The Black Candle: A new coffee house and bar is giving a nod to South Tyneside's heritage

A new coffee house and bar that gives a nod to South Tyneside's heritage has officially opened its doors to members of the public.

The Black Candle, named after the Catherine Cookson novel, on Dean Road, in Westoe, was officially opened on Thursday, March 28 - just ahead of the Easter weekend.

The venue acts as a coffee house during the day and then a bar/bistro on an evening - serving locally produced food and drinks.

John Scroggins, the owner of The Black Candle, has opened the venue as a nod to his hometown of South Shields - having moved away from borough at the age of 17 to work for the Bank of England.

With his newest business venture, John has been keen to showcase local delights and talents throughout the venue and expressed why this was important to him.

The 48-year-old said: "The Black Candle is a nod to Catherine Cookson and for me, it is a strong name for this brand new venture.

"The venture is a mixture of daytime and evening bar/bistro and everything inside and out has been done and built by local people.

"Everyone who works here is from South Shields and there is even a nod to local artist Bob Olley, with one of his famous paintings that depicted a pit.

"Our suppliers are all within the borough or from across the North East because I wanted the whole thing to be a nod to where I'm from.

"There is a lot of country-wide brands out there that people are probably a bit bored of.

"Those types are venues are controlled with what they can serve in terms of drinks or coffee but for me, I wanted to have full control.

"This means that we can change things as we go along should we need to."

The Black Candle is serving coffee from the Tynemouth Coffee Company, as well as a Sir William Fox lager, who was born in Westoe and went on to become the 2nd Premier of New Zealand.

John has also pledged that prices for things such as coffee with almond milk, soya milk etc. will remain the same as coffee made with regular milk - something that was important to him as he does not want to "squeeze every penny" out of people who have certain dietary requirements.

Ahead of its official opening, The Black Candle has undergone a "soft launch" to allow John and his staff to adapt to their new roles.

John added: "We've got around 1,300 followers after 48 hours on social media which is crazy for such a small venue.

"As we've been getting ready to open, people have been walking past and taking an interest, especially given that it isn't a larger pub environment.

"The soft launch with family and friends went really well, we learnt to reposition some things and it gave us a chance to allow people to sample the food.

"We've been trying some original recipes, things like haggis is on the menu, so again, it is things that you won't find on a typical large pub menu.

"For us, it's not about how quick and how cheap we can do it, it's about the quality."

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The Black Candle is open seven days a week, with the opening times as follows:

• Mondays and Tuesdays - 9am until 4pm.
• Wednesdays and Thursdays - 9am until 10pm.
• Fridays and Saturdays - 9am until 11pm.
• Sundays - 10am until 10pm.

You can find out more about The Black Candle by visiting: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557513481797.