Top international architect Sir Terry Farrell, who grew up on Tyneside, has slated the damage caused to Newcastle by the bulldozers of the 1960s.

Sir Terry lived and was educated in Newcastle from the age of eight to 23, and worked on the masterplan for the city's East Quayside regeneration and on the Centre for Life.

Tonight he returns from his London practice to Newcastle to outline his views on the £25m proposed Great North Museum, which will be another of his projects, and to launch his new book called Place.

In the book, Sir Terry reveals details of his years in Newcastle and how the city and the North-East's coast and countryside helped shape his character.

But he also slams what he calls the 1960s "desecration" of much of the city's charm.

He says that the Swan House roundabout development and central motorway "devastated half the town and destroyed historic buildings such as John Dobson's world class Royal Arcade".

Sir Terry says the roundabout and office blocks which shadow the 18th Century All Saints Church are "appalling".

"I had always loved Newcastle as a walking city but in the 1960s whole areas of the city became virtually inaccessible to walkers."

He also attacks the wholesale clearances of terraced streets in places such as Byker and Scotswood.

"The fact that they were often replaced by higher rise, more socially alienating buildings represented a sad loss to the urban character of Tyneside.

"The long period of demolition and rebuilding created a twilight world of no-place - one aspect of which was dramatically highlighted by the sad life of Mary Bell the child murderer." Sir Terry says that in many parts of London, terraces no bigger or better than those on Tyneside were kept and turned into middle class homes.

"What a confusion of town planning and social principles when the dwellings of decent workers can be ruthlessly demolished in deprived areas and restored and valued in rich areas."

Sir Terry studied architecture at Newcastle University and describes his boyhood fascination for the adjacent Hancock Museum.

He is working on a masterplan for the university campus and tonight will be speaking at the Hancock Museum, which will be totally revamped in the Great North Museum venture and its collections combined with those of the university's Museum of Antiquities and Shefton Greek Museum.

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Paper differences

The Farrell family moved from Manchester to Newcastle when Sir Terry's father landed a job at the Ministry of Pensions.

The family of four boys moved into an asbestos panel-clad council home on the new Grange estate in Gosforth, which was then in the edge of the countryside.

"I began reading books on wildlife. I spent many childhood days wading in the Ouseburn."

His favourite coastal haunts were Seaton Sluice and Lindisfarne.

Sir Terry, who went to St Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle, recalls how his newspaper rounds taught him about social differences as he delivered different papers to distinct types of housing.

* Place by Terry Farrell is published by Laurence King at £29.95.

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I'm a Geordie

Although Sir Terry Farrell now lives and works in London and travels the world, he declared last night: "When people ask where I come from, I tell them I'm a Geordie. Newcastle is my home town."

He told The Journal that Newcastle had a special and strong identity.

"Newcastle existed well before, and was not invented for, the Industrial Revolution. It was a great county market town where people lived and shopped. It is not like the other industrial cities of the north like Manchester, Liverpool or Birmingham.

"It is a different type of city and has a city centre more like Edinburgh or Bath.

"While the edges of other cities have become blurred, Newcastle is a complete place."