The first Presbyterian church to be built in South Shields was at the head of Mile End Road and Long Bank in 1718. This was called the Low Meeting House. In 1778 there was a split in the congregation at the Low Meeting House following a dispute concerning who should be appointed minister. The 1827 Woods map shows a structure approximately in the above position labelled ‘Scotch Chapel Freehold’ which is probably this meeting house; the 1890s 10ft:1 mile town plan shows ‘Chapel Stairs’ immediately below this position.

The splinter group built a church in Heugh Street in 1789 and eventually became the Mile End Road Presbyterian Church (HER 17649).

Shown on OS second edition of c1890.

A church built in Bellevue Terrace in 1879 at a cost of £2000, to seat 300. Last used in the 1950s, and now demolished.

A church only shown on the 1st edition OS map,; built in 1824. In 1882 it became the Gospel Temperance Hall (surviving programmes for events here showed it functioned in this role until at least1916). Later it became the King’s Picture House, and Alexandra Theatre which closed in 1940, after which it was used as a warehouse until demolished in 1960.

The Society of Friends (Quakers) have met on several occasions in South Shields, but none of their meeting houses can be accurately located. There was a meeting in the house of Robert Linton from 1661 until 1696. In Whellans’ Directory for 1894 a meeting house in Frederick Street is mentioned, but is not shown on OS maps. Then in 1900 a house in Wellington Terrace (? NZ 36086784) to which a large new meeting room was added in 1907; it was sold in 1958.

Early 20th-century Salvation Army hall in use until the 1950s.

A late-19th century Salvation Army hall in use until the 1970s

A brick chapel built in 1871 for £1700, to seat 400. Last used in the mid-20th century; the building was later labelled as ‘works’ on the Ordnance Survey map.

A United Methodist Free Church built in 1871 to seat 170, and sold in 1892 to the Primitive Methodists. Now Monkton Park Methodist Church.

A chapel on a street-corner site (Edgar and Ellison Streets) erected in 1878 for the precise sum of £3977 19s 8d, and could seat 850; it was last used in the 1950s. It was built of stone in an Italian style, with galleries; it was later taken over by the congregation from St Kilda Presbyterian Church, and then used as a community centre.