QBDC

-10% -30% -50% -70%

36 Lim e St & MW

Biscuit Factory

QBDC

Q5 - The Woods Pottery conversions represent the kind of development I would like to see more of in Ouseburn 70%

Q6 - I would be intersted in renting or purchaasing high quality live / work units in Ouseburn 70%

50% 30% 10% -10% -30% -50% -70% 36 Lim e St & MW Biscuit Factory QBDC

50% 30% 10% -10% -30% -50% -70% 36 Lime St & MW Biscuit Factory QBDC

45

Q7 - There currently exists a healthy balance between profit-oriented and socially responsible investment and development in the Ouseburn 70% 50% 30% 10% -10% -30% -50% -70% Q9 - I would rather live in Ouseburn than in any other area in Newcastle or Gateshead 70% 50% 30% 10% -10% -30% -50% -70% 36 Lim e St & MW Biscuit Factory QBDC 36 Lim e St & Biscuit Factory MW QBDC

Q8 - Future investment and development in the area must be regulated to ensure affordable housing and low business rents for existing locals living or working in Ouseburn 70% 50% 30% 10% -10% -30% -50% -70% 36 Lim e St & Biscuit Factory MW QBDC

Q10- Ouseburn is a bohemian neighbourhood 70% 50% 30% 10% -10% -30% -50% -70% 36 Lim e St & Biscuit Factory MW QBDC

6.1.5 Additional Demographic and Business Information

Additional Demographic and Business Information
i) Modal respondent age ii) Mean children per respondent iii) Born in North East iv) Born outside UK v) Car ownership vi) Walk regularly to work vii) Mean date firm founded viii) Mean total employees per firm ix) Staff increases planned in next year x) Business premises operated beyond Ouseburn 36 Lime Street and Mushroom Works Biscuit Factory Quayside Business Development Centre

45-59 1 60% 10% 100% 50% 1997 1 10%

31-44 0.8 71% 14% 57% 43% 2004 2 14%

45-59 1.5 73% 27% 100% 0% 1999 4 36%

10%

29%

18%

46

6.1.6

Lime Square Apartments Advertising www.limesquare.info Your new home is just minutes away from the vibrant life of Newcastles Quayside, yet right next to the burgeoning cool of the Ouseburn Valley.

Lime Square is best bet for personal investment

David Leslie, a consultant to Sanderson Young, said: "There is tremendous regeneration going on in the Ouseburn Valley, and Lime Sq. is the first major residential scheme there. People should buy now as a best bet for personal investment. They should remember what the Quayside used to be like compared with now. The same is happening in Ouseburn. More than 150 million is being invested." Metier director Aidan Murphy said: "We have tried to create homes at Lime Sq. that will integrate into the Ouseburn community and also attract people who want to live in this fantastic urban village. The regeneration programme by Newcastle City Council is transforming the Valley to a vibrant community for people to live and work." 6 storey Metier development on western ridge of the valley 100 one or two bedroom apartments 115 underground parking spaces 1 bedroom, 700 sq. ft. = 175,000 2 bedroom, 750 sq. ft. = 215,000 3 bedroom, 1000 sq. ft. = 400,000

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Ouseburn Lifestyle - Urban attitude meets boho chic

Its time you discovered whats happening in the Ouseburn. Once the 17th Century hub of Newcastles glass and pottery makers, the Ouseburn is being transformed into an eclectic urban village and a focus for the citys thriving creative community. Rich in history, the Ouseburns fascinating old buildings and its magnificent valley- spanning bridges have earned it conservation area status and attracted a new breed of creative and fascinatingly individual businesses. Relax in the unpretentious surroundings of The Cluny where you can enjoy art, music and a rare beer or two. Discover new artistic talent in the gallery at The Biscuit Factory, where youll also find a restaurant recently voted one of the best in the North East. Future plans for the Ouseburn Valley area include a host of regeneration and development initiatives in the pipeline that will transform the area over the next five years. Driven by Newcastle City Council, the Ouseburn regeneration strategy aims to build on the distinctive character and charm of the area, developing the potential of its riverside location and its unique mix of historic riverside buildings and urban green spaces. A new tidal barrage is also under construction that will control the rivers flow and keep the water level high and to enable more boats to be moored along the lower Ouseburn. There are plans for restaurants, cafes and bars and we anticipate the Ouseburn to be as popular a place to live as the bustling Quayside has proven to be over recent years. So, if its vision youre after, youll find it in spades in the Ouseburn Valley.

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Newcastle Now Sublime City Living

Newcastles remarkable urban renaissance is gathering pace as it reinvents itself as the ideal place to live, work and play. Hip new bars and restaurants jostle to find their place in a night-time culture thats famous all over the world. Amazing new galleries and music venues add to an already thriving and vibrant cultural scene. Shops, cinemas and cafs vie for space along reinvigorated city streets where historic architecture has been sympathetically restored and revitalised. And all this is set against a stunning skyline of remarkable bridges and bustling quaysides. Discover a quality of life that is second to none plus the friendliest people youre ever likely to meet. Newcastle also has worldwide renown for its 'buzzing' night life in the bars, clubs and restaurants that pepper the city. Whilst high culture is equally well represented with no less than 4 theatres and numerous museums and art galleries. In short: Newcastle's city centre offers simply sublime city living.

49

6.2

Annotated Questionnaire

Referencing trusted Valley officials to assist credibility and access Postcodes used to plot GIS residential location and journey to work map

Replicating Mintons survey to assess recent brain gain

50

Do the firms meet any of the DCMSs 11 creative industry categories?

Do the firms fit Markusens selfemployed micro-firm profile?

Quantitative evidence on the Ouseburns key attractions to creatives

Selfidentification with other neobohemian neighbourhoods in UK or internationally?

51

Q1 & 2 assess local opinion on existing regeneration and whether the area is becoming a creative cluster Q3 tests a statement from the 2003-10 regeneration strategy document to assess opinion on Valleys development

Q4 & 5 test opinion on 2 starkly different approaches to Ouseburns residential development

52

Q7 Assesses opinion on current investment Q8 Assesses opinion for intervention to maintain residential affordability

Q10 Assesses selfidentification as a bohemian neighbourhood

Free comment section as antidote to closed question rigidity. I make additional notes from post-survey interview

53

6.3 List of Sources Interviewed in Person

Newcastle City Council

Dale Bolland Head of Ouseburn regeneration Peter McIntyre Ouseburn Environmental Projects Officer Angela Barker Ouseburn regeneration team Liz Archer Cultural Estates Manager Paul Rubenstein Head of Economic and Cultural Affairs Neil Murphy Economic Development Colin Percy Head of Strategic Planning

Ouseburn Trust
Peter Kay Business Development Manager Kirsten Luckett Information &Outreach Officer

Ouseburn businesses
Nick James Mushroom Works owner Sue Woolhouse 36 Lime Street secretary Andy Balman Biscuit Factory owner Tim Kendall Longest serving 36 Lime Street tenant 13 other firm owners

Newcastle estate agents

Sanderson Young Kings Sturge

54

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