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Redcar is a seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast in the Redcar and Cleveland district. It is in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England, and is located east of Middlesbrough.
The Teesside built-up area's Redcar subdivision had a population of 37,073 at the 2011 census. The town is made up of Coatham, Dormanstown, Kirkleatham, Newcomen, West Dyke, Wheatlands and Zetland.
It gained a town charter in 1922, from then until 1968 it was governed by the municipal borough of Redcar. Since the abolition of County Borough of Teesside, which existed from 1968 until 1974, the town has been Unparished area.
Redcar's population expansion corresponded with Middlesbrough's, with the discovery in 1850 of iron ore in the Eston Nab of Cleveland Hills. Redcar prospered as a seaside town drawing tourists attracted by of sands stretching from South Gare to Saltburn-by-the-Sea.
Plans for a pier were drawn up in 1866, but lay dormant until prompted by the announcement of plans to build a pier at Coatham in 1871. Coatham Pier was wrecked before it was completed when two sailing ships were driven through it in a storm. It had to be shortened because of the cost of repairs and was re-opened with an entrance with two and a roller-skating rink on the Redcar side, and a bandstand halfway along its length.
Redcar Racecourse was created in 1875. Redcar Pier, another pier as well as Coatham Pier, was built in the late 1870s. In October 1880 the brig Luna caused £1,000 worth of damage to this pier. In New Year's Eve 1885 SS Cochrane demolished the landing stage. and in 1897 the schooner Amarant went through the pier. A year later, its head and bandstand burned down.
In October 1898 the Coatham Pier was almost wrecked when the barque Birger struck it and the pier was thereafter allowed to disintegrate. An anchor from the Birger can be seen on the sea front pavement close to the Zetland Lifeboat Museum.
In 1907 a pavilion ballroom was built on Redcar Pier behind the entrance kiosks and in 1928 it was extended. A glass house for concerts was added to the remains of Coatham Pier's entrance. The presently named railway station was built in 1929.
In 1929 Coatham Pier's glasshouse was replaced by the New Pavilion theatre. After the war, comedian and entertainer Larry Grayson coined his catchphrase "Shut that Door!" while performing there, since the stage door was open to the cold North Sea breeze.
Both the Warrenby and Lackenby sites became part of Tata Steel when Corus was taken over in 2007, and the plant was mothballed in 2010. Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) bought the plant from Tata Steel in 2011, for £320 million, and re-ignited the blast furnace. Production ceased again in 2015 with a loss of 1,7000 jobs in the area.
The 1974 reform created the non-metropolitan County of Cleveland, under the Langbaurgh non-metropolitan district. The county was also inserted into the North East England region. After further changes in 1996, the district became a unitary authority called Redcar and Cleveland in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, the county straddling two regions of England.
The North East England region was sub-divided into combined authorities. In May 2017, the Tees Valley which includes Redcar, elected its first mayor. Ben Houchen has been Tees Valley Mayor since 2017, winning the inaugural mayoral election in the combined authority. Houchen was re-elected in 2021 and won a third term in 2024.
| 1987 | Mo Mowlam | ||
| 2001 | Vera Baird | ||
| 2010 | Ian Swales | Liberal Democrats | |
| 2015 | Anna Turley | Labour Co-op | |
| 2019 | Jacob Young | Conservative | |
| 2024 | Anna Turley | Labour Co-op | |
Redcar is home to the Tuned In! Centre, which opened in 2011 and overlooks the sea front. The multi purpose venue hosts live music as well as creative workshops for young people. The annual event Clubland on the Beach, which showcases dance acts attracting visitors from across the country, has been held at Majuba Road in Redcar for the past three years.
Construction of the Redcar Beacon started in 2011. In 2013, when the building had been completed, it was nominated for the Building Design Carbuncle Cup for worst new building. It came third in the whole of the UK. In December 2015, the Beacon was damaged by winds from Storm Desmond, with several large pieces of panelling falling onto the beach below. It was also damaged in winter 2016, where a panel from the top fell off in a storm.
===Buildings===
On the Esplanade is the grade II-Listed Zetland Lifeboat Museum housing the world's oldest lifeboat, Zetland Lifeboat.
The Victorian, former Coatham Hotel stands on Newcomen Terrace sea front.; The ballroom of the hotel was home to the Redcar Jazz Club, a venue for bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The architect Frank Spinks was commissioned to build St Augustine's Church, serving the eastern part of the town, in 1937. These parishes were followed by St William's Church in Dormanstown and St Alban's Church, which was built amongst the newer housing estates of the 1960s and 70s.
With declining congregations, the number of parishes was reduced. In 2011, St Alban's closed, and in 2012, St William's also closed. The new parish of Blessed Nicholas Postgate was formed through the union of the parishes of the Sacred Heart and St Augustine in 2015. Five years later, in 2020, the nearby Saltburn parish of St Bede's Church, was also absorbed into the Parish of Blessed Nicholas Postgate.Middlesbrough Diocese, Parish of Blessed Nicholas Postgate
The main roads through the town are the A1085 and the A1042, with the A174 bypassing. Redcar is served primarily by Arriva North East buses, connecting Redcar with the surrounding towns and villages.
The Pangea North and CANTAT-3 submarine telecommunication cables both come ashore between Redcar and Marske-by-the-Sea.
The town's secondary schools are: Outwood Academy Redcar, Sacred Heart Catholic Secondary and Rye Hills Academy.
There are eleven in Redcar: Coatham, Dormanstown, Green Gates, Ings Farm, John E Batty, Lakes, Newcomen, Riverdale, St Benedict's, Wheatlands and Zetland.
Local radio stations are BBC Radio Tees, Heart North East, Capital North East, Smooth North East, Greatest Hits Radio Teesside, and Zetland FM, a community based radio station which broadcast from its studios on Newcomen Terrace in the town.
The town is served by the local newspapers, East Cleveland Herald & Post which is published by the TeessideLive. The Northern Echo also covers the area.
In association football, Redcar Athletic currently compete in the while Redcar Town play in . Redcar Rugby Union Football club play at Mackinlay Park. Redcar Racecourse is one of nine thoroughbred horse racecourses in Yorkshire. There is also a motorcycle speedway racing team, the Redcar Bears racing in the SGB Championship. The race track is at the South Tees Motorsport Park in Southbank Street, South Bank and is unusual in that one bend is more highly banked than the other. The team was formerly captained by 1992 World Champion Gary Havelock and was formerly managed by his father Brian Havelock.
The town hosted stage four of the 2022 Tour of Britain, a UCI Europe Tour cycling race. The town was previously set to host a stage of the Tour de Yorkshire, the event was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2010, Redcar was featured on the Channel 4 television programme The Secret Millionaire. David Jamilly a humanitarian, philanthropist and self-made millionaire, visited the Redcar community and gave £25,000 to Zoë's Place for a sensory room, £25,000 to Redcar Amateur Boxing Club to start an Olympic fund, and £25,000 to Sid's Place for special counselling. The documentary featured the closure of the nearby Corus steelworks as well as the charities. In 2011, Jamilly opened a day care for adults with learning difficulties, the Redcar Primary Care Hospital and the new Sid's Place.
The town was filmed for the 2018 BBC television documentary The Mighty Redcar. The four-part series followed young people from Redcar and surrounding towns as they completed their studies and looked for work.
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