Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens is a municipal museum in
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
, England. It contains the only known British example of a gliding reptile, the oldest known vertebrate capable of gliding flight. The exhibit was discovered in Eppleton quarry. The museum has a
Designated Collection of national importance.
It was established in 1846, in the Athenaeum Building on Fawcett Street, the first municipally funded museum in the country outside London. The first recorded fine art acquisition was commissioned by the Sunderland Corporation, a painting of the opening of the new South Dock in 1850. This may have been the first time that an artwork was commissioned by a town council.
In 1879, the Museum moved to a new larger building next to
Mowbray Park
Mowbray Park is a municipal park in the centre of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England, located a few hundred yards from the busy thoroughfares of Holmeside and Fawcett Street and bordered by Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens to the north, ...
including a library and winter garden based on the model of the
Crystal Palace. U.S. President
Ulysses Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
was in attendance at the laying of the foundation stone by Alderman Samuel Storey in 1877. The building opened in 1879.
During World War II, Winter Garden was damaged by a parachute mine in 1941 and demolished the following year. A 1960s extension took its place, but in 2001, a lottery funded refurbishment of the museum created a new Winter Garden extension and improved facilities.
The Winter Gardens contain over 2,000 flowers and plants.
In 2003, the Museum was recognised as the most attended outside London.
The Museum contains a large collection of the locally made
Sunderland Lustreware pottery. Other highlights of the Museum are a stuffed Lion which was acquired in 1879, the remains of a
walrus
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the f ...
brought back from Siberia in the 1880s and the first
Nissan car to be made in Sunderland. Also featured are the skeletal remains of a male human being and a dinosaur bone which was found in the local area.
The library moved in 1995 to the new City Library and Arts Centre on Fawcett Street (occupying part of the former Binns Department Store). The relocation left more space for museum exhibitions. The new City Library Arts Centre also houses the
Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, renowned as one of the leading forums for emerging artists in the North of England.
John Morrison wrote an affectionate memoir of the two and a half years he spent working in the museum as a junior curator, starting about 1918, which appeared in the Australian literary journal ''Overland'' in 1968.
L.S. Lowry described his discovery of Sunderland in 1960, after which it became his second home:
"One day I was travelling south from
Tyneside
Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt.
The population of Tyneside as publish ...
and I realised this was what I had always been looking for."
Sunderland Museum, with six works and 30 on long-term loan, have a Lowry collection surpassed only by
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
and
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
.
References
External links
{{Authority control
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Art museums and galleries in Tyne and Wear
Grade II listed buildings in Tyne and Wear
Buildings and structures in the City of Sunderland
Textile museums in the United Kingdom
Natural history museums in England
History museums in Tyne and Wear
Museums in the City of Sunderland
Local museums in Tyne and Wear
Decorative arts museums in England
Glass museums and galleries
Industry museums in England
1846 establishments in England
Ceramics museums in the United Kingdom
Museums established in 1846
Sunderland