St Paul's is the historic church of the Parish of Jarrow and Simonside located on a site of worship over many centuries. The Anglo-Saxon chancel from the 7th century, in which Bede worshipped when it was a free-standing chapel of the monastery, survives making it a place of pilgrimage for those following the Venerable Bede and the Northern Saints. 

The original monastery was one of Europe’s most influential centres of learning and culture in the 7th and 8th centuries, largely due to the scholarly writings of the Venerable Bede, who produced more than 60 works. The current medieval monastic ruins date from the 11th century.