Bupa Great North Run Culture
Bupa Great North Run Culture, the world’s largest half marathon, was first staged in 1981. The 13.1 mile run from the centre of Newcastle, along the River Tyne, through Gateshead to South Shields has seen nearly a million people cross the finish line. Televised live for 4 hours on the BBC, over 50,000 entrants taking part each year, from international elites to first-time runners, with millions of pounds are raised for charity. www.greatrun.org|
This Chelsea Flower Show is a significant milestone in the build up to the 30th Bupa Great North Run this September. The Chelsea Flower Show garden is part of the Bupa Great North Run Cultural Programme. Now in its fifth year, the Cultural Programme commissions and presents cultural and arts projects that celebrate the event, offering new perspectives and insights into the people that that part, the journeys they undergo, the geography and landscape of the famous route, and the spirit of this world-famous event. www.greatnorthrunculture.org|
Alan J Smith OBE
Born in 1949 Alan was educated at Grammar School in Durham and then Newcastle University where in 1972 he gained a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Architectural Studies, and in 1974 a Bachelor of Architecture, with Honours.
In 1974 he was elected a Member of The Royal Institute of British Architects and in 1992 a Fellow of The Chartered Society of Designers.
Alan is now Chairman of the RED BOX DESIGN GROUP which he founded in 1999 and which has now completed over £3.5bn of major projects in urban regeneration throughout the UK and the cities of Amsterdam, Boston and Moscow. Recent projects which have helped to change the face of the region include The Northern Rock Headquarters, Gateshead College, the Radisson Hotel in Durham, the Design Centre for the North, schools in County Durham, and the Sunderland Aquatic Centre. He is currently designing the new £100m national football centre, known as St George’s Park which is set to become the world’s first university of football at Burton upon Trent.
In 1999, following 5 years on the Board of Northern Arts Alan was appointed Chairman of the £46m BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead which saw over one million visitors through the doors in the first year 2002.
In 2007 he was awarded the OBE for services to architecture, and appointed Deputy Lieutenant of County Durham in 2008.
Gateshead Council - Bob Davision
Bob is one of a team of six horticulture experts from Gateshead Council who will be working on the Chelsea garden this year. Between them they have been working at Gateshead Council for around 115 years. They are part of a much larger team working in the council’s Local Environmental Services that tend to the grounds and flower beds across Gateshead’s 160 square kilometres.
Their work includes the upkeep of 29 parks, over 70 school grounds and replaces the display in hundreds of flowerbeds and hanging baskets each year. They produce over one million bedding plants in the Central Nursery at Lobley Hill and are the first point of contact for the development of all open spaces and floral production in our area.