Flaming Nora

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 w...

This week is Tyne and Wear Heritage Open Days wee k. And in this special week, you can go and have a nosey around buildings and areas that the public usually can't get into.  Today was one of those days and it was off to the Mayor's chamber at the local council for a good neb. It felt as if we had peeked under the curtain just like in the Wizard of Oz.  The Wizard, I mean the Mayor, was even there to meet and talk to our group, along with his good lady wife. First stop was the Mayor's parlour, which was like a first-class airport lounge. Or, how I'd imagine a first-class airport lounge would look like. Lots of plush sofas, comfy chairs, nice things to look at, great views from the windows.  From there, an ante-room was filled with gifts from visitors but my eye was taken with these very old, very big books of minutes of Council meetings.   The photo gives no idea of scale, but those books were approx. one foot high. Then the to the Mayor's dining room. W...