the beacon is a small to medium size shopping mall or centre what ever you want to call them. It does have a good selection of shops, big name include Wilkinson's, boots, the bakers oven, birthdays and new look amongst others, they also have some local traders and a shop of special notice and should be mentioned is moving image toys, which is a local run shop selling film memorabilia, toys from films and wrestling a big stopping point for star wars fans they have even had David prowse (the guy who played darth Vader)signing autographs there. The beacon isn't somewhere that you would come from miles around to go there like the metro centre but if shopping in north shields is defiantly worth a visit. read more