[1] It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building,[2] Christ Church was the first church to be built in North Shields, originally a small fishing village created by Prior Germanus of Tynemouth Priory in the thirteenth century.

[3] In 1786, the Newcastle builder and architect John Dodds began to add a west tower to the church; this was completed in 1788.

[4] Christ Church was built of sandstone ashlar masonry, with a roof of Welsh slate.

The battlemented three-storey west tower has a double-door, circular and round-headed windows and a belfry.

In the gallery is the organ, previously in the chancel, now housed in a mahogany case including panels from the 1884 corvette HMS Calliope.