Spanish City

The Spanish City
photograph
Inside the Spanish City
Map
Alternative namesWhitley Bay Pleasure Gardens
General information
StatusGrade II listed building (the dome)
AddressWatts Road, Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, England
Coordinates55°02′51″N 1°26′51″W / 55.047616°N 1.44747°W / 55.047616; -1.44747
Opened14 May 1910
Renovated2011–2018
Renovation cost£10m[1]
ClientWhitley Bay Pleasure Gardens Ltd[2]
OwnerNorth Tyneside Council (June 2011)
Dimensions
Diameter180 ft long, 275 ft deep[2]
Design and construction
Architecture firmCackett and Burns Dick[2]
Structural engineerL.G. Mouchel[2]
Main contractorDavidson and Miller[2]
Renovating team
Architect(s)ADP[1]
Renovating firmRobertson Group
Website
Spanish City

The Spanish City is a dining and leisure centre in Whitley Bay, a seaside town in North Tyneside, Tyne & Wear, England. Erected as a smaller version of Blackpool's Pleasure Beach, it opened in 1910 as a concert hall, restaurant, roof garden and tearoom. A ballroom was added in 1920 and later a permanent funfair.[2]

Located near the seafront, the Spanish City has a 180 ft-long (54.8 m) Renaissance-style frontage and became known for its distinctive dome,[3] now a Grade II listed building.[4] There are towers on either side of the entrance, each of which carries a half-life-size female bacchanalian figure in copper, one holding cymbals, the other a tambourine. The building's architects were Robert Burns Dick, Charles T. Marshall and James Cackett.[5]

The band Dire Straits mentioned the Spanish City in their 1980 single, "Tunnel of Love", which from then on was played every morning when it opened.[6] By the late 1990s the building had fallen into disrepair, and in the early 2000s it was closed to the public.[7] A regeneration project was announced in 2011.[6] The building reopened as a dining and leisure centre at the end of July 2018.[8]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ADP was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c d e f Rennison, Robert William (1996). Civil Engineering Heritage: Northern England. London: Thomas Telford, p. 41, citing Cackett, J. T. Dick, B. (1911). "Spanish City, Whitley Bay". Ferro Concrete: A Monthly Review, 2, pp. 168–175.
  3. ^ Stratton, Michael (1999). "New Materials for a New Age: Steel and concrete construction in the north of England, 1860–1939". Industrial Archaeology Review, 21 (pp. 5–24), p. 20ff.
  4. ^ Hedley, Jeanette (12 May 2006). "Duncan's amusements demolished", North Tyneside Council.
  5. ^ Usherwood, Paul; Beach, Jeremy; Morris, Catherine (2000). Public sculpture of North-East England. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 218, 319.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Glancey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Exhibition marks Whitley Bay's Spanish City centenary", BBC News, 9 September 2010.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Oldfield21July2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).