RNLI Lifeboat Station

The Cullercoats Volunteer Life Brigade was founded in 1865. On the 20th November 1894 Captain N.H. Foote inspected the lifeboat house. It had been built for the 'Percy' in 1852. Foote found it 'too narrow and confined, in fact very old fashioned'. He suggested that the Co-operative Wholesale Society, who had provided the lifeboat, might be persuaded to update the building. Mr Leeson the secretary made the application, which was successful. The old lifeboat house was demolished and a new one built to designs by Oliver & Leeson by CWS workmen. The formal opening was on 8th August 1896, with a procession and an exhibition at the Plaza. Listed in March 2013. Built in 1897 with slightly later bell tower. Red brick with sandstone ashlar dressings; timber cladding and barge boards to the upper parts and a pitched slate roof. Two-storey gabled boathouse with wide replacement double doors, with timber cladding and some original square ventilation grilles above. Four vertical rectangular grilles have been replaced with glazing to light the inserted first floor room. Decorative barge boards bear an inscription in large wooden script based on Psalm 107:6: 'So when they cry unto me in their trouble. He delivereth them out of their distress & bringeth them unto the ha ven where they would be'. The left return has a pair of rectangular windows and a central projecting tower with similar windows lighting the ground floor. The tower has a crow-stepped left side and a crenellated top surmounted by an open timber belfry with a cupola roof and decorative finial. The bell is still in-situ. The modern two-bay extension to the right is not of special interest and is not included in the listing. Interior - wainscoting with exposed red brick walls above. Narrow band of red and white glazed brick. An inset stone foundation stone is set into the north west gable wall. The north east wall has a pair of original camber-headed windows fitted with small panes. The timber roof has three large trusses.