North Shields, Barracks

Barracks dating to before 1792. The barracks were made up of a square of cottages (Percy Square) built during the French Wars, when invasion was a daily expectation. Many of the cottages collapsed onto the shore - over a quarter of a million tons of earth used to subside annually onto the beach [1929]. The rest were demolished and replaced by new houses around 1929 which accomodated residents from condemned properties in the borough.