People still say good morning to each other, people have a chat.
I moved here because of love. My husband was brought up in Whitley Bay, but his dad always answers that he was from North Shields. We were living in France for the last 10 years and then my husband said, “I think it’s time to move back home”. So, we moved to North Shields in November 2023.
For 23 years I have been coming to the area and my dad’s actually from Stockton, so I was brought up half in Holland, half in England, so I know the area and I can understand the Geordie accent.
I Love North Shields magazine
When I moved over and I don’t know many people, so I thought I want to get a bit involved in the community, find out what’s going on. On Facebook I did see that there was people coming together to discuss ideas for a North Shields 800 celebrations the following year. I thought well I’ll go there and go and see how can I get involved. They were asking the people that came to think of projects for the North Shields 800. I brought up the idea of a magazine for North Shields made by the community, for the community, because I’d set up one before in Holland. It was building a bridge between the community, the Dutch and the English and because my husband is not on social media, has no idea what’s going on, I thought, well it’s a good way of sharing information. Working together on a project, you get to know lots of people and you’re working for the greater good.
When we shared the idea, everyone was, “Oh I love it, I think it’s great.” A couple of writers came forward so I said, “I’m a graphic designer I can do social media, so let’s just do it.” And then my neighbour said, “Oh I’ll sponsor 100 copies for you,” and that’s how it started.
Through the volunteers I got to know their stories, they were introducing me to other people, they were sharing the magazine with their families and friends, and it snowballed from that really. People just loved reading it, because it’s in print, people who are not on social media get much more of an idea what’s going on.
Northumberland Park gardens photo by Ernest Storey
I live on the fish quay, people still say good morning to each other, people have a chat with each other and it’s beautiful, the sunrises, the nature it’s a gorgeous place. But I also really like Northumberland Park it’s also beautiful.
I would like to see more spaces for the youth to come together. All the community centres or organisations not working as islands just for their own organisation but by seeing what the community needs and then all joining the dots to work together.
I think because I’ve lived in Holland, I’ve lived in France, I’ve been travelling through Spain for a couple of months and I’ve been in all these different communities and, what I’ve learned in France for instance, that people share a lot. Your neighbours they will be growing food in their garden, they will ask you if you want any food. No one gets left behind, people know their community, what’s happening in their street, in their area. And I felt that simple community feeling, just saying hello to someone in the street and that’s what I like about the town. Also, I think because we are a port and there’s 800 years of history, people have been coming and going and that makes it different. There’s so much opportunity for North Shields. There’s no reason why it should be left behind, because I know North Shields from 20 years ago as well.
The fish quay for instance there were lots of derelict buildings, it was quite rough. I remember telling people, “Oh we’re going to move to North Shields” and people would say, “Oh, why would you want to live there?”. So now if I have Tote bags ‘I Love North Shields’ people are wearing it with pride feeling like, “Oh, I’m proud that I’m from North Shields”. The people are proud to say I’m from North Shields and bringing that community pride back. And you get that when people start getting involved in the community, learning about the community and if we all put the energy in together greater things can come out of that.
I’ve always been very creative. I like to see opportunities; there’s so many things possible. I’d like to travel, so that’s great that we are in North Shields, the gateway to Europe.
What I see for ‘I Love North Shields’, it’s not about me, it’s about us. I always say that it’s not about one person, it’s a platform that we’re creating. What happens is that by other people using that platform they can build, they can create opportunities for themselves. I would love to see a project like ‘I Love North Shields’ issue made by youth so that kids are making it. I think there’s lots of ways that you can get kids involved in this by all the skills and knowledge that we have because it doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, it’s just by working together getting to know and learning about each other, I would like to see more of.
Simone was interviewed as part of the North Shields 800 Voices Project.