IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Denmark Centre, SOUTH SHIELDS, NE33 2LR

The ornate building in the centre of the photo is South Shields Museum & Art Gallery.

This sculpture was originally part of the Golden Lion Coaching House in King Street. It was re-erected in front of the South Shields Museum and Art Gallery to commemorate the completion of the pedestrianisation of Ocean Road in 1988.

The streets in the centre of South Shields are pedestrianised.

Pedestrianised main shopping street in South Shields, seen from the Metro station which spans the street.

Pedestrianised town-centre street; a continuation of Ocean Road which is the traffic-bearing road to the east.

My wife, who stands outside, worked one of her very first jobs here when this building was a shoe shop, around 35 years ago or so. Her Nana also cleaned here (one of her three cleaning jobs!) That's roots that is.

This feels to me like the centre of South Shields, where Mile End Road crosses Ocean Road.

Large Wetherspoon's pub named after the Donkey Man, a hero of the Gallipoli campaign in WW1, whose statue stands outside.

The pub, owned by the Leeds-based Stonegate Pub Company, was formerly the Marine & Technical College built in 1869. A memorial depicting Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his donkey stands outside Image Also known as the 'man with the donkey', South Shields born Kirkpatrick emigrated to Australia where he joined the Army at the start of the First World War. He went on to become a household name for rescuing injured soldiers under heavy Turkish fire at the battle of Gallipoli. Sadly Kirkpatrick was killed in action in 1915, aged just 22 - but not before saving more than 300 wounded comrades by carrying them to safety on his donkey. On 19 May 2015, the Australian High Commissioner, the Hon. Alexander Downer A.C., visited South Shields as part of special celebrations marking 100 years to the day that John Simpson Kirkpatrick was killed in action. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Simpson_Kirkpatrick

On Ocean Road in South Shields town centre. This represents John Simpson Kirkpatrick, a native of the town who was living in Australia just before the first world war and joined the army there. He was part of the Anzac force which went to Gallipoli in 1915. He was a stretcher bearer and found a local donkey which he used to carry the wounded. Eventually on May 19th 1915 he was killed by machine gun fire. Commemorated as a hero in Australia, he was however refused a gallantry award by the British authorities. The statue is by local artist Bob Olley and was erected in 1988.