Sunniside

South of the Wearmouth bridge, a grid of new streets was laid out, 1810-14, for John Fawcett by his agent William Jamieson. Fawcett Street was by far the widest, extending south from Bridge Street, and would become the main thoroughfare of Victorian Sunderland, with the Athenaeum (1841), Subscription Library (1878), and later, town hall, central railway station and museum situated there.

Development of the other streets was at first slow, houses still being built in the 1850s in a rather dated neo-Greek style in John, Frederick and Foyle Streets. The West Sunniside houses were substantial, some in Fawcett Street containing three reception rooms, two kitchens and eight bedrooms arranged over three floors and a half basement. The estate’s open spaces were communal.