Sunderland, ships, glass and Bede

Sunderland is a city of sea, ships and glass. It lies in north-east England, at the mouth of the River Wear, about twenty kilometres south-east of Newcastle, and has about 275,000 inhabitants across its city area. For more than a century it was one of the largest shipbuilding centres in the world, and its people are still called Mackems, a nickname that, according to the most common explanation, comes from the shipyards themselves: we mak'em and they tak'em. But Sunderland's history is much older: in the 7th century one of the most important monasteries in Europe was founded here, where the great historian the Venerable Bede studied, and the first glassmakers from the Continent arrived here after the end of the Roman era. Today it is a university city with sandy beaches, a large stadium and the biggest car factory in the United Kingdom.

From Newcastle you can get here on the Metro in about half an hour, and Newcastle Airport is about forty minutes away.

Bede's monastery and the first glass

In 674 a Northumbrian nobleman turned monk, Benedict Biscop, founded a monastery dedicated to St Peter on the north bank of the Wear, at Monkwearmouth, and a few years later a twin monastery dedicated to St Paul at Jarrow, on the Tyne. Biscop had travelled to Rome several times and brought to England books, relics, painters, master singers and masons able to build in stone "in the Roman manner". He also brought glassmakers from Gaul, who made the coloured windows of the church: one of the earliest examples of glass produced in Britain after the end of Roman rule, and the beginning of a tradition that has lasted in Sunderland for more than thirteen centuries.

The Venerable Bede entered the monastery as a child, spent his whole life at Wearmouth and Jarrow, and wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the first great history of England, as well as works on science, chronology and theology: he also helped spread the practice of counting years from the birth of Christ. The famous Codex Amiatinus, the oldest surviving complete Latin Bible, was copied in the two monasteries in the early 8th century and taken as a gift to the Pope: today it is in Florence, at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, after spending centuries in the abbey of San Salvatore on Monte Amiata, in Tuscany, from which it takes its name.

St Peter's Church at Monkwearmouth still preserves the tower and west wall of the 7th-century building, among the oldest stone structures in England.

Shipbuilding city

For centuries the port of the Wear exported coal, and from the 18th century it began to build wooden ships. In the 19th century Sunderland became one of the largest shipbuilding centres in the world: by the middle of the century there were dozens of yards along the river, and the town described itself as "the largest shipbuilding town in the world". Thousands of ships left its slipways, first wooden, then iron and steel: sailing ships, cargo steamers, tankers. During the Second World War Sunderland's yards built more than a quarter of Britain's merchant ships, and for that reason the town was heavily bombed.

After the war Asian competition proved fatal: the last yard closed in 1988, and with the coal mines, closed in the same years, tens of thousands of jobs disappeared. Today the memory of the yards lives on in museums, sculptures along the river and Keel Square, the city-centre square crossed by a long metal line engraved with the names of ships built in the city.

Sunderland glass

Biscop's glassmaking tradition was reborn in the 19th century with large glassworks producing bottles, windows and industrial glass. From 1921 the Jobling company made Pyrex here, the heat-resistant glass invented in America, and for many decades most of the ovenware used in British kitchens came from Sunderland. Today the National Glass Centre, a glass and steel building on the bank of the Wear next to St Peter's, tells the story of glass and has studios where you can watch glassmakers blowing and shaping molten glass. Part of the roof is walkable glass, and walking on it is a curious experience. The centre belongs to the University of Sunderland, which has a leading course in glass and ceramic arts.

What to see in Sunderland

Mowbray Park, the museum and the Winter Gardens

In the centre is Mowbray Park, a Victorian park with a pond, statues and a small hill overlooking the city. Inside it stands Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, which is free: the museum tells the city's story, from the monasteries to the shipyards, and displays Sunderland's typical lustreware pottery, decorated with ships and bridges, as well as paintings by L. S. Lowry, who loved holidaying on the nearby coast. The Winter Gardens are a large modern glasshouse with tropical plants and a treetop walkway.

The park also has the memorial to the Victoria Hall disaster: in 1883, at the end of a children's show in a nearby theatre, the announcement of gifts being handed out from the stage sent hundreds of children rushing down the stairs, where a door left ajar turned into a trap. 183 children died. The tragedy led to a law requiring emergency doors that open outwards in public buildings, still used around the world today.

Roker, Seaburn and the sea

A few kilometres north of the centre stretch the sandy beaches of Roker and Seaburn, with a long promenade, cafés, ice-cream parlours and Roker Pier, a red and grey granite pier of 1903 with a lighthouse at its end: on some occasions you can visit the tunnel that runs inside it to the lighthouse. On the seafront stands a statue of a walrus: according to local tradition, Lewis Carroll, who often stayed with relatives in nearby Whitburn, was inspired by this coast for the poem The Walrus and the Carpenter in Through the Looking-Glass.

