Bed and breakfast availability
South Shields b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit South Shields and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

South Shields, Tyne and Wear. was established by the Romans about A.D. 80 but their real interests lay up the Tyne at Newcastle, and South Shields never caught up with its neighbour. Nevertheless, through the centuries, it has been important for saltworks, glass-making, coal-mining, shipping, ship-building, engineering, electronics and the manufacture of such items as cigarette filters, women's clothes, meat pies and metal tanks. The port runs from Jarrow Quay to Souter Point 3 miles South and the great Tyne Dock handles iron ore for the works at Consett, as well as other cargoes. South Shields has its breezy escape, in this case to a variety of sea-front parks, long sandy beaches and a broad grassland known as the Leas along the Coast Road. The Museum exhibits the original model of the first self-righting lifeboat, invented by William Wouldhave in 1789. A memorial to him and Henry Greathead, the shipbuilder, stands at the sea end of Ocean Road. The world's first lifeboat service began here in 1790. Ocean Road-King Street cuts through the northern tip of the town. At the Tyne end is the small square 1768 Town Hall, with an arcade round the ground floor and an upper room ornamented by Venetian windows. Twice-weekly markets are held in the large Market Place outside, near the rail, bus and North Shields ferry terminals. Also nearby is a late- l8^th-century church, St Hilda's. The 20^th-century Baroque municipal buildings in Westoe Road have been called “the most convincing expression in the county of Edwardian prosperity”. An island of good Georgian and Victorian houses survives in Westoe Village, on either side of a long green. No visit is complete without a call at the Roman fort, Arbeia, on the Lawe at the north end of Baring Street. Although surrounded by houses and a school, it is quite possible to imagine from the excavated evidence the great supply base this was in the early 3^rd century. There were nine large well-ventilated graneries, an imposing headquarters, barracks and offices. In the 4^th century, four granaries were converted to quarters for the garrison which now included experienced Tigris lightermen. They took ship cargoes by boat upriver to Wallsend and beyond. In the museum on the site, see the two famous tombstones. One commemorates Victor, a 20-year-old Moor and ex-slave of a Roman trooper, pictured in paradise being handed a cup of wine. The other depicts Regina, a native Briton who was enslaved then freed and married by a Syrian soldier. She is shown in a wicker chair with her jewel box and sewing basket to hand. For a good view of waterfront activity, take the River Drive curving North East from the Market Place.

Nearby cities: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sunderland

Nearby towns: Hebburn, Jarrow, North Shields, Tynemouth, Wallsend, Whitley Bay

Nearby villages: Backworth, Birtley, Boldon, Cleadon, Cramlington, Cullercoats, Dudley, East Boldon, East Howdon, Felling, Forest Hall, Gateshead, Gosforth, Hartley, Heaton, High Heaton, Jesmond, Killingworth, Lamesley, Longbenton, Low Eighton, Low Walker, Monkseaton, Monkton, Monkwearmouth, Murton, Old Walker, Pallion, Seaton Delaval, Seaton Sluice, Seghill, Sheriff Hill, Shiremoor, South Hylton, Southwick, Town Moor, Usworth, Walker, Walker Gate, Washington, Westoe, Willington Quay

Have you decided to visit South Shields or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a South Shields bed and breakfast (a South Shields B&B or South Shields b and b)
• a South Shields guesthouse
• a South Shields hotel (or motel)
• a South Shields self-catering establishment, or
• other South Shields accommodation

Accommodation in South Shields:

Find availability in a South Shields bed and breakfast, also known as B&B or b and b, guesthouse, small hotel, self-catering or other accommodation.