Nobody here says Tyne and Wear. They say Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, South Shields, or just Tyneside for the lot of it north of the river. The county name arrived in 1974 and stayed on the paperwork.
33 clearances have landed in its postcodes — NE34 at South Shields most often, then NE33, NE30 at Tynemouth, NE32 in Jarrow, NE28 at Wallsend and SR2 in Sunderland.
Terraces, flats and the Tyneside flat in particular
The distinctive stock here is the Tyneside flat: a two-storey terrace built as two separate single-floor dwellings, each with its own front door side by side. Clearing the upper one means everything comes down a single straight staircase behind a door that opens onto the street. It is quick when the van is close and slow when it is not.
Beyond that it is terraces, interwar semis out towards the coast, and postwar estates. The coast towns — Tynemouth, Whitley Bay, South Shields — have long-occupancy households and lofts that show it.
What we cover
Pages below run across the NE and SR districts inside the county.