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High Street West, WALLSEND, NE28 8HX

The Post Office is due to become a "Family Shopper" according to the signage. Next door is a beauty shop called the Eyebrow Gallery. Next to that is St Oswald's Hospice charity shop. Streetview imagery shows that in 2008 what is now the post office was then a greengrocers, John Day. Meanwhile next door was Chirton Fisheries. By 2012 the fishmongers had become "AccessoriseMe". In 2016 that latter had a closing down sale on whilst the greengrocers was "To Let". The Eyebrow Gallery opened in 2017 but the Post Office didn't appear until 2020.

This is the entrance to a shopping centre. The pedestrian access to the shops was open to the skies until relatively recently

This used to be called the Black Bull

Set in the arcade of the Hunter Memorial Hall, the war memorial and the hall were erected in “memory of members of the staff and workmen of Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd. who fell in the Great War 1914-18”. The war memorial, by sculptor Roger Hedley, which was unveiled on the 15th August 1925, contains, to either side, bronze life size figures of a seaman and a gunner, with rifles reversed, and, as stated in the 1992 edition of Nikolaus Pevsner's book, 'The Buildings of England Northumberland', "has particularly appealing industrial scenes in low relief". The Hunter Memorial Hall and the War Memorial are Grade II Listed. For a selection of detailed free to download walking routes in the area visit www.northtynesidewalks.co.uk

The Co-op can be seen in the background. The shops on the left used to include the first supermarket in Wallsend. Although it could be argued that the co-op is a supermarket.

An older building used to occupy this site, another pub called the Ship. Then a bank was built here.

The larger crane in the distance is being dismantled by the slender crane to the right. It will most likely be exported to the Far East. The bridge is carrying the Metro.

This is the eye catching 'Market Woman' by artist and sculptor Hans Schwartz. Born in Vienna in 1922, Schwartz was orphaned as a teenager when his father died in Auschwitz concentration camp. Eventually settling in England, he became a full time artist in 1964 and was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to paint the portraits of Nikolaus Pevsner, Joe Gormley and Tom Jackson. The 'Market Woman' was installed in 1966 and Schwartz wanted her to "appear as a tough hardworking peasant and not a graceful girl". At the time of unveiling the work was greeted by a storm of criticism. These days the bronze work is much better loved and deservedly so. This poem, which first appeared in the 2019 book, 'Tyne Anew Celebrating Public Art in North Tyneside', was inspired by this sculpting: DO THEY SEE YOU STANDING THERE: FOR HANS SCHWARZ (MARKET WOMAN) 1 Market Woman Do they see you standing there in that busy forum trading your quartet of squabbling hens a bare-footed peasant trapped in an alien world. Do they know whose nimble hands cupped those ample breasts gave shape and form whose fingers moulded those strong broad hips. Do they know whose rough-hewn bronze penetrates the heart of this northern town. 2 Artist Do they know, the shoppers and the snackers the gamblers and the drinkers the skateboarders and the home-heading workers that Austria was your motherland Vienna once your home. Do they know that your father died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. The poem was written by Geoff Holland For a selection of detailed free to download walking routes in the area visit www.northtynesidewalks.co.uk