Whatever Happened to Whitley Bay? Before the redevelopment

Whatever happened to Whitley Bay before the re-development of Whitley Bay in 2008
The controversy over housing in North Tyneside is at
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From the late 19th century and into the 20th century, the adverse effects of the decline of local coalmining and dependent industries in the area were ameliorated by the emergence of Whitley as a seaside holiday resort. The opening of the North Tyne Loop railway line in 1882, connecting the coastal villages to Newcastle, benefited the tourism industry. The line, now followed by present Metro system, included a new railway station in the centre of the town, and another at Monkseaton. Both stations remain in use as Metro stations. Whitley Bay remains a popular holiday resort, with a caravan park operated by Parkdean Resorts for both holidaymakers and holiday home owners.
The Whitley and Monkseaton Local Board was established in 1873. The district of the Local Board became the Urban District of Whitley and Monkseaton.
The town was known as Whitley until the 1890s, by which time confusion with Whitby, in North Yorkshire, regularly caused mail to be misdirected. The final straw came in September 1901 when a former resident died in Edinburgh and his body was to be buried in St Paul's churchyard, Whitley. Unfortunately, the body was mistakenly transported to Whitby, thereby delaying the funeral. When the council asked residents for suggestions of a new name, the most popular choice was Whitley Bay. Though since known officially as Whitley Bay, many residents still refer to the town as 'Whitley'.
On 1 January 1944, the Whitley and Monkseaton Urban District became the Whitley Bay Urban District and on 5 March 1954 it was granted a Royal Charter of Incorporation as the Borough of Whitley Bay. The charter was presented by HRH The Princess Royal at a ceremony in the town on 14 April 1954.
The Local Government Act 1972 abolished the borough, with Hartley in the north of the borough becoming a part of Blyth Valley district in Northumberland, and the majority of the town including Whitley Bay and Monkseaton forming part of the Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside in the Tyne and Wear area. The town is in the constituency of Tynemouth.
Whitley Bay is around 10 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne. It is bounded by the coastline of the North Sea to the east. North Shields and Tynemouth are to the south. The village of Monkseaton is now absorbed into the town. St Mary's Island, a tidal island at the northern tip of the town, is the site of a lighthouse, one of the town's landmarks.
The Tyne and Wear Metro line runs through the town with stations near the town centre (Whitley Bay), as well as in Monkseaton, West Monkseaton and Cullercoats. A Metro journey to Newcastle city centre takes around 25 minutes, regardless of whether the journey goes via South Gosforth or via Wallsend.
The local weekly newspaper, The News Guardian, is published by Johnston Press and printed on the presses of the Sunderland Echo in nearby Sunderland. The alternative free weekly paper is the Chronicle Extra, formerly known as the Herald and Post.
There are two high schools in the town, Whitley Bay High School and Monkseaton High School. The town is one of the few remaining in the UK that operates on a three-tier system, with first, middle and high schools.
On 20 February 2007, North Tyneside Council announced plans to regenerate the Spanish City and Whitley Bay. At the core of the plan was the redevelopment of the Spanish City site with its iconic dome, completed in 1912. For many years it was home to a theme park with rides and attractions, until falling into decay following the closure of the theme park in 2000.
Recent civic improvements include, a skatepark opened in the Panama Dip in 2008, a children's play park on Whitley Park in 2007, refurbishment of the swimming pool and the Playhouse both re-opened in 2009. A new library (behind the main street in the town centre) with a tourist information office, and joint service centre on the site of York Road was completed in 2013.
#whitley #bay #tynemouth
Newcastle upon Tyne commonly known as Newcastle, is a city in Tyne and Wear, North East England, 103 miles (166 km) south of Edinburgh and 277 miles (446 km) north of London on the northern bank of the River Tyne, 8.5 mi (13.7 km) from the North Sea. Newcastle is the most populous city in the North East, and forms the core of the Tyneside conurbation, the eighth most populous urban area in the United Kingdom. Newcastle is a member of the UK Core Cities Group and is a member of the Eurocities network of European cities.
Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it became a county of itself, a status it retained until becoming part of Tyne and Wear in 1974. The regional nickname and dialect for people from Newcastle and the surrounding area is Geordie.

[@NewcastleLocalInterest]

North Tyneside needed to learn from South Shields which still has a fairground kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYWzlHqGjKqVbtU South Shields Is now what Whitley Bay once was ...

[@braddazztravels6004]

I wish I had a time machine and could have one last visit to the Spanish City.

[@fava7753]

Nothing there now . Couple of amusements , , Patrinis , , ice cream , fish shop and cafe still there . Other than that . Nothing . They totally killed the place , what was a good fun day for the local families and decimated the tourist trade and traders , hotels etc etc . . Just a ghost town now . . . Will never be what it was ever again . . Even the improvements , which really aren't that good , Poshed up a bit with really inflated prices , other than that nothing spectacular . . Dead . Finished . Done . Gone . .

