Community

St Andrew's Church (Dhammakaya Meditation Centre)

A landmark Victorian church with a soaring spire, built in 1872 by shipbuilder Andrew Leslie and now a Buddhist meditation centre.

Church Street, Hebburn, NE31 1DR

About St Andrew's Church (Dhammakaya Meditation Centre)

St Andrew's Church is one of Hebburn's most recognisable landmarks, its slender Gothic spire visible across much of the town. The Grade II listed church was built in 1872, paid for by the shipbuilder Andrew Leslie for the workforce he had brought to the town he was creating around his riverside yard. Originally Presbyterian and later United Reformed, its scale and quality speak of the wealth and paternalism of Victorian Hebburn, and it stands as a rare survival of the town Andrew Leslie built. After a major refurbishment the building reopened in 2015 in a striking new role as a Buddhist meditation centre in the Dhammakaya tradition, so a church raised by a Scottish shipbuilder for his Tyneside workers now serves as a place of Buddhist practice, one of the more unexpected chapters in Hebburn's story. It is a working religious and community centre rather than a museum, welcoming visitors to its public meditation sessions, ceremonies and events; the exterior can be admired at any time from Church Street.

Featured in These Guides

Blog posts and guides that feature St Andrew's Church (Dhammakaya Meditation Centre).

Churches in Hebburn

A Gothic Revival Catholic church from 1888, active parish and Methodist congregations, and a former shipyard church that is now a Buddhist temple: the churches of Hebburn.

Interesting Facts About Hebburn

A warship commanded by Mountbatten, the man who worked out the age of the Earth, a BBC sitcom and a Buddhist temple in an old shipyard church: interesting facts about Hebburn.

A Heritage Walking Trail in Hebburn

A self-guided walk linking Hebburn's industrial past: the shipyard riverside, St Andrew's Church, Hebburn Hall, Carr-Ellison Park and the town's war memorial.

More Community in Hebburn

St Aloysius Catholic Church

A large red-brick Gothic Revival Catholic church on Prince Consort Road, opened in 1888.

Hebburn Riverside Park

A large public park on reclaimed shipyard land beside the Tyne, with a riverside walk and a jetty offering wide views up and down the river.

Carr-Ellison Park

Hebburn's principal park, the former gardens of Hebburn Hall, given to the town in 1920 and home to mature trees, gardens, play areas and the war memorial.

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