infoThe Arab Boarding House
Peter Fryer
Saturday 12 May to Saturday 7 July
Mr Ahmed Ali Hussein
From the late C19th Yemeni seamen began to settle in the coal port of South Shields. With strong maritime traditions of their own, they were mostly employed as stokers in the expansion of steam shipping. Claiming to come from British Aden, few were actually British subjects, but citizenship was upheld in World War I, when there was a pressing need for labour. They relied heavily on a network of Arab boarding houses, which also helped them find work, provided credit and served halal food.
Watching Al-Jazeera
Peter Fryer has photographed extensively in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon and in the Arab villages of Israel and he lives in South Shields. Side Gallery’s Coalfield Stories programme of new production gave him the opportunity to address a long held ambition to document the town’s Yemeni community. The work is on-going. This exhibition looks at one of the last surviving Arab boarding houses.
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