We’re very much at home here… It’s just a really nice place to be.
I live in North Shields, have done for 8 years. My son goes to school here, we know people around here so we’re very much at home here.
My wife is from Teesside, I’m from New Zealand, we met in Spain and when we moved to the UK, Newcastle seemed like an obvious place, We lived in High Heaton for a while and then when we were looking to buy a house we were really keen to go to the coast and found a lovely place in North Shields so that’s why we’re here.
Northumberland Square photo by Ernest Storey
I really like the fish quay; I really like the library and around Northumberland Square. I think those would be my two favourite places. The library that’s a really important place for us, we love books. I’ve been taking my son there since he was a little baby. And Northumberland Square, I really love what they’ve done with that and all the historic buildings they’ve turned into residential. It’s just a really nice spot.
Through the Beacon shopping centre and also on the high street too, there’s a lot of empty units and sometimes that feels a little sad walking through them all. I’m just thinking about how they’ve transformed where the old Co-op used to be into the transport hub, they’ve transformed Northumberland Square. Maybe some more of that transformation could happen. Those feel like public spaces that everyone uses. They’re for everyone, and I think I would like that for the rest of the town too.
We’ve got no plans to move. We really like the school, we like the area; we’ve got friends around here, so I don’t see us seriously leaving anytime soon. It’s just a really nice place to be. It’s really nice being near the coast as well, being near the sea is really great.
Brad was interviewed in 2025 as part of the North Shields Voices project.