Editing Gateshead (section)

===Industrial revolution===
Throughout the [[Industrial Revolution]] the population of Gateshead expanded rapidly; between 1801 and 1901 the increase was over 100,000. This expansion resulted in the spread southwards of the town.

In 1854, a [[Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead|catastrophic explosion]] on the quayside destroyed most of Gateshead's medieval heritage, and caused widespread damage on the Newcastle side of the river.

[[Sir Joseph Swan]] lived at [[Underhill, Low Fell, Gateshead]] from 1869 to 1883, where his experiments led to the invention of the [[electric light bulb]]. The house was the first in the world to be wired for domestic electric light.

In 1889 one of the largest employers ([[Hawks, Crawshay and Sons]]) closed down and unemployment has since been a burden. Up to the [[Second World War]] there were repeated newspaper reports of the unemployed sending deputations to the council to provide work. The depression years of the 1920s and 1930s created even more joblessness and the [[Team Valley]] Trading Estate was built in the mid-1930s to alleviate the situation.