Architecture of Sunderland, 1700–1914

Sunderland is largely a product of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when coal-mining and shipbuilding fuelled rapid expansion. Once the largest shipbuilding town in the world, Sunderland has a proud and distinctive identity embodied in its historic buildings and its changing urban form. Sunderland Architecture examines the city’s architectural history at the high point of its growth and prosperity. It explores churches, museums, libraries, banks, theaters, and pubs, as well as more humble buildings in which people have lived and worked. Viewing these buildings in their historical context, the book explores the economic, social, and cultural forces that shaped Sunderland. The text is illustrated with photographs taken especially for this volume, with archival documents and images to reconstruct vanishing townscapes.