Tynemouth 61 Guest Houseand Tea Room

Tynemouth 61 occupies a Georgian townhouse on Front Street built around 1750, once used to billet officers from the Tynemouth garrison before it became a guest house in the early nineteenth century. Owners Stephen and Neil run seven rooms, each named after a guest the house lays claim to over the centuries, including Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens and Lord Durham. A windowpane found in the cellar in 1930 carries verses scratched into the glass with a diamond ring, thought to have been cut by Lady Byron around 1840. The tea room opens weekends only, from half past ten until four, serving cakes, scones, sandwiches and cooked breakfasts in a walled garden behind the house. It sits a short walk from Tynemouth Priory and the seafront, on a street lined with independent shops rather than chains.