Pics: Inside the River Wear Commisioners Building, Sunderland

As part of this year's Heritage Open Days, we visited the River Wear Commisioner's building, in Sunderland.

It's a building that I've wanted to have a look around in for a very long time. And today was the day.

The chap who showed us around the building, sadly, wasn't a tour guide as such and hadn't been briefed on what to say about the history, the context or the importance of the building.

The River Wear Commissioners played a vital role in Sunderland's economic development. They transformed the Wear into a navigable river and supplied the infrastructure that allowed ship-building and commerce to thrive. 

The building is a little-known gem, a monument to the River Wear Commissioners with the image of a sextant emblazoned above the doorway amid decorative mouldings.

And the board room, well, can you imagine the decisions that were made in that room, around that table?

Even the ladies loos were worth a visit although I wonder how many women worked in there?

As the Sunderland Year Book of 1907 reported, ‘No expense was spared in order to make the building thoroughly worthy of the important body at whose instigation it was erected.’

Find out more about the building and the River Wear Commissioners here.
See my photographs on flickr here.

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