We had quite a few times passed by the are and saw this monument up on a hill but didn’t know what it was until a friend from Sunderland guided us to it.

It’s the Penshaw Monument (more properly the Earl of Durham’s Monument) though in a Sunderland accent it sounded more like Penshore.

The Earl of Durham was an eighteenth century politician and liberal reformer

Approach to monument. The path up is one of those annoying ones whose steps don’t fit a normal stride pattern, so it’s quite a climb:-

The Monument:-

View west from monument showing path:-

View southeast from monument:-

View to Sunderland:-

This is Gan Canny. (It’s by Ray Lonsdale, the same artist who conceived Tommy at Seaham.)

Seemingly inspired by a poem:-

In Fawcett Street. 1856 and 1889 picked out in stone below roof level windows. What a growth of plants it’s supporting though. Now a Furniture Express:-

Next door is an Entertainment Exchange. Still lots of plants!:-

The Elephant Tea Rooms are on High Street West:-

The elephants between the upper windows are a bit more discernible in this view:-

The Old Fire Station, now an eatery, is also on High Street West:-

Note detailing of torches, fire buckets and yellow helmets:-

We were back in Sunderland in April and I took the opportunity to get some better photos of the Art Deco buildings I featured here and here in 2021.

Wilko’s:-

Marks & Spencer:-

Old Woolworths:-

On one of our visits to friends in the North-east of England we happened to pass the Stadium of Light, home to Sunderland AFC.

A replacement for the famous Roker Park its naming was immediately derided by fans of Sunerland’s great rivals from up the A19 and amended by thme to Stadium of (something that rhymes with light.)

Football champions of England six times, Sunderland AFC have, of course, recenty fallen on relatively hard times.

The stadium sits above the River Wear:-

Part of west stand:-

From north-east:-

East and north stands:-

Stadium from Sunderland city centre showing west and south stands:-

In Sunderland City Library and Art Centre were two war memorial items.

125th Tank Regiment Roll of Honour:-

A Great War memorial bowl inscribed for Private G W Micklin, Durham Light Infantry, missing 26/9/1915, and, “He answered his duty,” with some Sunderland lustre ware behind:-

Just behind the Memorial Wall in Sunderland’s Mowbray Park lies a Veterans’ Walk.

Veteran’s Walk Plaque:-

Veteran’s Walk information notice:-

An additional curiosity in the park is this statue of a walrus beside the pond:-

Between Sunderland War Memorial and Mowbray Park a memorial wall has been erected to commemorate those who have served in conflicts since the Second World War and to honour Sunderland’s post-World War 2 fallen.

The first section commemorates non-combat deaths in war:-

The rest of the wall is a sobering reminder of the many conflicts in which British soldiers have lost their lives since 1945.

Palestine and India:-

Malaya and the Cold War:-

Korea and the Canal Zone:-

Kenya and Cyprus:-

Aden, Radfan and Suez:-

Borneo, Northern Ireland and Oman Dhofar:-

Falkland Islands and Gulf War:-

Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone:-

Afghanistan and Iraq, plus Ode of Remembrance:-

Sunderland’s War Memorial lies just off the road which runs past Mowbray Park. It’s a granite column topped by a bronze figure of Victory. The dedication is, “”A tribute to our glorious dead.”

Its west aspect bears the Great War dedication, 1914-1918:-

From north:-

From east. Second World War dedication, 1939-1945:-

In the Park, near to the Memorial is a Memorial bench:-

Late in the day we got into Sunderland city centre. There was some Art Deco. I don’t know what this building housed originally but it was a Wilko’s in Dec 2019.

Rule of three in windows, rounded corner, white rendering, roofline, flagpole:-

Side of building. Verticals, horizontals, rule of three in some of the glazing, columnar windows:-

Frontage:-

Other side of Building:-

City Library and Art Centre. Horizontals, verticals, rule of three, roofline detail:-

This was hastily snapped in poor lighting I’m afraid. Horizontals, verticals, some rule of three. Now a British Heart Foundation furniture and electrical charity shop:-