Swirle Pavilion

Many people enjoy a pleasant perambulation along the River Tyne along Newcastle or Gateshead quayside and there are many curious modern artworks to keep you entertained.

The Swirle Pavillion is a modern folly built from concrete, ashlar, and metal and tribute to the former trades in the area.

In the 1980's all the thriving businesses and industries had pretty much gone, so in the 1990s Sir Terry Farrell was involved in the regeneration of the quayside on both sides.

The artist Raf Fulcher was commissioned and designed The Swirle Pavillion which was constructed around 1996-1998.

Raf Fulcher was born in 1948 in Essex and studied at Newcastle University from 1966 to 1972.

As there is not much information about it, I think it has a mix of styles. Roman pillars and ashlar blocks of maybe an Edwardian-influenced period. Up top is a modern 'dual mono rail' with 8 curved bars that surround the metal globe. That makes them 45 degrees apart. The astronomer (very amateur) in me thinks of the globe as Mars.

The inscriptions are the European ports that were sailed to including Hamburg, Genoa, Aberdeen, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Malmo, London, Antwerp, and Hull. These places are on a faded sign on Plummer Chare where The Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company used to be.

The pavilion gets its name from Swirle Burn which runs below this installation and is a street name. Other art installations with the theme of rivers, culverts, and burns can be found in the area. They were part of Art on the Riverside which was included in the regeneration project instigated by Sir Terry Farrell.