Souter Lighthouse

A carte-de-visite showing a view of Souter Lighthouse in the village of Marsden near South Shields, Tyne and Wear.

Designed by James Douglass, it opened in 1871. It was the first lighthouse in the world to be designed and built specifically to use alternating electric current. One contemporary enthusiast described it as 'without doubt one of the most powerful lights in the world' (George H. Elliot, European Light-House Systems, 1875).

Photographed by William Sutherland of Sunderland.