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Photo: via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Edwardian theatre staging drama, music and comedy.
The Sunderland Empire Theatre is a large theatre venue located in High Street West in Sunderland, North East England. The theatre, which opened in 1907, is owned by City of Sunderland Council and operated by Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd, on behalf of Sunderland Empire Theatre Trust.
Church of St Michaels and All Angels
This Anglican church is 20th century, preserving several features from its predecessor, which succumbed to mining subsidence.
formerly Monkwearmouth Station Museum
Small museum of football colours and memorabilia in a former railway station. This was built in 1848 in NatWest cod-classical style, but it was too small and the station moved 200 yards south to St Peters. From 1973 to 2017 it was a railway museum then took on its present guise.
Glass occurs naturally and has been manufactured for 6000 years, but transparent glass was first made from around 1500 BC. The Romans had a big glassworks in Trier in Germany, and this knowhow and technology.spread across northern Europe. Benedict Biscop (628-690) was abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory and brought over French glaziers to make abbey windows, the first known manufacture in Britain. Glass became a major industry in Sunderland from the 18th century, thanks to local coal, and sand brought as ballast in Baltic shipping, but the city's last glassworks closed in 2007. This centre, part of the University of Sunderland, has a museum and exhibitions of glassware.
It stands on the site of Monkwearmouth monastery. Only the porch and west wall survive from the monastery of 674 AD, which formed a combined abbey with Jarrow, and was the base of the Venerable Bede. The exterior is mostly 13th / 14th century and the interior was re-done in the 1870s and again following arson in 1984. It remains an Anglican church and is open to look around, and use the simple cafe, M-F 10:30AM-2:30PM.
is the nearest sea-side strip to town. Roker Pier was built from 1865 as a breakwater. It's 1198 ft (365 m) long; the lighthouse (completed 1903) is still in use. St Andrew's Church, north on Talbot Rd, is an elegant Arts & Crafts building of 1907, open M-F 10AM-noon.
Volunteer Life Brigades were formed in the 19th century: they don't launch lifeboats, but assist the Coastguard with shore-based rescue. Only three brigades remain active: this one (founded 1877), South Shields (founded 1866) and Tynemouth (the very first, founded 1864). This is the Sunderland Brigade's Watch House.