TRANSPORTER is the name of a new zine which has just been published by North East writer and photographer Marie Gardiner.
A zine is a small, colourful booklet. Marie’s is 20 pages of A5 which contain photographs of the Transporter Bridge that she has taken over the last 11 years.
The bridge was opened in 1911 and has become the icon of Middlesbrough and the wider Tees Valley. It would be the oldest operational bridge of its type if it still operated – tragically, it hasn’t worked since 2019, although candidates running to be the Tees Valley mayor have pledged to get it going again.
“What is it about this leggy, industrial behemoth that compels us to such love and devotion?” asks Marie, who has also written three books about her native Sunderland.
One of the zine’s most talked about pictures was taken in 2013 (above), and shows the Tuxedo Royale listing worryingly in front of the Transporter. The Royale, and its elder sister ship the Tuxedo Princess, were early 1960s car ferries which in 1983 were converted into floating nightclubs, the Princess moored on the Tyne and the Royale on the Tees.
The Princess lasted until 2008 when it was taken to Greece and scraped, but the Royale remained. It began to sink in 2011 when metal thieves holed it beneath the waterline. There were local fundraising campaigns to try and save it but in 2019 it was dismantled.
Transporter is £8 including postage, and can be ordered from mariegardiner.co.uk
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here