ENGLISH YACHT, 1909, Stranded

Built: 1903
Crew: 1
Passengers: 1

SWEDISH BRIG, 1903. Built: c.1860
Builder: Alcock
Where Built: Sunderland
Master: C W Asplund
Crew: 7-8
Owner: T Svensen, Malmo, Sweden

ENGLISH CRAFT, 1782. Master: Tosh

1752 incident of English cargo vessel which grounded while en route from London to pick up coal from Shields for Gibraltar and New England, but which was recovered; a wooden sailing vessel. Master: English

For generations this attractive art nouveau building was a focal point as what used to be the Bridge public house. For several years in the 19th Century it had the unusual distinction of also being the coaching station for railway passengers, who had to go through the hotel – then known as the Bridge Inn – to buy their tickets in a back room. They would then go on to the coal depot at the top of Salem Street – later the rear station yard – to climb onto a few carriages attached to empty coal trains going back to Washington, where they had to change trains.
Later in the Victorian era the inn achieved some notoriety for the arrest there of a culprit in a particularly gruesome murder in Morton Street, off Mile End Road. The pub eventually closed towards the end of the 1960s, together with the neighbouring jewellers shop, Alexander’s. The white glazed tiles to the rear offshoot remain largely intact. These would have been used to reflect natural light into the back of the property.

Site of Woolworths store (built 1921) that fell to an air raid on 2nd October 1941. Presently vacant.

19th Century. Scale and proportions typical of that age. Original windows. Brick. Three storeys plus dormer window in roof space. Two storey bay windows at first and second floors. Presently [2011] the O2 shop.

The distinctive new ferry landing, built by Harbour & General, was officially opened in July 1999. It consists of a 50m steel bridge leading to a 32 square metre reinforced concrete pontoon. The landing provides three berths as well as an indoor waiting room and offices. The landing was built at the Pallion Yard in Sunderland and transported by sea as a floating vessel. The landing itself is made of watertight concrete and the workshop buildings and waiting room were built on top later. It was named Maisie’s Landing after Councillor Maisie Stewart, who at the time was Lord Mayor of South Shields. The name was chosen through a competition in the South Shields Gazette.
There have been ferries across the Tyne since the 14th Century and this is the only service that remains. The ferry service makes just under 25,000 journeys a year and carries nearly 400,000 passengers a year. There are two vessels that operate the service, currently The Pride of the Tyne (1993) and The Spirit of the Tyne (2007). Justification for Inclusion:
Historically a crossing at this point.

In 1980 a Youth Enterprise Project team, South Shields painted a mural in Commercial Road. The mural was designed by D. Wilkinson to depict the history of the town from its Roman beginnings up to the industrial era of the 1970s. It is hand painted on a retaining wall of an old railway embankment that used to carry trains into Low Shields Station (long since demolished). Justification for Inclusion:
Wall of railway embankment.
Social vibrancy – relevant to the social history of the area.
Recently restored due to public pressure.

February 1795 wreck of English cargo vessel which stranded at North Shields, prior to departing, laden with coal; a wooden sailing vessel. Owner: Scarth