In the 18th and 19th centuries, North Shields was improved by the extension of the old town to the east and west, and by the planning and building of Dockwray Square. The first house of the elegant Georgian Square known as Bank Top Close, later renamed Dockwray Square was built in 1763. The houses were poorly provided with water and drainage and even though wealthy shipowners took up residence, the problem was not adequately solved and the square deteriorated into a slum. The houses became tenements and were finally demolished in 1956 to be replaced in 1963 with multi-storey flats around a communal recreational area. These too were demolished and replaced in the 1980s. The wealthy inhabitants of Dockwray Square migrated to the more favourable location of North Close, which was renamed Northumberland Square.

Fish Quay near the Low Light. From 1225 the Prior of Tynemouth had attempted to create a fishing port to provide fish for his religious house. To this end 27 rudimentary houses were erected beside the river at the mouth of the Pow Burn (see HER 1952). Wooden quays were attached to these shiels to provide moorings for fishing boats and a place where fish could be sold. The quays were also used by the Prior to ship coal from the priory pits at Tynemouth. The catch included lampreys, smelt, sprats, conger eels, coalfish and skate. By 1528 boats from North Shields were fishing off the Shetlands Islands and the north coast of Scotland and participating in the Icelandic fleet. Ling and cod were salted and sold at Newcastle. The port suffered from the dissolution of the Priory in 1539 and from trade restrictions imposed by the burgers of Newcastle, which was not resolved until the Port of Tyne was created in the 1800s. The present Union Quay and fish market started life in the nineteenth century. The Gut is the outermost part of the quay where the fishing fleet moored and landed its catch. From about 1870 with the advent of steam an extensive herring fishery had developed using North Shields as a base. The quay provided work for buskers, freshers, canners, kipperers and curers who bought and processed the fish. There was also work in the ice factory, guano works and net and rope making shops. A photo of c.1890 shows the quay moored with herring sailing boats. Up to 30 trawlers and over 100 small boats would land in North Shields every day. The herrings were kippered at the fish quay - split open, gutted and salted, then smoked over oak chips or sawdust to produce kippers. A Newcastle man, John Woodger, claimed to have invented the process. Fish processing units and smokehouses took over this part of the town including Clifford's Fort (see Ballard's Smokehouses HER 5151). It was a fisherwife's job to untangle, clean, re-bait and roll up their husband's fishing lines. The lines were about 400 yards long with cords fitted with barbed hooks attached. The wives opened ('skairned') the mussels and removed the meat and gutted the herring. The biggest fishing fleet in North Shields was that of Richard Irvin. He employed the idea of tug master William Purdy of converting paddle steam tugs to trawlers. Irvin developed businesses in every east coast port from Peterhead to Great Yarmouth and was involved in trawling, drifting, whaling and boat building (see HER 7309). 'Stag' was one of the first paddle steam trawlers. During the 1800s, North Shields sent a whaling fleet to Greenland and the Davis Straits. Each vessel was equipped for a three year voyage. The North Shields Fishermen's Mission (HER 9316) was established in 1897. The 'Shields Ice & Cold Storage Company' was set up near the Fish Quay in 1901. It later became the famous 'Tyne Brand' which produced oval cans of herrings.

North Shields prospered in the 19th century, becoming an important fishing station and supply base for the merchant and fishing fleet which tied off at an extensive series of small quays along the river between Low Light and Bull Ring. A new fish market was built in the market place in 1820 and is shown on Wood’s 1827 map.

The Town Hall in Saville Street, 1844, was designed by John Dobson. Largely financed by local benefactor Joseph Laing. Informal Tudor style with double L-shaped plan turning the corner of Howard and Saville Streets. Built in two separate parts from 1844-45. The battlemented ranges with decorative gables and at one corner an oriel window below a plainer gable do not harmonise too well. However the building was meant to cater for a variety of functions and the emphasis is less on civic monumentality than on fitting in with the domestic scale of the street {2}. Town Improvement Commissioner's Offices, Savings Bank, Mechanics Institute, Museum and Police Station; taken over as Town Hall 1849. Coursed squared tooled sandstone with ashlar dressings; Lakeland slate roof with stone gable copings. Tudor style. Tall corniced octagonal chimneys. Wrapped around the earlier Poor Law Building (HER 7287). Tudor style of informal design. LISTED GRADE 2

At the western end of the town, a deep water facility, the New Quay, was constructed at the beginning of the C19. In 1803 the right to hold a market at North Shields was finally granted, and in 1806 a market place on the New Quay was formed. It is shown on Wood's 1827 map and the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map. A photograph c.1910 is reproduced in Hollerton (1997, p 41) {1-3}. The foundation stone for the New Quay and Market Place was laid by the Duke of Northumberland on the 4th October 1806. It was designed by David Stephenson, the Percy family's estate architect, who was responsible for All Saints Church in Newcastle. The Market Place buildings were built between 1806 and 1817. The Market Place was never completed. All three sides of the New Quay were meant to be enclosed by classical buildings. John Dobson, then an apprentice in Stephenson's practice, painted a watercolour of the proposed scheme in 1810. All that survives is the 13 bays of the original 21 bays on the west side of the quayside opposite the river. The Northumberland Arms was the centrepiece of the range (HER 7296). The southernmost 8 bays have been demolished. The New Quay provided access for ships of up to 300 tons. From 1901 to August 1931, a tramline ran from the New Quay to the links bandstand in Whitley Bay {4}. The market place was the terminus for coaches in the 18th century.

Shown on Woods map of 1827 leading to a staith at the Low Light. This carried coal from Whitley Colliery to the collier brigs loading at the quays and limestone from Whitley Quarry. Named as "Whitley Coal and Lime Waggonway" on Rook's plan of 1827. Ran on an inclined plane.

Shown on Woods 1827 map. Congregational Church. Built 1818. Became a furniture warehouse in 1947. Now demolished.

Wood’s 1827 map shows this Presbyterian Chapel to the north of Low Street, near the Bull Ring.

This Quaker Burial Ground is associated with the meeting house shown on Wood’s 1827 map (HER ref. 4574). The 1st edition Ordnance Survey plan of 1857 shows the burial ground as nearly square. Two houses separate it from the Crown and Sceptre Tavern to the north. The 1:500 Ordnance Survey map of 1894 shows "Friends Burial Ground (Disused) and a meeting house with seats for 250 people. The site is now covered by new housing, presumably a second generation since World War 2. The graveyard was cleared in 1945, the bodies presumably reinterred, and the gravestones re-erected along the east end of the south wall of Preston Cemetery. A plaque records the event.

North Shields Baptist Chapel, by John Dobson, was built in 1846. It is ashlar-built in the Romanesque style and has a door with moulded arch in the centre of the front gable. LISTED GRADE 2