The Undersea World Of Cushy Butterfield

The viewing platform of the Baltic Centre's a windy eyrie 150 feet above the Tyne: glass panels stand head height to discourage despair at the view of the Canny Toon's regenerated splendour. The architects may even have known what they were doing, because the panels afford a marvellous trompe l'oeil. Catch the light at the right moment and look downriver towards St Peter's basin: you will see a faint reflection of the Millenium Bridge caught in the panels. But it's a Millenium Bridge that has silently drowned, its apparent image deep beneath the waters of the Tyne where bollards and stanchions lurk to shipwreck unwary river traffic and a shoal of gasping pedestrians walk across its span, moving through their own underriver world, like limbo-wrapt souls caught in a fluvial mirror of the city above.