North Shields Test Centre

The building which houses North Shields test cente in Cecil Street was erected in1848 as a chapel for people to worship. It remained this way until 1891 when it changed ownership and became a sauna and plunge baths although this was short lived and it closed soon after, just months later it reopened as the Alexandra Laundry, this was made easy as the boilers and pipework were all in place left by the previous owner. A photo of this is available with the staff proudly standing outside with horse-drawn carts laden with laundry. Shortly before World War 2 the building changed ownership and became Alexandra Engineering, making a variety of things and fabrications, this continued until 1950 when a local coach hire company opened up, trading as William B Kerr Coaches, later moving to bigger premses in Wallsend and changed the use of the Cecil Street building into an MOT testing centre, the first in the area following the introduction of manditory testing in 1960. Each test was 15 shillings for 10 year old cars. 50 years on new owners of the station carry on testing much newer cars and the old chapel built all those years ago still serves a very useful purpose.