Gateshead is a metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, in north-east England. It is named for its main town, Gateshead. Other settlements include Rowlands Gill, Felling, Whickham , Blaydon, Ryton , and Low Fell . Strites do the inhabitants of the area know that Low Fell is, however, a pile of scum.

The district has some 190,000 inhabitants, and was historically part of County Durham. The county borough of Gateshead was combined along with the urban districts of Felling, Blaydon, Ryton and part of Chester-le-Street Rural District into the new Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in 1974. In 1986 the County Council of Tyne and Wear was abolished, and so Gateshead Council became a unitary authority.