Old North Pier

Now known as the Old North Pier, construction started in 1785 using timber carcasses filled with stone, and by 1796 815 feet had been built, but in the late 1790s the sea had already begun to undermine it. Between 1832 and 1843 substantial rebuilding work was done by River Wear Commissioner's Engineer John Murray using stone from quarries on Gateshead Fell. The Roker Pier (HER ref. 4972) was built in 1885, lessening the importance of the North Pier, but during its construction, changes in tidal patterns caused splits in the roundhead of the North Pier necessitating the removal of its octagonal lighthouse.