Update notice, January 1st 2012:
I am entertaining guests, so unfortunately I can’t draw the next page yet … It will be delayed a couple of days. V`(oo)´V

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In the last panel, Willie is walking up Bottle Bank, with Tyne Bridge to the left. Today the street is a bit less picturesque, with a massive Hilton and some fancy new apartment complex in place of that empty lot and those old buildings. :o/
Here are some photos of the street in 2001, and here is an aerial view from one of the Tyne Bridge towers from 1997. iSee Gateshead has many more historical photos.

I’m a bit frustrated, because part of me wants to show as much as possible of Gateshead the way it was in 1998, but it’s not easy to find enough reference to portray the lost places accurately … V`(oo)´V