A Short History of the Alum Ale House

“The fascinating history of the Alum House can first be sensed by taking a look through the elegant bow windows on the pub’s west side. The area below, which today is occupied by the pub’s beer garden and steps, was once known as ‘Alum House Ham’, and may have been utilized by the fishing and salt industries for which South Shields renowned as early as the sixteenth century. However, what is certain is that prior to the North Shields Ferry Company obtaining its charter in 1828, Alum House Ham (meaning ‘foreshore’) was a heavily-congested ‘hang out’ for ‘Scullermen’ willing to carry passengers across the river. An unofficial ferry service had existed in South Shields since the fourteenth century and South Shields historian Hodgson notes that by the 1820s a substantial percentage of the Scullermen were Trafalgar veterans, that the single fare would fluctuate between three to four pence, and that lines of men waiting for jobs at the Ham would develop from the early hours of the Morning.

The origin of today’s Alum House building is inseparable from that of another of South Shields’ early industries, glass making. Historian Bourne stated that the origins of the North-East glass industry to lie with three Huguenots, who fled to Newcastle from Italy sometime in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. Similarly, in 1704, a Venetian, John Dagnia, settled in South Shields, and in 1856, the Historian Salmon records that ‘It was in order to obtain part of the material then used in glass making that Isaac Cookson established, about the close of the seventeenth or early eighteenth century, the first chemical works in South Shields for the manufacture of alum’. The location of Dagnia’s works is lost, but his acquaintance, the Reverend J.C. Abbs, recorded that the site occupied ‘what were for long known as Cookson’s Glass-works at the Mill Dam’. Upon Dagnia’s death in 1743, his interests were sold to a ‘John Cookson’ and during the 1740s, Isaac Cookson developed the works. a 1740 advertisement in ‘The Builder’s dictionary’ states that ‘Cookson and Jeffrey’s new glass house in South Shields makes crown glass to sell form their warehouse at Old Swan, London Bridge’, and during the 1760s a surviving book of Saint Hilda’s Church records: ‘John Cookson. Esq, for the Alum House: 4s6d’. However, this may not necessarily date the building we know today; rather it could simply imply that a ‘house’ or ‘works’ was present at that time.

‘The alum industry‘ is often seen as Britain’s first chemical industry. Alum liquor was shipped to the Alum House Ham after being extracted from shale in cliffs north of Whitby. Such was its worth, that Cookson fitted his vessels with special tanks for the journey, and the cargo was often the target of pirates. The process began with the shale being heaped, fired, and soaked in water, from which the active ingredient, aluminium sulphate, was drained into the ‘alum house’, where the water was boiled away in evaporating pans. The presence of alum stabilized the condition of the glass during a process which used coal, iron, lead, and for crystallization, an alkali - often urine - with urine from teetotal Methodists being considered the best!

Although the precise relationship between John and Isaac Cookson remains under-researched, the family’s influence in South Shields grew steadily. In 1740, a record states that a ‘Joseph Cookson’ caused considerable controversy by issuing ‘profane orders’ for the bells of Saint Hilda’s to be rung on the occasion of the death of one of his ‘servants’ - which proved to be his pet dog! John Cookson also owned the Caldwell, two miles outside South Shields on the way to Sunderland, from which water for the production process was drawn.

By the late eighteenth century, Alum House Ham had become a warren of lanes, housing substantial industrial activity. Within one hundred yards of this spot, Simon Temple, the entrepreneur heavily influential in the industrial development of South Tyneside, built his first shipyard. The yard was greatly involved in the Napoleonic wars, and constructed many government vessels, including the Saldhana, a 36-gun frigate, which was lost with all of her crew of 300 in Lough Swilly, Ireland in December 1811. Temple lived close-by in ‘Back of the Shaft’ - a now-vanished alley which was renamed ‘Spring Lane’ in 1849. Also nearby was ‘Saltwell Lane’, from which ran a saline spring often used to treat sore eyes. Reputedly, the lane, which stood where today’s Ferry Street runs upwards behind the Market Place, terminated in an impressive mansion which was notorious for being haunted by an ‘Ancient Lady’. For himself, Cookson built a grand two-storey mansion, which stretched some distance along the frontage of today’s Ferry street. Hodgson, writing in 1903 says: ‘The site… was occupied by the original chemical works of Isaac Cookson, the Alum House from which the Alum House Ham derives its name. Close by, on the western side was the residence of Mr. Cookson himself, a fine old house with gardens and terraces sloping to the river. A portion of the structure still exists in The Ferry Inn in the western side of the penny ferry landing.’ This section remained as a public house until the end of the twentieth century, when all final remnants of the mansion were swept away with the Ferry Tavern’s demolition.

By 1782, the ongoing development of the works saw John Cookson paying higher rates, which could indicate increased construction of the buildings. During the 1970s, a story in the Shields Gazette called the Alum House a ‘200 year old building’, and a further story in 1993 proposed it to be ‘230 years old’. In 1988, the Gazette referred to it as ‘probably the oldest building in South Shields’ and proposed that it may also ‘pre-date the Market Place’ (South Shields’ Old Town Hall, in the Market Place, was constructed in 1768). Bow windows of the type seen at the Alum House were extremely popular during the late eighteenth century, and the pub’s basement also possesses a distinctive floor, made from bricks with dimensions that imply a date long prior to the mechanization of brick-making from the 1850s onwards. An act of parliament in 1766 set brick sizes at 8.5 x 4 x 2.5 inches, and the Brick Tax of 1784 led to sizes generally increasing from that time. Taking these facts into account, further analysis of these bricks, located in what is generally the oldest part of any building, may yet help suggest an exact date of construction.

