[1] It comprised a small wooden hut sited next to the Saltwater Baths on Cullercoats Bay, and was used by Armstrong College to study the waters of the north east UK coastline.

He was reluctant to publicise his generosity, and asked that the building be named after one of his ancestors, Eleanor Dove, when it was opened by the Duke of Northumberland on 29 September 1908.

In 2008 the laboratory celebrated its centenary, where the current Duke of Northumberland led festivities.

The Laboratory also operated a public aquarium[3] and once housed the coble in which Grace Darling and her father rescued passengers from the SS Forfashire in 1838.

[6] A Marine Science distance learning course, Delve Deeper, run by the University includes a field course component based at the laboratory.