The Grade II Listed Cullercoats Watch House was designed by Frank West Rich and was built to house the Cullercoats Volunteer Life Brigade which was formed after 1864 and was the second to be formed in the world after Tynemouth. The building was constructed between 1877 and 1879. The duty of the life brigade was to assist the coastguard in their endeavours to save lives at sea.

The one storey building was built of roughly-squared sandstone with rock-faced quoins and dressings, a wooden veranda and a tiled roof and shingled belfry with balustrade. It has a boarded door under a catslide roof and a stone-mullioned square-headed window under the gable. The clock tower has a tall octagonal roof.

It was built where the fishwives would meet and wait for the safe return of the fishermen of the village. Cullercoats gained a reputation as an artists’ colony in the early 19th Century and local artists including Robert Jobling and John Falconar Slater painted here.

The famous American artist Winslow Homer lived and worked in Cullercoats from 1881-82. He was struck by the hard working nature of the fish wives and often used them as his subjects. Many of his works are in the collection of leading museums and galleries across the world.

The Watch House has featured in paintings by Homer, notably the dramatic “Watching the Tempest” and local artists. Cullercoats remains a popular place with artists today.