Have Your Say on the £7m Glassworks Riverside Venue at Mill Dam

A long-empty patch of the South Shields riverside looks set to become the town's next leisure destination. Plans for a £7m cultural and leisure venue on the former Cookson's Glassworks site at Mill Dam are being brought forward, and residents are being invited to help shape what the finished scheme looks like before it goes for planning permission.

What's proposed

The site sits on Harton Quay, on the south bank of the Tyne between the historic Mill Dam quayside and the Customs House. North East developer Building Design Northern (BDN) has been selected by South Tyneside Council to take the scheme forward, under the working name The Glassworks.

The proposals point to a lively riverside venue rather than a single business. Early plans describe space for several food and drink operators, a taproom, and entertainment and event spaces, with a high-quality seafood offering that plays to the waterfront setting. The design would also restore the locally listed Glassworks chimney, keeping a piece of the site's industrial history in view as a nod to the glassmaking that once happened here.

Part of a bigger riverside picture

The Glassworks is one strand of a wider push to reshape the South Shields waterfront and town centre. It sits alongside the refurbishment of the Customs House arts venue next door, the Holborn riverside housing scheme further west, and the £100m South Shields 365 town-centre masterplan. Together they aim to turn Mill Dam into a genuine cultural quarter — somewhere to eat, drink and spend an evening by the river.

The direction of travel here isn't new. The council's earlier "Our South Shields Conversation" consultation drew almost 1,300 responses, and a better food and drink offer and improved waterfront spaces came up again and again. Two-thirds of those who took part felt the Mill Dam riverside needed more places to eat and drink.

How to have your say

Council leader Councillor Tracey Dixon called it "another hugely exciting moment for South Shields," pointing to the momentum building across the town centre and riverside. BDN and the council say they will now refine the proposals over the coming months, working towards a planning application and preparing the site.

That means the detail is still being worked up, and resident feedback is part of shaping it. If you have views on what the riverside venue should offer, keep an eye on South Tyneside Council's regeneration pages for the Mill Dam and Harton Quays scheme, where consultation opportunities and updates are published as the plans progress. You can read more in the Shields Gazette's coverage.

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