Fenwicks Furniture Store, 6 King Street

This building was added to the South Tyneside local list in 2023. The local list description reads:
'John Fenwick was a linen and woollen draper who opened his first shop at 6 King Street in 1833, this shop later became Woolworth's. In 1865 his son Robert Cook Fenwick joined the family firm. John Fenwick died in 1873.
In 1889 the architect Thomas Alexander Page of 67 King Street designed the building of 44 King Street near the Fowler Street end. It opened as a furniture store on Friday 17 October 1890 and was described as "One of The Largest Stocks In The North" with "Five Immense Saloons Over One Hundred Feet In Length".
Robert Cook Fenwick died in 1912 and then his nephew Edward Stanley Fenwick took over the family business until he retired in 1939. The address was changed to 3-5 King Street. Hardy & Co Furnishers took over the store in 1939 this was a very popular furniture shop until 1974, when the fast-food chain McDonalds acquired the building.
It is a lovely double fronted symmetrical building with ornate carved sandstone and two triangular pediments on the roof. It was probably the first furniture department store in the town.
Source: Eileen Burnett, via Terry Ford.'