Team Valley is a trading estate located in Gateshead. 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, standal ...

, 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 Gateshead, 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, 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, took several years, and was completed in 1938. The estate was officially opened by King George VI 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 "ve ...

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

). The River Team 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 main railway line between

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

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. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. Until 1952, the area was served by a rail station at Low Fell. 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 Bus & Metro Interchange
/ref> Local bus company Go North East serve Team Valley with their regular 93 and 94 Gateshead 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