Exploring My Filmmaking Archive: Ovoline Lubricants and the Changing Gateshead Riverside
The preservation of my filmmaking archive is one of the reasons I keep returning to older footage.
Shots I captured years ago often gain new significance as the places they show vanish or change beyond recognition. Recently, while reviewing material from 2018, I uncovered a landscape shot of the Ovoline Lubricants building, which once stood on the south bank of the River Tyne in Gateshead.
The shot shows a cluster of pale blue industrial buildings, arranged in an almost rhythmic zigzag line along the water’s edge. Tall cylindrical storage tanks stand to the left of the frame, painted white but stained with streaks of age. You can see the rising tide slowly pushing the river’s surface upstream, causing subtle changes in the flow and creating gentle swirls against the quay wall. Trees rise behind the buildings, softening the industrial setting and hinting at how nature and industry have coexisted for generations along this river.
I’ve been working as a filmmaker for over twenty years, building a collection of footage from locations all across the North East of England. From documenting artists and musicians to capturing the landscapes and urban spaces that define this region, my filmmaking archive has become a visual record of how places—and people—change over time. You can see examples of my work in my heritage films, artist films, landscape films, and academic films.
The Ovoline Lubricants facility was a familiar landmark for those travelling along the Tyne, by boat or on footpaths on the Newcastle side of the river. Ovoline, a brand dealing in lubricants and oils for automotive and industrial purposes, operated from this site for decades. The location’s long warehouse roofs and distinctive white walls with red and blue striping were instantly recognisable from the water.
Research into Ovoline’s past reveals its roots in Tyneside’s industrial economy, supporting sectors ranging from shipping and marine engineering to local manufacturing. The buildings themselves dated back to the mid-20th century and were part of the patchwork of smaller industries that once dominated Gateshead’s riverside, particularly in the area historically known as Pipewellgate and South Shore Road.
Sadly, as with much of the Tyne’s industrial fabric, the Ovoline site has now been demolished. In the years since I filmed this shot in 2018, the buildings were cleared to make way for new development projects. Gateshead Council and private developers have ongoing plans to transform this stretch of riverbank into mixed-use residential and commercial properties, expanding the modern riverside corridor that began with landmarks like The Glasshouse and the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
As someone dedicated to cataloging and curating my filmmaking archive, I feel a mixture of nostalgia and urgency when I revisit these older shots. Places like the Ovoline Lubricants building weren’t necessarily beautiful in the traditional sense, but they were deeply woven into the character of the river. They spoke of the industries that built the city’s identity and of the people who worked along these banks for generations.
Capturing these structures on film means they survive in some way, even as physical traces disappear. For filmmakers searching for Gateshead filming locations or wanting to understand the shifting narrative of the North East of England, these scenes are invaluable. They document the period between the Tyne’s heavy industrial past and its current reinvention as a place for culture, leisure, and modern living.
This 2018 landscape shot of the Ovoline Lubricants site reminds me why I’m drawn to revisiting my filmmaking archive again and again. The river itself is a timeline, carrying reflections of past industry and present ambition in the same current. As the city changes, filmmaking allows us to preserve these memories, ensuring that even the most utilitarian buildings become part of Newcastle and Gateshead’s ongoing story.
If you’d like to watch more of my work exploring community stories, creative resilience, and diverse subjects across arts, heritage, and the environment, you can explore all my films here: https://alanfentiman.co.uk/films-by-alan-fentiman/.
If you’d like to see more from shots from my filmmaking archive you can explore my landscape films here: https://alanfentiman.co.uk/vimeo-videos/landscape/.