Description

SUNDERLAND

NZ3956NE JOHN STREET
920-1/20/130 No.29
10/11/78 Sunderland and South Shields Water
Company Offices with steps, walls &
railings
(Formerly Listed as:
JOHN STREET
(East side)
No.29)

GV II

Water company offices with steps, dwarf walls and railings
attached. 1907. By W & TR Milburn. Penrith red sandstone
ashlar, Lakeland slate roof with ashlar chimneys.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and basement. 5x8 windows. John Street
elevation has end bays projecting. Steps up to panelled door
in Ionic porch at left with segmental pediment, ground floor
has aprons to round-headed windows with patterned glazing bars
in upper lights and elaborate keystones supporting first-floor
band; blind central bay. Projecting end bays have sill string
to sashes with glazing bars in corniced architraves, on which
rest the aprons of smaller second-floor sashes also with
glazing bars and architraves. Inner bays have Tuscan attached
columns flanking sashes with alternate pediments below smaller
second-floor windows. Entablature with dentilled cornice and
blocking course breaks forward over end bays. Hipped roof has
corniced transverse chimneys behind the blocking course.
Right return to Borough Road has projecting pair of bays at
left, forming corner pavilion with projection on John Street,
and slightly projecting pair at right. Steps up to big Ionic
porch at right with segmental pediment. On ground floor, one
large window in left projection, 4 in centre and one to left
of porch. Other windows like those on John Street with in
addition giant swagged canted pilasters, the central wider and
with cartouche, to 4 central bays.
INTERIOR: Baroque open-well stair from John Street entrance
has reception desk fitted in stairwell, panelled doors in
architraves,and elaborately glazed domed well light on shallow
drum with high relief swags and intertwined dolphins. Panelled
board room has Ionic columns and pilasters, stucco wall
panels, richly moulded beams to panelled ceiling, elaborate
chimneypiece and overmantel.
RAILINGS AND DWARF WALLS: flanking steps to John Street
entrance, continuing to left in front of adjacent house (No.27
(qv)) and to right as far as Borough Road, continuing to the
steps to that entrance. Spike-headed wrought-iron railings
with principals of patterned panels.
(Corfe T: The Buildings of Sunderland 1814-1914.: Newcastle
upon Tyne: 1983-: 30).

Listing NGR: NZ3987156835

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26580978

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5