The bridges over the Wear

The Wearmouth Bridge, the green steel arch bridge of 1929 linking the centre with the north bank, stands where an iron bridge opened in 1796 that was then the longest single-span bridge in the world. Further upstream, the modern Northern Spire, opened in 2018, is a cable-stayed bridge with a white pylon more than a hundred metres high, which has become a new symbol of the city.

Washington Old Hall

The district of Washington, a new town built in the 1960s around an ancient village, is part of the city of Sunderland. Here stands Washington Old Hall, a 17th-century manor house built on the foundations of the medieval home of the Washington family, the ancestors of George Washington, the first President of the United States. The family's name, and therefore that of the American capital, comes from this village. Today the house belongs to the National Trust, with gardens and a small museum; every year on 4 July American Independence Day is celebrated here.

Penshaw Monument and Hylton Castle

On Penshaw Hill, visible for miles around, stands the Penshaw Monument, a scaled-down copy of a Greek temple built in 1844 in honour of the first Earl of Durham, John Lambton: it is the symbol of Sunderland AFC, which has it on its badge. West of the city, Hylton Castle is a medieval tower house recently restored, with heraldic decoration on its façade and a visitor centre.

A walk along the Wear

The best way to understand the city's history is to walk along the river. A path follows both banks of the Wear, from the mouth to the bridges and beyond, past the old shipyard quays, now turned into parks, student housing and art spaces. Along the way you will find sculptures recalling shipwrights, miners and sailors, and panels telling the story of the ships launched along the banks. At the mouth, the two harbour piers close the estuary, and in winter the North Sea waves break over them in spectacular explosions of foam.

A day in Sunderland

A possible itinerary: start at St Peter's Church and the National Glass Centre on the north bank of the Wear to watch the glassmakers at work. Cross the Wearmouth Bridge to the centre, visit Keel Square, then the museum, the Winter Gardens and Mowbray Park. After lunch head for the sea: a walk from Roker to Seaburn, with the pier and lighthouse, and fish and chips on the promenade. If you have more time, visit Washington Old Hall or climb to the Penshaw Monument at sunset.

Sport

Sunderland AFC, nicknamed The Black Cats, is one of England's oldest and best-supported clubs: it has won six English league titles, the last in 1936, and two FA Cups, the most famous in 1973, when as a second-tier side it beat the mighty Leeds. It plays at the Stadium of Light, opened in 1997 on the site of the former Monkwearmouth Colliery: in front of the entrance a large miner's lamp honours the miners, and the club's life was told in the documentary series Sunderland 'Til I Die. In 2025 Sunderland returned to the Premier League after eight years away.

Political curiosities

On British general election nights, Sunderland is famous for long being the first constituency to declare its result, thanks to teams of students who run with the ballot boxes from the polling stations to the counting tables. In 2016 it was Sunderland's result in the Brexit referendum, with 61% in favour of leaving, that gave the first sign of the "Leave" victory. We cover this in our pages on Brexit.

Around Sunderland

• Newcastle, about half an hour by Metro, with the bridges over the Tyne, its Georgian centre and its nightlife.
• Durham, about half an hour away, with its World Heritage cathedral and castle, where Bede is buried.
• Jarrow, with St Paul's Church, the other half of Bede's monastery, and the Jarrow Hall museum.
• Souter Lighthouse, a red and white striped lighthouse on the cliffs at Marsden, the first in the world designed to run on alternating electric current.
• Beamish Museum, a large open-air museum recreating life in the north-east in the 19th and 20th centuries, about half an hour away.
• The Angel of the North, Antony Gormley's gigantic steel sculpture near Gateshead.

Living in Sunderland

After the closure of the shipyards and mines, Sunderland looked for new paths. In 1986 the Japanese group Nissan opened a plant at Washington that has become the largest car factory in the United Kingdom, now focused on electric cars and batteries. The University of Sunderland, the port, services and the digital sector complete the economy. Homes are among the cheapest in England, the sea is close and people in the north-east are known for their friendliness. There are still areas with low incomes and higher-than-average unemployment, however, and the centre is still changing with new regeneration projects along the river.

Getting there and getting around

• By train: there are a few direct Grand Central trains a day from London King's Cross, taking about three and a half hours; otherwise change at Newcastle or York.
• By Metro: the Tyne and Wear Metro links Sunderland with Newcastle, the coast and the airport.
• By air: Newcastle Airport is about forty minutes by Metro; Teesside Airport is also less than an hour away.
• In the city: the centre, the river and St Peter's are walkable; buses and the Metro serve Roker and Seaburn.

For travel around the rest of the country see trains and transport, and for other cities British cities.

Tips for your visit

• How long: one day for the city and the sea; another for Durham or Beamish.
• When to go: May to September for the beaches; in July and August there are often events on the seafront.
• Don't miss: the glassmakers at work at the National Glass Centre and a sunset walk on Roker Pier.
• A tip: the North Sea wind is cold even in summer; always bring a jacket.

Sunderland on the map

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