Remembering Gordon the South Shields seagull who had a fondness for a 5-star cafe

Meet Gordon who possibly had the best taste of any South Tyneside seagull back in the day.

Tell us if you remember the precocious bird who had the best table in the house at a South Shields cafe in 2012.

The bird spent every lunchtime eyeing up the food from a ledge outside Frankies upstairs eatery in King Street. Gordon the gull even pecked furiously on the window glass in a bid to reach the homemade grub.

A Shields Gazette report at the time said: “But the bad news is there is a strict don’t feed the birds’ policy at the premises, which was recently awarded the top five-star rating in the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.

“It hasn’t stopped Gordon - named after the celebrity chef - checking out the food on the menu, showing a particular fondness for the mince and dumplings and steak pie meals.

“His antics go down particularly well with the café’s younger customers and proprietor Karen Kane believes the bird is displaying great taste’ by targeting her café.”

Karen told the Shields Gazette in 2012: "Every day, he’s here. He never gets any food, but he never gives up. He must have heard about our five-star rating and that everything we serve up is home-made.

"I often chase him because we can’t have him upsetting the customers, but the kids who come in absolutely love him. They think he’s funny, and a real character."

"Over the months he’s got braver and now taps his beak really hard on the window, so much so that we worry that he’s going to shatter it.

"He’s a real character but we can’t have anyone feeding him and the windows are too high, anyway.

"Despite never getting anything to eat he’s back every lunchtime without fail. He seems to know exactly when we start to serve."

We wonder if Gordon was the same bird who got even braver in 2016.

That’s when a seagull walked into Greggs, in King Street, picked up a bag of crisps and then quickly took it outside, before breaking it open and promptly eating them all.

The bizarre moment was captured on camera by customer Gordon Lindsay, whose video was shared hundreds of times from the Gazette’s Facebook page.

Mr Lindsay, 40, from Simonside, said 10 years ago: “I was just sat there having a bacon sandwich and a cup of coffee when it happened.

“I saw the seagull try to get in a few times before that, and then it obviously decided to go for it.

“It looked up to see if anyone was watching, grabbed the crisps and walked to the door. One of the workers noticed and clapped her hands, but it was too late. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.

“It seemed to like the crisps. When it went outside, it pecked the bag open and tipped the crisps onto the floor before eating them all.”

Dozens of comments were left on the Gazette’s Facebook page, including one person who said: “I reckon there are now some seagulls who have never tasted fish. Just McD’s, fish and chips and Greggs pasties! Not forgetting the odd bag of crisps.”

Get in touch and share your own South Tyneside seagull stories by emailing [email protected]