Wave Basin Battery Adjacent to Old South Pier
WAVE BASIN BATTERY ADJACENT TO OLD SOUTH PIER, SUNDERLAND HARBOUR
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed building
- List Entry Number:
- 1207135
- Date first listed:
- 26-Nov-1990
- Statutory Address:
- WAVE BASIN BATTERY ADJACENT TO OLD SOUTH PIER, SUNDERLAND HARBOUR
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-05-20
- Reference:
- IOE01/03176/22
- Rights:
- © Mr D.H. Bottoms. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed building
- List Entry Number:
- 1207135
- Date first listed:
- 26-Nov-1990
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 17-Oct-1994
- Statutory Address 1:
- WAVE BASIN BATTERY ADJACENT TO OLD SOUTH PIER, SUNDERLAND HARBOUR
Location
- Statutory Address:
- WAVE BASIN BATTERY ADJACENT TO OLD SOUTH PIER, SUNDERLAND HARBOUR
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Sunderland (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- NZ 40920 58159
Details
SUNDERLAND
NZ4058 SUNDERLAND HARBOUR 920-1/9/215 (South side) 26/11/90 Wave Basin Battery adjacent to old South Pier (Formerly Listed as: SOUTH PIER Wave Basin Battery)
GV II
Battery. c1873. For the War Office on site given in 1860 by River Wear Commission. Ashlar. A mole projecting into the river inside the harbour, on the E side of the Wave Basin and immediately SW of old South Pier, with 4 gun emplacements. No.1 gun emplacement at the N, rounded end of the mole has had concrete filling added. The second and third emplacements have splayed openings to seaward in the battery wall, which is protected from the water by the breakwater of the mole. Nos 1 and 4 gun emplacements had an ashlar circle and a central ashlar block in which the central pivot was set; at least one pivot survives; these guns fired over over the parapet. Nos 2 and 3 had front pivot traversing carriages of either wood or wrought-iron. The original artillery consisted of four 80 pounder rifle muzzle loading guns. This is the one surviving example of an RML battery between the Humber and the Tweed. It is an important illustration of the transition from cannon to modern artillery, and also illustrates the methods used to defend mercantile ports in the years after the Crimean War and the production of iron-clad warships. It is shown on an 1875 official plan of Hudson Docks, reproduced in Sinclair 1986. (Fortress Study Group: Conference notes: Tyneside: 1988-; Sinclair NT: Railways of Sunderland: Newcastle upon Tyne: 1986-: 60).
Listing NGR: NZ4092058159
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 391604
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Sinclair, N T, Railways of Sunderland, (1986)
Legal
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 04-Jun-2026 at 17:56:23.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.