The Angel of the North is the symbol that announces I am getting close to home after a trip to the south. Standing 20 metres high on a windswept hillside, it is seen by around 90,000 drivers every day! Although I have driven past the Angel on numerous occasions, until recently I had never bothered to stop and take a proper look at this Northern icon. The Angel can also be seen by rail passengers on the east coast line heading towards Edinburgh. Getting there. ************ Driving south on the A1, take the slip road signposted Wrekenton and Birtley, 5 miles from the Metro centre. Then take the A167 signposted Gateshead south. The parking area for ...  Read the complete review

We visited the Angel of the North on our way to a short break in Northumberland. It was almost as an afterthought that we decided to go and find it and see what all the fuss was about. We are not artists nor do we know anything about art, but, as the saying goes, 'we know what we like' And wow, I like this. I had seen it on the news and read about it in the newspapers and all that, but I must admit I thought it sounded awful - another example of an artist being given an obscene amount of money to produce a pile of scrap, basically (or sometimes maybe you could take the 's' off!) We were surprised to find that there is no ...  Read the complete review

Angel of the North Heralding as I do from Newcastle, and having always thought of this as my home town regardless of where I have lived, I watched the erection of this structure with interest. Its completion in 1998 heralded much interest and it has recently been voted fifth modern wonder of Britain. Built on a panoramic site on a hilltop, the angel is, to me, a symbol of "coming home". At the top of the hill where the angel stands to the right of me, I can look downwards and see the whole of Tyneside spread beneath me. Some 90000 drivers driving along the A1 each year see this sculpture, and it can also be seen by passengers travelling on ...  Read the complete review

The Angel of the North is situated at Eighton Banks in Gateshead next to the A1 (Western Bypass) and about three miles from Gateshead Metro Centre; it was built on a hilltop site over an old coalmine and can be seen by passengers travelling by train on the East Coast mainline from London to Edinburgh as well as over ninety-thousand motorists a day. Money was allocated, mainly from the National Lottery, to be spent on art in Gateshead and the Local Authority commissioned the British artist Anthony Gormley to create a sculpture specifically for the Eighton Bank site, his brief was to create something symbolic of the area to reflect the decline of heavy industry in ...  Read the complete review

As a creative person myself, I know that everyone sees different thing as being artistic and everyone has different opinions on things. My opinion being that although the idea of the Angel of the North to me seemed pretty cool, I was extremely disappointed with the results. I'm not entirely sure what I expected, but I think it was someting, I don't know, prettier(?) than this? Personally I think it looks like a plane nosedived into the ground and as it rusts and rots, noone can be bothered to sore out the debris. Basically that is all I have to say on this matter, and I know a lot of people think this is really great and beautifual and I appreciate ...  Read the complete review