Trenchers to open 160-seater Whitley Bay restaurant

Popular Whitby fish and chip restaurant Trenchers is opening an outlet in the multi-million-pound refurbished Spanish City overlooking Whitley Bay seafront.

The new 160 cover family-style restaurant will take over the ground floor of the building’s iconic dome, which sits in the centre of the Grade II-listed structure. It is due to open this summer from lunch until 9pm each day and will also feature a separate takeaway accessible from the main promenade both serving traditional fish and chips cooked in beef dripping, fresh seafood including oysters, crab and prawns, and grilled fish. Gluten free and vegetarian options will also be available as well as a dedicated children’s menu and opportunities to hold parties and private functions.

The outlet will be frying on two high efficiency Florigo ranges - a four pan wall range in the takeaway and a five pan angled range in the restaurant. 

Spanish City is 70 miles north up the coast from Trenchers' Whitby site where it has been operating for nearly 40 years.

It will also house a Champagne bar, an 80-cover tea room, a 24-seater waffle and pancake house, as well as conference, banqueting and wedding facilities.

Erected as a smaller version of Blackpool's Pleasure Beach, Spanish City opened in 1910 featuring a concert hall, restaurant, roof garden and tearoom. At that time, the dome was the second largest in the country after St Paul’s Cathedral with a diameter of 15.24 metres. A ballroom was added in 1920 and later a funfair but the structure fell into disrepair and closed to the public in the early 2000s. North Tyneside Council bought the site in 2001 but it wasn’t until 2016 that the go-ahead was given for the £10 million refurbishment work to start.