George Clarke speaking at Sunderland Business Festival.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00about that. I think the proper time was when I was 14 probably. I didn't really know what an architect was. I knew what buildings were and plasterers and electricians and plumbers.
00:13An architect, that was like, I don't know, I wasn't even aware of that. And my grandad, my son-in-law had a book sale. And my grandad went to the book sale and he came back.
00:25And I remember it clear as day, because of the price, he bought the Glossary of Architectural Terms for 10 pence from the Sutherland Book Library sale.
00:35And I remember, I used to go to the United States during a lot of the holidays, during the Easter holiday, I was such a geek, I read the Glossary of Architectural Terms from like,
00:46and I was literally testing myself. You know, like the classical orders of art, actually.
00:52Okay, then George was a Washington lad. What's it like to be asked to come be part of the business festival and why were you so keen to get involved?
00:58Well, I'm a Washington lad and a Sutherland lad. I'd like to think both. I was born in Sutherland, raised here for the first few years of my life and then brought up in Washington.
01:07And being part of the business festival is brilliant because you can just feel that there's an energy and there's a passion for Sutherland and the changes that are happening here.
01:15We're at Sheeples, and for me, one of the most amazing pieces of regeneration in Sutherland City Centre that we've seen for a long time.
01:24And obviously we've got the Vaux site being developed as well. The bridge is being built. I mean, the amount of things that are happening is fantastic.
01:32There's probably more construction and more regeneration happening in Sutherland now than I've seen in my whole lifetime, to be honest with you.
01:40And I think that's really exciting for the city. And people are starting to feel, people have always been proud of their city.
01:46I've always been proud of Sutherland from being a kid, but I feel even more proud now because people are staying, people are putting down roots, people are coming back.
01:57I'm coming back to Sutherland and doing things here as well and forming really good partnerships with industry and with business here.
02:05I don't know, you just feel like, you feel like things are changing for the better and the club's top of the league, which is even better.
02:14In architecture as well, I mean, in terms of the aesthetics of the city, how impressed are you with the changes taking place?
02:20Yeah, I mean, the level of design ambition is really high. You've got some good architects here, some good builders, good people in construction.
02:30I'm involved in a few things here as well. We're doing HICSA, which is our new Construction Innovation Academy at the site.
02:36So it's my educational charity, Morby, in partnership with Sunderland College and Sunderland Council.
02:43It's being led by the college. Obviously, it's a college facility, but Morby's very much a part of that.
02:48Today, we're just announcing that we're repositioning my educational charity, Morby, to be a North East charity.
02:56We still do one or two things, well, a number of things nationwide. We need to do that because we want to keep some national reach.
03:03But yeah, from today, Morby is going to be based in the North East, working with young people in the North East,
03:09and working with industry in the North East to transform the home building industry and raise the level of design quality in house building
03:18and making houses more unique, more sustainable, and better for the North East built environment.
03:25And the amount of support that we've got is just amazing, really.
03:29I mean, you mentioned design. That's my thing, isn't it? I love design. I love high quality buildings. I love high quality housing.
03:36And the better buildings we build, it's better for the environment. It's better for the people that live there.
03:41It's better for placemaking. It's better for the neighborhoods that have been created. It's better for health and well-being.
03:47I mean, I go on and on and on about the benefits to health and education and places and businesses.
03:54You know, if you've got good quality housing and a really, really wonderful mix of housing and business and community projects and passionate people,
04:03that's life-changing stuff. So yeah, it's going to be part of it.
04:08I mean, here in the North East, we're obviously aware the change is taking place in Sunderland.
04:11But do you think people's perception of the city is also changing nationally and it's being seen as a place on the up?
04:16The perception of Sunderland is massively changing. I'm not even going to say some of the things that people have said over the years in a derogatory fashion to Sunderland.
04:27And it's upset me in the past. You could say some of it was justified because there was a lot of hope in the city, but things didn't happen.
04:40And I think hats off to everybody in the city, actually, from the council all the way down to people who are just passionate doing things for the community.
04:50Big, big changes happening. Perception is changing. Image is changing.
04:56I do many, many, many social media posts about Sunderland because I'm very proud of the city.
05:01And what's great about that is people nationally will see those posts.
05:05And I'll meet up with mates in the pub and they'll say, oh, I saw your post about Sunderland. Oh, I couldn't believe that.
05:10Or they might see a drone shot, seeing all the development that's happening along the riverside and across Sheep Falls, the stadium in the background and our new HECSA facility being built.
05:20And they'll go, crikey, it looks like, and the bridge being built. And they'll say, crikey, look at the change that's happening.
05:26And I'm like, you should come. Come and see it. Come and see it because the city's been absolutely transformed.
05:33Genuinely, I'm not just saying that. Absolutely transformed because of the passion of the people in the city.
05:39And we've talked about change for a long time and it's taken a long, long time to happen.
05:45But it is happening now. And when you see it, when you see it being built, this is why I get so passionate about architecture and buildings.
05:52When you see places being built and you see things being transformed and you see action rather than words, people start buying into that.
06:01And before you know it, it's like some of these projects are like little mini incubators.
06:06You know, Sheep Falls, well, this is not a small project. It's actually a big one.
06:10And the team behind it have taken a massive risk to do it.
06:13But you see these little incubator projects and then all of a sudden there's this amazing ripple effect, this lovely ripple effect where there's more hope in the city.
06:22There's more vision for the city. People buy into the fact that things are really, really happening and go, I want to be part of that.
06:29And I'm doing the same. You know, I've got a number of things happening in the city that are kind of homecoming projects for me.
06:37I'm coming back home to do a few things, albeit some of them relatively small.
06:42But hopefully those small projects will make a big difference.
06:45For your business, for the region as well, we thank you for your time this afternoon.