Gateshead, a town in England, on the northern verge of the county of Durham, and on the south bank of the river Tyne. Governed for centuries by a chief bailiff appointed by the prince-bishop of the palatinate, aided by popularly elected burgesses, Gateshead was enfranchised first as a parliamentary borough in 1832, and secondly as a municipal borough in 1835, whilst in 1888 it became a county borough. Its population has grown from 15,177 in 1831 to 25,568 in 1851, 65,855 in 1881, and 85,709 in 1891. Thus there is only one urban community along the main line between
London and Edinburgh which exceeds Gateshead in population; and the exception is the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which is situated directly opposite Gateshead on the Northumberland or northern bank of the river. The two towns are intimately connected: a splendid suspension bridge (1871) joins them at Redheugh; Stephenson's celebrated High Level (1849) connects them by both road and rail; and a swing-bridge (1876), which opens to allow the passage of ships, connects the quayside of Newcastle with the principal thoroughfare of Gateshead. This close association of the two communities is not felt to be of advantage to the Durham borough, because the city on the Northumberland side of the Tyne levies under ancient charter local dues on all the river trade, which both towns promote, though the emoluments derived therefrom belong exclusively to Newcastle. The older portions of Gateshead have not during recent years been much improved. Many of the old stone buildings have been allowed to fall into considerable decay. Westward and southward extension and improvement are continuous, and the suburbs show many fine villas. The town community is for the greater part industrial. Engine-works, iron-shipyards, electric cable, hempen and wire rope manufactories, chemical works, cement-works, glass-works, and iron-works furnish employment to a large proportion of the inhabitants. The only philanthropic institutions in the town which do not owe their existence to modern public spirit are the grammar-school (1700) and the King James Hospital (1611) for poor brethren.
Numerous institutions depend for their support on voluntary contributions and on grants from local rates. These include successful boys' and girls' high schools, excellent swimming-baths, a useful dispensary, a hospital for the isolated treatment of infectious disease, a literary and scientific institute, a school of art, &c. Public libraries (circulating and reference) were inaugurated in 1886, which are free to all burgesses. Under the management of an energetic school-board formed in 1872, two higher-grade and some forty elementary schools educate 25,000 children. A free school was established in 1701. The town-hall and free library are among the architectural ornaments of the borough. There is a recreation ground on Windmill Hills; and a public park of 50 acres at Saltwell, opened in 1874. Besides other places of worship belonging to the various denominations, there are ten churches of the English establishment, including the venerable St Mary's, which in 1080 was the scene of the murder of Bishop Walcher by an English mob. Among places of interest in Gateshead are the site of the fire and explosion of 1854, which cost fifty lives, and destroyed a million pounds' worth of property; the extensive locomotive works of the North-Eastern Railway Company, the finest in the north of England; alleged traces of the ancient Roman headway or gate's head, from which the name of the town is said to be derived; the undoubted residence in the Hillgate district, during the writing of the immortal Robinson Crusoe, of Daniel Defoe; and the works at which large portions of the first Atlantic cable were manufactured. The quarries from which the world-famous Newcastle grindstones are obtained are also worked within the precincts of Gateshead, at Gateshead Fell. Gateshead continues to be represented, as in 1832, by one member in the House of Commons. For parliamentary and municipal purposes alike, the county borough is divided into ten wards. Its governing body consists of a mayor, ten aldermen, and thirty councillors. See Richard Welford's History of Newcastle and Gateshead (2 vols. 1884-85).