[@douglashelliwell3347]

When the Spanish City went, the soul went.

[@SubBot-wt9gu]

It was refurbished like last year and now it’s a lot nicer

[@TheWacoKid1963]

@@SubBot-wt9gu Douglas means the rides

[@SensibleMoniker]

The transformation is remarkable - I love my annual visits to my former home town.

[@mrjthamster9452]

See it today...as a native of Tynemouth, Whitley Bay is now Fabulous.

[@ib1617552798]

What can I say well done North Tyneside Council you really did deliver your promise 👍

[@shahsheikh541]

I hope Whitley bay is the place to go today…10 years on!

[@jamesdecross1035]

"Oh what happened to you? What ever happened to me?"

[@bigste5771]

Being a proper geordie its hard for me to say id rather goto sluth shields or roker beach than tynmouth etc 😞

[@itzmiiggy3136]

I’ve always grown up in Whitley bay, my family has always grown up in Whitley bay, I went to the school on top of where the fair was, it’s creepy you still hear the laughs of everyone at the fair.

[@jamesjackson7844]

Labour Councils took over and the whole area went backwards and has been in doldrums ever since. I lived their in the ‘50s and ‘60s we moved out and never went back.

[@vic5594]

You should see the state of Gateshead,another Labour controlled council The kindest thing to do with the place would be to bulldoze the place and start again

[@ElectricPharmacy]

Home sweet home...As a kid it was a great pace to grow up I dont live there any more but I still regard it as home.

[@TheWacoKid1963]

Titterly Way was killed off by the pubs allowing drinkers to crowd outside on the pavement, especially on bank holidays, kids & pissed up drunks don't mix, that's why families stayed away.

[@aliasdeputydog]

As my Mam was a West-Ender from Benwell, I used to spend 6 months of the year with her living with my Grandparents in Atkinson Road, from a baby until I was 12. When we went to Whitley Bay it was always on the old Electric trains running from Newcastle to the Coast( or the occasional Bus which was cheaper but took a lot longer ) and a bit of a walk from the Whitley Bay Station to the Town and then the fun began playing on the beautiful sandy beach, that was from 1950 until 1962. We would visit the Spanish City but I don`t recall spending much time in the Fun-fair, I wanted the sea and sand. It was always enjoyable getting friendly with the other kids and being questioned about my South Staffordshire accent, although I usually went home with a slight Tyneside lilt to my voice.

[@MrMacca1951]

still a shameful dump will never recover whereas cullercoats only small but a nice place to visit for a day

[@jnieurzyla]

I used to be a barrow boy at Whitley Station, and remember the heydays, when the hotels could not accommodate everyone, so many had to sleep on the beach, especially during Scotch Week and Glasgow Week. But I was told by a local bank manager in 1986 that the the council had decided that WB was going to be made into a dormant holiday town, and nothing would be spent on it. And to be honest he was totally right, forget what the politicians are saying, they are just talking the talk, because its on TV, in reality they will do nothing.

[@mikeb6385]

You got that wrong bud...

[@zeddeka]

That hasn't aged well.

[@Jeffybonbon]

still very little has happend its still a crap place and getting worse

[@mariacornwallis1602]

North Tyneside council is not fit for purpose. Last week I emailed them to report that there were at least 6 red traffic lights in Whitley Bay and Tynemouth which have not been working for at least 6 weeks, naturally giving them the locations. Today, 12th November 2016, nothing has been done, they are all still an accident waiting to happen. Instead of paying goons to go out and torment law abiding citizens with stupid parking tickets, they should pay somebody to check all traffic lights at least once a week

[@Ayns.L14A]

2019 update sat night 830pm the vic three people in two bar staff and me Whitley is dead ................why come here anymore??? the poor cousin South shields now rules.....

[@chipbuttytime3396]

Avalon hotel is permanently closed, that bloke saying Whitley Bay would be 'the' place to go... he was deluded. Unless he thinks charity shops, minging kebab shops and a large influx of 3rd world wasters are desirable

[@michaelmorley9725]

They've done a great job restoring the dome but I'm afraid they've killed the rest of Whitley Bay and it's now a total dump in the town centre

[@mrjthamster9452]

visit now - it's so very different,

[@jayeevee1693]

massively improved now folks

[@R4NDOMUS3RNAME]

Still crap tbh

[@MUSICBLASTROCKS]

Someone should start a petition to restore whitley bay to its former glory

[@zeddeka]

The basic problem is that society has completely changed. We can start as many petitions as we want but we're still stuck with the same basic problems. People do not go for holidays to Whitley bay like they used to in the 50s. The current redevelopment has been really nice I think, and has struck a good balance. It has been restored, but in a way that meets the demands of today's society, not yesterday's.

