Many photographs taken around the 19th century exist of Ormonde Street in Jarrow Tyne and Wear. Most of them show the view below. Ormonde Street all those years ago was classed as the main shopping area and was always busy with shoppers. The scene below existed until it was demolished in the 1960s.
The Burton building was the only building to survive demolition seen to the right in the photo, on the opposite corner of the street stood the Woolworth building.
Ormonde Street is no longer filled with the hustle and bustle of shoppers. A new shopping center was built at the time to the left and the rear of these buildings is out of shot in this photograph. The old Burton building the only one to survive the demolishing hammer stands today (2013 / 24) and has been revamped into a carpet shop.
Close by these buildings stood Jarrow’s old market square centered around an old Victorian theatre. The square and theatre also went under the hammer of the demolition company in the 1960s and the area was used to build council housing. After the build completion, it was given the name North Court.
Now at this moment in time, North Court Council housing has been demolished and has made way for new private town housing seen here to the left in the photo where Woolworth & Co. Ltd. once stood.
The building behind Burton & Co. is Ellen Court named after Ellen Wilkinson who had defeated Conservative Member Mr. Pearson in the 1935 elections and was then the town’s Member of Parliament, and also one of the leading figures who marched to London with the Jarrow marchers of 1936.
The second block named after her is Wilkinson Court to the left and behind me followed by Monastery Court. All three tower block apartments in central Jarrow were built approximately in the nineteen sixties alongside North Court and avoided the demolishing hammer and have undergone extensive renovation over the years.