Team Valley is a trading estate located in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

. It is home to the Retail World

retail park A retail park is a type of shopping centre found on the fringes of most large towns and cities in the United Kingdom and other European countries. They form a key aspect of European retail geographies, alongside indoor shopping centres, standalo ...

, with many large, international companies are based in the area's trading estate. In 2017, there were approximately 700 companies on the estate, employing approximately 20,000 people.History of Team Valley
/ref> The residential area known as the Teams is adjacent to Dunston.

History

In the 1930s, the Government decided to spend nearly £2 million on this part of

, establishing the Team Valley Trading Estate as a well-planned industrial environment. The

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

in charge was

William Holford William Graham Holford, Baron Holford, (22 March 1907 – 17 October 1975) was a British architect and town planner. Biography Holford was educated at Diocesan College, Cape Town and returned to Johannesburg. From 1925–30 he studied archite ...

, with

Hugh Beaver Sir Hugh Eyre Campbell Beaver, KBE (4 May 1890 – 16 January 1967) was an English-South African civil engineer, industrialist, and founder of the ''Guinness World Records'' (then known as Guinness Book of Records). Biography Beaver spe ...

as chief engineer. It included a central headquarters, now used by

English Partnerships English Partnerships (EP) was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agencies on a regional level. On 1 December 2008 its powers passed to a successor ...

, a bank, post office, and some modestly scaled industrial buildings, as well as some smaller industrial units for start-up ventures. These facilities were laid out along a wide central artery, known as ''Kingsway'', almost long. Work on the estate began in May 1936, and the first factory opened in the October of that year. The construction, which was undertaken by

Wimpey Construction George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a constructi ...

, took several years, and was completed in 1938. The estate was officially opened by

King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

on 22 February 1939. The southern end used of the Team Valley was the former location of the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

's regional headquarters. However, following the closure of the mines in the area, this was replaced by a

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...

supermarket (now

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...

). The

River Team The River Team is a tributary of the River Tyne in Gateshead, England. Etymology The name ''Team'' may have a Brittonic origin. The name may be from the Brittonic root ''tā-'', with a sense of "melting, thawing, dissolving", plus a nasal root ...

runs directly through the centre of the trading estate, hidden in a culvert.

Transport

To the east, the Team Valley is bordered by the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...

– the main railway line between

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. Until 1952, the area was served by a rail station at

Low Fell Low Fell is a suburb of Gateshead situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. Built predominantly on sandstone, grindstone and clay, it is bordered by Sheriff Hill/Deckham to the east, Saltwell/Bensham to the w ...

. Currently, the nearest rail station is Dunston as well as the

Tyne & Wear Metro The Tyne and Wear Metro is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The network opened in ...

being accessible at

Gateshead Interchange Gateshead Interchange is a Tyne and Wear Metro station, serving the town of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. It joined the network on 15 November 1981, following the opening of the third phase of the network, between Haymarket and Hewort ...

.Gateshead Bus & Metro Interchange
/ref> Local bus company

Go North East Go North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It was previously known as the Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead Northern. The compa ...

serve Team Valley with their regular 93 and 94

loop services. Nexus subsidises peak-time services that include: 90, 91, 929, 933, 937, 939 and 941.

References

Sources

* {{Land Securities Business parks of England Economy of Tyne and Wear Geography of Tyne and Wear Industrial parks in the United Kingdom