Former Queen Alexandra College Building, Hawkeys Lane

This building on Hawkeys Lane in North Shields is part of the former site of Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College. It was originally built in 1909 for the Tynemouth Education Committee and designed by local architect J.C. Maxwell and the main contractor was J.L. Miller of North Shields. The school was constructed to take c. 400 pupils and cost c.£27,500 and as well as serving as a secondary school, it also functioned as a centre for the training of pupil teachers and for holding evening classes. It was officially opened on the 8th November, 1909 by Rev Canon Crawhall.[1] It was later named Tynemouth High School. The building is Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England.

Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College became a key part of Tyne Met College, then in 2017, South Tyneside College merged with Tyne Met to form the new Tyne Coast College (TCC). Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College moved from the Hawkeys Lane site in 2020 after repair costs escalated at a time when TCC income reduced because of the COVID pandemic. It relocated to the Coast Road Campus on a 'temporary' basis. But then, in May 2023 TCC announced the decision to close Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College, on the basis that it was "no longer financially viable and we will no longer run any A levels at the end of July 2024, we will teach out the remaining students."