Spanish City

Charles Elderton of the Hebburn Theatre Royal originally established an amusements arcade and dance hall on the site. His Toreadors Concert Party had entertained visitors with an open-air theatre in Whitley Park every summer since 1907, with the awnings decorated in the Spanish style. To provide a permanent fixture, he founded Whitley Amusements Ltd. The dome was erected in 1910. There were shops and cafes inside, a roof garden, The theatre was converted to the Empress Ballroom in 1920, and a first floor was inserted into the dome, which became known as the Rotunda. In 1979 the Rotunda was converted into the Starlight Rooms for live entertainment. The dome was used as a classroom for pupils…

The Spanish City faces the sea, with a 180 ft-long front and a depth of 275 ft. The dome rises to 75 ft above the foundation and has a diameter of 50 ft, supported on 46-ft-high concrete columns. It is made of a reinforced-concrete shell, five inches thick, which is supported by 12 (10 in x 18 in) internal ribs. The architects were Robert Burns Dick, Charles T. Marshall, and James Cackett of Cackett and Burns Dick. J. Coulson was a design consultant and L. G. Mouchel were structural consultants. Davidson and Miller were the contractors.

Dire Straits refer to the Spanish City in their 1980 song "Tunnel of Love", which became the fairground's unofficial theme song, played every morning when it opened. In the British TV series Vera, the Spanish City appears several times in the episode "Protected" (Season 4, Episode 2, 2014). In particular, Vera mentions the Spanish City to Joe regarding a memory from her childhood at the end of the episode. <gallery mode=packed widths="140px" heights="140px" perrow="3"> File:View from the Spanish City dome, Whitley Bay, England, 2011 (brightened).jpg|View from the dome, September 2011 File:Spanish City, Whitley Bay, September 2010.jpg|September 2010 File:Spanish City, Whitley Bay, 20…