Today’s Alum House entered the nineteenth century located at the very epicentre of an incredibly successful, and extensive industrial concern. in 1811, Cookson and Co. began manufacturing Fresnel’s dioptric apparatus for lighthouses, and Mackenzie, writing in 1834 notes that: ‘Near to the Market Place are three houses for the manufacture of crown glass belonging to mssrs Isaac Cookson and Co; and the cast plate-glass manufactory, belonging to this company, gives employment to a great number of men, and rivals every similar establishment in Europe’. Similarly, a report of the Government Select Committee in 1839 note that ‘The Glass works of mssrs Cookson, which were built on that tenure, are the largest in the Kingdom, and have been established in a century and a half.’ In 1833, ten out of the thirty-eight glass houses in the region were owned by members of the Cookson family.

During the 1840s, the widespread growth in the sheet glass process (which was cheaper, and avoided bull’s eyes in the glass) saw Cookson’s methods become increasingly inefficient. Furthermore, a large duty imposed on crown glass crippled the works financially. There was talk of a repeal, but the duty was not abolished until 1845, the year that Cookson and Cuthberts disappeared in favour of Swinburnes, whose forward-thinking partners had included George Stevenson. Swinburnes immediately reconstructed the works, abandoning the blown-glass method in place of the rolled cast plate process. in 1848, Revd. R.E. Homes rejoiced that the firm was busy engaged in the largest contract it had undertaken, that of ‘Rolling of a great part of the glass required for the construction of the Crystal Palace to be reared in Hyde Park next year’. The Great Exhibition of 1851 saw the firm obtain a prize medal, and consolidate a world-wide reputation.

The earliest detailed map of this area is dated 1855, and shows The Alum House - and its bow windows - as being a ‘Hotel’, whilst opposite, Cookson’s mansion is the ‘Customs House’, and to the west, Swinburne’s glass works are extensive. Hodgson states that The Alum House premises had been taken over by Wood’s Brewery, and that they were a public house ‘by early Victorian times’. The building may have switched use during the transfer of ownership, and in 1879, a trade directory lists Alum House Ham as housing Dodds Sail Makers, L Hall, Engineer, Whitelaw Sail Makers, A Whitelaw, Lloyd’s Shipping Register, Low and Co Sail Makers, JW Fowler’s Marine Store, Cottew Brothers Ship Surveyors, and G. Armstrong, Innkeeper. By 1885, Whitelaw’s remain, and Thomas Rutherford is recorded as being proprietor of ‘Alum House Inn’. In 1899, The Alum House Inn was owned by Harry McDermott. At the time, the pub endured a disreputable reputation, being surrounded by slum housing which had swamped most of the riverside and ballast hills from Lawe to Holborn. However, the building’s role as a pub proved to be a blessing, as during the late nineteenth century, the South Shields glass industry collapsed around it - from there being eight manufactories in the early decades, one remained by 1900, and today, all remnants of the industry have vanished.

By 1909, the proprietor is listed as having been J.E. Martin, by 1920 an E. Todd, and by 1932, a P. Cassidy. It was perhaps from this extensive period as a pub that the many tales of hauntings originate; as it currently stands there have been six recorded ghosts: ‘Old Charlie,’ ‘The Victorian Gentleman,’ ‘The Giggling Irish Prostitute,’ ‘The Grey Lady,’ ‘The Phantom in the Cupboard,’ and ‘The Phantom Barman.’

In 1936, The Alum House was bought by Tyne Dock Engineering, for which it was used as a store, polishing shop, and drawing office. The distinctive whitewash exterior probably dates from this time, as all earlier photos show the brick frontage. During the Second World War, a Managing Director of TDE, Robert Chipchase, adapted the building as a base for the Home Guard, of which he was a colonel. Chipchase used the main room as a guardroom, and oversaw the manufacture here of an impressive wooden crest of Durham Light Infantry, which remained in place above the fireplace until the 1980s. Other parts of the building were used as drawing rooms in which design work for the conversion of Merchant Navy ships was carried out.

In the 1960s, a letter to the Shields Gazette expressed ‘surprise’ that the building had ‘once been a pubic house.’ Photos of that time show the faded red letters ‘TDE’ painted between the upper bow windows, and by the 1980s, the building had fallen into disrepair. In 1982, David Donnelly put around £15,000 of his own money into renovating the building as a showroom for his ‘Davell’ furniture business. Having paid for the preservation of the bow windows, he also received a loan and grant from South Tyneside Council, and the building was officially opened by mayor of South Tyneside, Elizabeth Scrimger in June 1982. The building was given Grade II listed status in 1983, and in 1987 was offered grant aid under the aegis of ‘Operation Riverside’, a nationwide scheme to improve river areas. In 1988, its restoration saw it being placed on a short-list for the South Tyneside Design Awards.

In August 1991, The Alum House suffered a fire, and the shell was bought by Tim Jones, after what The Shields Gazette called a ‘lengthy period of dereliction’. In 1994, it was taken over by Cameron’s Brewery, and managed by Graham Peacock for around four years. Around the turn of the 21st Century, the pub was managed by Phil Surtees, before being taken over by Jenny Preston, Mother of Jason Orange, singer in one of Britain’s biggest ever boy bands, Take That! In 2002, the pub was taken over by Marston’s Brewery, and the tenancy passed to Teresa Donnelly. In 2006, The Alum Ale House was taken over by Tessa Gosling and Anthony Shawcross.“ - Research and Narrative by Gerard Lynn, 2008