South Shields, Ocean Road, Jubilee Memorial

HER Number:
8086

District:
S Tyneside

Site Name:
South Shields, Ocean Road, Jubilee Memorial

Place:
South Shields

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

Class:
Commemorative

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Commemorative Monument

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Structure

Description:
1890. J H Morton, Architect. John F Scott, Sculptor. R B Farbridge, Monumental Mason. 45 ft high square ashlar tower, rising in 4 stages, designed in the "classical" style. First stage plain with a large semi-circular headed recess on each face. The west one contains a tablet with the inscription "Erected in commemoration of Jubilee of H M Queen Victoria June 20th 1887, as a memorial of the beneficent work of the lifeboat as designed and built in South Shields in year 1790." The north and south each contain a fountain whose waters originally fail into basins at the base of the tower. These basins now removed. The east recess contains a door giving access to the interior of the tower. The second stage has pilasters set at right angles to the corners with entablature breaking forward over them. West face carries a medallion portrait of Wouldhare, the east face one of Greathead. Wouldhare and Greathead are the disputed inventors of the modern lifeboat. The north and south faces have reliefs of a shipwreck and the return of the lifeboat. The third stage, set back behind a balustraded parapet, contains a clock and the crowning fourth stage is an open cupola. LISTED GRADE 2

Easting:
3706

Northing:
6753

Grid Reference:
NZ37066753

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Department of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special architectural or Historic Interest, 12/60; Paul Usherwood, Jeremy Beach and Catherine Morris, 2000, Public Sculpture of North East England, p 176-7; NECT, 2015, National Heritage at Risk Grade II Project