St Peter's is the home of the Sir Tom Cowie Campus at the

University of Sunderland The University of Sunderland is a public research university located in Sunderland in the North East of England. Its predecessor, Sunderland Technical College, was established as a municipal training college in 1901. It gained university status ...

on the north bank of the

River Wear The River Wear (, ) in Northern England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham, to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers. The Wear wends in a steep valley t ...

. It is named after the adjacent St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth.

History

The area was home to a shipyard founded by Robert Thompson in 1846. After the yard passed to John Lowes Thomson in 1860, the business became known as J. L. Thompson. Following the closure of the yard in 1979, the area was redeveloped by Tyne and Wear Development Corporation in the late 1980s. The main new development was the Sir Tom Cowie Campus for the

. The campus was named to commemorate the life of the local businessman,

Tom Cowie Sir Thomas Cowie (9 September 1922 – 18 January 2012) was an English businessman who was the honorary Life President of the Arriva Group, formerly known as Cowie Group plc. Career Cowie Group Cowie's father, Thomas Stephenson Knowles Cowi ...

. The campus was built adjacent to some of the pieces of the St Peter's Riverside Sculpture Project. ''Pathways of Knowledge'', a pile of books located outside of the University's library, was unveiled by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

in 1993. They are a reference to

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

and the ''Great Library'' of St Peter's. St Peter's is also home to

St Peter's Metro station St Peter's is a Tyne and Wear Metro station, serving the University of Sunderland and suburb of St Peter's, City of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear, England. It joined the network on 31 March 2002, following the opening of the Wearside extensi ...

, part of the Wearside extension to the

Tyne and Wear Metro The Tyne and Wear Metro is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The owners Nexus have ...

system, which opened in 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Peter's, Sunderland University of Sunderland