Bull Ring

This part of North Shields was once a very busy place. This area was the towns Market Place and nearby Low Street was known as the ‘Bull Ring’ from the practice of bull baiting which is said to have gone on there in the 17th century.

The Northumberland Arms. The large, imposing building at the end of this row was, for over a century, a first class hotel. Latterly, however, it became notorious the world over as a magnet for thousands of hard-living mariners who came ashore for entertainment. It’s nickname of ‘The Jungle’ came about because of all the stuffed animal heads and trophies which once bedecked its walls – a legacy of the time when the building was the town house of the Duke of Northumberland in 1806. Smith’s Dock.

A dry dock facility was built at nearby Limekiln Shore as early as 1752 which was later leased by the ship building company which had been founded by Thomas Smith in 1810. T and W Smith eventually bought the land and constructed a growing dock there in 1850. One of the first ships to be launched from the yard was ‘The Termagent’. T and W Smith amalgamated with H S Edwards and Sons and Edwards Brothers in the 1890s to create Smiths Dock Ltd, for a time proclaimed as the largest ship repairers and dry dock owners in the world. The company continued operations right up until the 1990s.