Hillgate Quay

Hillgate did not recover as a residential district after the Great Fire of 1854, which started in Wilson's worsted manufactory in Hillgate on Friday 6th October. After the fire Christian Allhusen put forward a proposal to Gateshead Council for a Corporation Quay. This would have involved removing the old Tyne Bridge to provide rail links at each end of the quay. It was hoped that the North Eastern Railway would provide much of the funding. A quay was built on the vacant land on the north side of the street but it was on a less grand scale than had first been anticipated. A new rope-hauled inclined railway was laid to the quay from Oakwellgate Station by June 1862. NER would not improve the rail facilities, so the landings of cargo at the quay remained insignificant. The quay had to be substantially subsidised by Gateshead Council. In 1922 it was leased to the Tyne-Tees Shipping Company. In 1929-30 large parts of the structure fell into the Tyne. It was rebuilt in the 1930s.