The Spanish City

The Spanish City

The Spanish City was a permanent seaside fairground in Whitley Bay, a seaside town in the North East of England.It was demolished for redevelopment (including a new school) in the late 1990s. The centrepiece of the Spanish City was the Dome, which still exists, although most of the fairground site has gone.

The Spanish City was opened in 1910. It earned its name in 1904 when Charles Elderton, who ran Hebburn's Theatre Royal, brought his Toreadors concert party troupe to perform there. The Spanish City became the Empress Ballroom in 1920.

In 1979 the Rotunda Ballroom was converted into the starlight rooms for live entertainment. The Spanish City's funfair was extremely popular with fairground rides and amusements, including a 'Corkscrew' roller coaster, which is now at Flamingoland in Yorkshire, ghost train and waltzers.

The Dome has had a number of uses over the years as a ballroom, amusement arcade, and Laser Quest Laser Tag Arena, most recently it became a live music venue playing host to several bands including an appearance by Ash in 2001.

References in popular culture

The band Dire Straits mention the location in their 1980 song "Tunnel of Love" and, for a period of years afterwards, the song became the unofficial theme song for the fairground, being played every morning when the park opened. The lyrics pertaining to the fairground were:

:: "Girl it looks so pretty to me":: "Like it always did":: "Like The Spanish City to me":: "When we were kids"

The surrounding area of Whitley Bay is also mentioned in the song.

:: "Rockaway rockaway":: "From Cullercoats and Whitley Bay":: "Out to rockaway"

Dire Straits frontman and songwriter Mark Knopfler went on to say in a television interview that The Spanish City held special significance to him as the first place he ever heard Rock 'n' Roll played "really loud".

There is also a Spanish mailing list ( [http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/spanish-city Spanish-City ML] ) and website ( [http://www.spanishcity.net SpanishCity.net] ) about Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler, named after The Spanish City because of its inclusion in the lyrics of that song.

"Spanish City" is also the title of a novel by Sarah May, set in the fictional North-East town of Setton, which is home to an amusement park called the Spanish City. Setton borrows other features from Whitley Bay such as 'The Island'.

The Spanish City can be seen briefly in the 1976 film version of 'The Likely Lads'.


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