Heritage pubs of Sunderland

To the Tyne and Wear Heritage Open Days event for the second time this week.  Earlier we had visited the Mayor's chamber at the local council - you can read about that here and see some pictures too. 

This time it was a vintage bus pub crawl around heritage pubs of Sunderland that we joined.  Well, as you can see from the above picture, the vintage bus didn't arrive, unless the vintage was circa 2014. A slight disappointment but nothing that would spoil the afternoon.

Dun Cow exterior

Dun Cow interior

Pub 1 - The Dun Cow (1901)
After lunch in The Dun Cow, we had a look around upstairs with our guide Ron from the Sunderland Antiquarian Society. There was a good group of approx 30 of us on the tour, a friendly mix of men and women and we were off to a good start.  Rightly listed in CAMRA's good beer guide.

Mountain Daisy exterior

Mountain Daisy interior

Pub 2 - The Mountain Daisy (1901)
A proper drinking palace, built for working men, and decorated in some style too. There are mosaic floors in the Buffet Room (which my brother uncovered in the late 1990s when my cousin ran the pub); tiled walls, and tons of stained glass including one stained glass window with a Mackem motto.  Beautiful interior and one that holds special memories for me as my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in the function room upstairs.  One of the older ladies on the tour pointed to a boarded up cupboard in the pub and told me it was the original snug. Her mother used to go in there, it seated six and was an area for women only.

Kings Arms exterior

Kings Arms interior

Pub 3 - Kings Arms (1834)
Lovely little boozer down by the river. Our tour guide had some old maps of the area which were fascinating to look at.  Another pub rightly included in the CAMRA good beer guide.

Saltgrass exterior

Saltgrass interior

Pub 4 - The Saltgrass
Another pub right on the river in what had once been the docking area for ships coming in with esparto grass which was used in Sunderland to make paper in the papermills.

Butcher's Arms exterior

The 'death house' door on the right hand side, steps leading down to the river Wear

Pub 5 - The Butcher's Arms (1724)

The oldest pub in Sunderland.  It has been called the Black Bull and the Clarendon in the past but a butcher has recently taken it over and renamed it.  Full of history but lacking in charm and the beer was rank. Our tour guide told us all about the 'death house' underneath the pub which had at one time been the Bull Lane Brewery.  The 'death house' was so called as it was used to store dead bodies found washed up in the river. It was cheaper to store the bodies on that side of the river than the other side!

Pub 6 - Hearts of Oak (1710)

This was the oldest residential building in Sunderland, which has been converted into a pub.

And then it was all over. We were taken back into the city centre on our, er, vintage bus and dropped off outside the William Jameson Weatherspoons.  Although this wasn't on our heritage tour, we popped in for a final drink as it was the home of the mighty Binns store. Gone but never forgotton.

I have uploaded tons of photos from the day to my flickr account - you can have a look here.
______
I'm on twitter @flaming_nora