If you could step back to the Gateshead and Newcastle Quayside of 40 years ago, you would encounter a scene very different from today's.
It was a time before the Millennium Bridge, Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art, Sage Gateshead music venue, modern hotels, wine bars and restaurants, trendy apartments, as well as a new Gateshead College campus, made the location one of the most attractively stylish and cultural in the region.
Back in 1981, warehouses, industry and shipping still held sway - but only just, and the place was in decline. It was gritty down there and you would have searched long and fruitlessly for a coffee shop selling cappuccino and croissants.
It was also the year when the Baltic Flour Mill, on the Gateshead bank of the Tyne, ceased operation. Little did anyone imagine that the defunct factory would be reborn two decades later as a spectacular modern art gallery.
The Baltic Flour Mill was built for Joseph Rank Ltd. Construction work began in the late-1930s, but was discontinued during the war, before the flour mill was finally opened in 1950 to a design by architects Gelder and Kitchen.
It was one of a trio of gigantic mills on a packed two or three-mile stretch of the industrial Tyne. Spillers mill sat not far away on the other side of river, while the CWS mill operated upstream in Dunston.
It was also, in fact, a dual-purpose factory for the production of flour and animal feed.
The silo building which remains today is only part of what was once a much bigger Baltic factory complex.
Our main image shows the extent of the working mill in the 1960s, with the SS Sideris of Monrovia berthed there, while our photograph from 1982 shows the deserted plant a year after its closure .
Two decades later, in July 2002, the £46m Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art was opened.
Building work had begun in 1998. The North and South faces of the mill were retained, but six floors and three mezzanines amounting to 3,000 square metres of exhibition space were created inside, and a glass lift offering stunning views of the Quayside was installed.
Under the moonlight, the new gallery opened its doors at midnight on July 13, and thousands of people who’d queued over the Millennium Bridge and along the Quayside filed in to see work by five contemporary artists, including a 15ft-long Meccano model of the Tyne Bridge.
The Chronicle reported how more than 30,000 people visited the Baltic during its first week.
It would go on to host work and installations by some of the world's leading modern artists - Spencer Tunick, Antony Gormley, Yoko Ono, Julian Opie and Carsten Holler, to name a just few.
The artworks on show at the Gateshead gallery are only rivalled by the attraction of the magnificent views afforded from the Baltic’s viewing platform and penthouse restaurant.
Baltic, Baltic Shop and Six Riverside bar and restaurant are currently open Wednesdays to Sundays - 10.30am to 6pm - plus bank holidays.
The gallery encourages people to book a free timed ticket in advance online if possible, or ring 0191 261 3830. Visits on the day are welcome, but short waits may apply at busier times.
Visit Baltic's website here.
Don't forget to check out our Memory Lane local history website that's packed with archive photographs and has an easy-to-use picture colourisation tool.
