Photo – Mick Dawson
The sad demise of the Beacon is briefly described in The Harbour View / Greens Place. One of South Tyneside’s oldest and once a community local pub is being left to rot. In spite of the protests permission was granted to knock it down and rebuild as a block of 7 apartments by George Mansbridge, Head of Development Services, on February 1st 2016.
Many of our protests were reasonable and it looks like the promoter Gary Craig was not being honest when he presented his plans to South Tyneside Council which is why the Beacon still stands empty after eight years.
The other, the Turks Head, was flogged off to a property developer who had put in planning request to demolish it which was granted before the pub was forced to close by withdrawal of its licence.
Never thought to take a picture of it when I used it regularly to meet friends and attend some of the Friday evening gigs organised by the landlord, 1997-2002. One of the gigs, on a New Years Day, was even advertised in a national newspaper.
Photo – South Tyneside Council – Turks H, top left. There is a battery factory where the lower houses and landing used to be.
Despite protests it was demolished and replaced by a four story block:
While it was believed that 3 stories were permitted for Arbeia Court the developer built 4. When the Council were questioned about it, the original plans disappeared overnight!