'Get Carter' fans mourn for car park

A giant Sixties multi-storey car park has become an unlikely battle ground for a supermarket giant which plans to demolish it and film fans who revere the site which featured in the cult gangster film, Get Carter.

The Trinity car park in Gateshead provides the backdrop to a scene from the 1971 film in which Jack Carter, played by Michael Caine, kills the gangster, Cliff Brumby, played by the late Bryan Mosley, by throwing him off the building.

Local residents yesterday appeared to welcome the start of a major demolition programme on the vast concrete Trinity Square site, which will see old buildings replaced by a refurbished Tesco store and the possibility of new homes. But film fans lamented the loss of one of the most memorable sites in British film-making.

Ian Freer, assistant editor of Empire, said: "There are so few iconic British film locations and this is one of them. If you are a Michael Caine fan... it would be one of the places where you would go to worship at his altar."