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Whitley Bay
Seaside town in Tyne and Wear, England

Whitley Bay

Whitley Bay is a seaside town in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wear, England.

Plan a trip to Whitley Bay→From Leeds, West Yorkshire

It was formerly governed as part of Northumberland and has been part of Tyne and Wear since 1974. It is part of the wider Tyneside built-up area, being around 10 miles (16 km) north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne city centre. The population of Whitley Bay at the 2021 census was 38,323.

Get in

Getting to Whitley Bay

See Newcastle upon Tyne for long-distance routes. See North Shields for the Tyne ferry and overnight DFDS ferries from Holland. There are no mainline trains to Whitley Bay. Newcastle Central has frequent trains from London and the Midlands via York, from Edinburgh, and from Carlisle. Change at Central for the Metro Yellow Line.

  1. 01
    Monkseaton Metro Station
  2. 02
    Cullercoats Metro Station

    Trains continue to Tynemouth, North Shields, Wallsend, Byker, Monument and St James.

See

Worth seeing

Whitley Bay is mostly modern. St Paul's Church (Anglican) on Park View in town centre is from 1864.

  1. 01
    Cullercoats: see Tynemouth

    There's a small sandy beach, a sea arch and caves etched into the bluffs.

  2. 02
    St Mary's Lighthouse

    Whitley Bay NE26 4RS (Pay & Display car parks by causeway),.

  3. 03
    Seaton Sluice

    It was used to export salt, coal and bottles, but it kept silting up.

  4. 04
    Seaton Delaval

    Grand mansion designed by Vanbrugh and completed in 1728, in extensive grounds.

Do

Things to do

The Playhouse is on Marine Ave, 100 yards inland from Spanish City.

  1. 01
    Jam Jar Cinema

    Park Ave by the shopping centre.

  2. 02
    Whitley Bay Ice Rink

    Public skating rink which is also home of the Whitley Warriors ice hockey team.

  3. 03
    Whitley Bay Golf Club

    White tees 6579 yards, par £72, visitor round £50.

Eat

Where to eat

Spanish City (Trenchers or 1910), Whitley Bay NE26 1BG (next to Premier Inn),. Once the centrepiece of a funfair, this oddity was built in 1910, in sort-of Brighton Pavilion meets Grand Mosque of Baghdad then shrunk in the wash. The funfair was extolled in the 1980 Dire Straits single "Tunnel of Love" but fell derelict and was demolished in 1999.

How locals move

Getting around Whitley Bay the local way

  • Get inSee North Shields for the Tyne ferry and overnight DFDS ferries from Holland.
  • Get inOther useful services include the 306 (slower than the 308/309 but a more scenic route through Tynemouth), the 317 (a local route through North Tyneside which connects with ferries from South Shields), and the 57 (an hourly service from Ashington and Cramlington).

From Wikivoyage: Whitley Bay, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.