[@DJI-SI]

Came here for a holiday in 2023 , 1 thing i did notice about this place was , How clean the streets where , zero garbage on the streets , such a clean tidy place , me and my kids thought the place was lovely , Though there could be more things going on , its a very nice place 👍👍👍

[@andrewarmstrong8651]

The residents got what they wanted no holidaymakers 👍

[@kopynd1]

after the 70s people started to go abroad, the foods crap, cant get a decent meal abroad, nee decent curry at the med, south shields is the best, plenty parking and its on the flat, nice beach, need a better selection of food, fish and chips is nothing like it was in the 60s, it cheap over priced tasteless yuk, ice cream is well over priced, suggest a family take a picnic basket save a fortune, the food just dosen't cut it

[@prpwnage9296]

she was so much in shock after her drive with Alan, that she walked away leaving the car door open!

[@Matty12333]

Tynemouth a short drive from Whitley bay, is much nicer than here. It's sad really that the council has let it gone into this state.

[@shavepup]

This was six years ago and almost nothing has been done! Just a bit more falling down now! Since the abolition of Whitley Bay Borough in 1974 (and it's absorption into North Tyneside), the town has deteriorated into a squalid, shameful mess. Strangely enough, at the same time, Wallsend (historically down-at-heel) and North Shields now BOTH outshine the once lovely town. Politicians of all sides should hang their heads in shame...

[@lesleyallinson8738]

shavepup I spent days out at whitby bay as a child it's such a shame

[@fuoco13]

Whitley Bay is still a dump. Visited there in March of this year. Looked run down and neglected. Even the main shopping strip was a disappointment. And they have the hide to charge you for parking.

[@fuoco13]

@@JordanCarr44 Did you just wake up from your drug induced coma from 5 years ago?

[@j.d6368]

It's not that bad, yes it doesn't have as many tourists, it's just shown the bad bids

[@vulgivagu]

Used to visit my Aunts in Gateshead and I always took them to Whitley Bay. It was a lovely place then and they loved watching the many ships go up and down the Tyne. Have not been there for 50 years, probably best left as memories.

[@NewcastleLocalInterest]

It has had a revival in the last few years.

[@zeddeka]

It's really quite nice these days. It's been very much tidied up and relatively posh now.

[@deebrannon585]

Cant wait to see whitley bay next year still love it because it was a magical place when we were kids

[@planetrockford]

***** and lots of bookies... what a dump

[@planetrockford]

@@JordanCarr44 Yes they are because of covid.... 7 years on it's an even bigger dead beat town

[@Michael43713]

The guest house looked like it was in Tynemouth.

[@chrish3639]

At 5:10 "when the sun's going down" lol- it's the East Coast pettle. The sun rises here and sets in the west

[@joebutlersnr7017]

Yes Chris but it still gives some beautiful Sky's in the east.

[@colinmccarthy7921]

I was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1950.My parents always took us to Whitley Bay(Spanish City) and Blyth,Etc.I am one of six children.I am proud to be a Geordie.Howay my Lads and Lasses.❤️🌹❤️.

[@johnmiller112]

need to do a update even worse now than it was in 2008

[@TheGreatest1974]

Cherie still gorgeous as usual!

[@stormytempest3907]

Always wanted to go there, visit SPANISH CITY, always go to North Wales! getting abit fed up after 40yrs!😁

[@davidrobinson2776]

I can remember waiting outside The Rendezvous waiting to get a seat and then on to Duncan’s Amusements with Mickey Duncan flirting with the lasses and the granny’s on the bingo.

[@djsiimz]

The council destroyed Whitley on purpose a lot of back handers

[@Nalski2007]

Lower Prom just been demolished to make way for "a grassy slope". Spanish City had been re-painted but now looks just as shabby as it did before they started the so-called refurb.

[@KathleenConnor-xg9nd]

Love whitley bay

[@mattyirving2339]

Because you exist g

[@doonhilla]

Getting rid of the one way system ruined it :D For me it seemed to go downhill not long after they did. But they have done a great job in renovating it, especially the Dome, just a shame it took them so long. It will never get back to it's glory days, it's cheaper holidaying abroad now, and obviously better weather abroad 🤣

[@david-lt9wj]

I think since the coal mines went....this happened..

[@SuperRichie200]

Worked there on the rides a couple years before they closed for good.

[@karenm12161]

I worked on the stalls as a child. The soul has gone out of whitley bay.. bring back Spanish city ..🙁

[@ToOSk3tChY]

Tynemouth's where its at now

[@jonathansimmonds5784]

Late 60's, teenager, brilliant memories, the beach, the girls, the Spanish City rides Mark Knopfler mentions in Tunnel of Love..... However, if there's one lesson I've learned the hard way, never go back, keep your memories intact.