Landmarks of the Victorian Town

Fawcett Street was the main thoroughfare of Victorian Sunderland. It was laid out as part of a grid of new streets covering the former gardens of Sunniside, for John Fawcett by his agent William Jamieson, 1810-14. At first it was a fashionable residential street, but its width and the fact that it formed a route from the Wearmouth bridge to Stockton Road made it more appealing for shops, banks and public buildings than as a place to live. The middle classes decamped to Ashbrooke.

Fawcett Street acquired the Athenaeum (1841), Subscription Library (1878), and later, town hall, central railway station and museum. The Victoria Hall and  Albert Hall were nearby, as were the headquarters of the River Wear Commission and other utility companies.