Northern buildings are all Greek to us

Jan 6 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

GREEK gifts to the North East way of life were highlighted yesterday against the backdrop of a major exhibition on Tyneside.

Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery features highlights from the British Museum’s collections.

The exhibition includes one of the largest selections of Greek artefacts ever loaned by the British Museum.

And yesterday Greek expert Andrew Parkin pointed out that people who may feel that ancient Greece is remote from life in the North East only had to look around them.

Mr Parkin, who studied for a Masters in Greek archaeology at Newcastle University, and was education officer at the campus’s Shefton Greek Museum, said the region was full of classical Greek architecture.

Now keeper of archaeology at Tyne and Wear Museums, he said Greek influence could be seen in North East buildings ranging from banks and libraries to country houses and pubs.

The style was adopted to bring an air of authority, trustworthiness and sophistication, especially for public, commercial and government buildings.

Mr Parkin said: “It is all around us. There are very few places in the North East which don’t have classical buildings.

“Greece has been highly influential in Western civilization from the concept of democracy and tyranny, to philosophy and the Olympic games.

“We owe a massive debt to the Greeks.”

The Shefton collection, built up by Brian Shefton, who was Professor of Classical Archaeology at Newcastle University, is the best in the country outside London and Oxford.

It will be part of a new Greek gallery at the Great North Museum: Hancock, which opens in April.

Mr Parkin will give a talk at South Shields Museum in Ocean Road at 2pm on January 15 on Herakles, who is often seen as the mythical founder of the Olympic Games.

On January 22 at 7.30pm, at the Customs House in South Shields, there will be a free showing of 300, the 2006 epic film based on Frank Miller’s novel about the 480 BC Battle of Thermopylae, where the King of Sparta led his army against the advancing Persians in an action said to have inspired all of Greece to band together.

For tickets ring (0191) 454-1234

The exhibition, which is already open to the public, ends on January 24 when there will be a Farewell to the Greeks event at South Shields Museum.