It's all at your Co-op now....

A beautiful sunny morning so I took the camera down to the Quayside in Newcastle for some architectural shots. From a bagful I liked this best. The old Co-op Bonded warehouse seen through the wires of the Millenium Bridge seemed a pleasing contrast of shapes and styles.

Louis Gustave Mouchel introduced 'ferro-concrete' - concrete reinforced with mild steel bars - to Britain in 1897 as a licensed agent of his fellow Frenchman François Hennebique, who had invented the technique he called béton armé in 1892. They collaborated previously on a mill in Swansea (1897) and developed the process further for framed buildings, and for this reinforced concrete warehouse, (Built 1899 - 1900, Extended 1908 - 1909), - still standing on Quayside in Newcastle.

The Co-Operative Wholesale Society (CWS, established 1863) warehouse was one of several bonded warehouses built for the CWS and was used to store cotton and grain. The warehouse is now a hotel, the Malmaison Newcastle.