Borough Social Services Area Office
BOROUGH SOCIAL SERVICES AREA OFFICE, SAINT THOMAS'S STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1217980
- Date first listed:
- 17-Oct-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Borough Social Services Area Office
- Statutory Address:
- BOROUGH SOCIAL SERVICES AREA OFFICE, SAINT THOMAS'S STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2005-08-17
- Reference:
- IOE01/13886/23
- Rights:
- © Mr Bob Cottrell. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1217980
- Date first listed:
- 17-Oct-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Borough Social Services Area Office
- Statutory Address 1:
- BOROUGH SOCIAL SERVICES AREA OFFICE, SAINT THOMAS'S STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- BOROUGH SOCIAL SERVICES AREA OFFICE, SAINT THOMAS'S STREET
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 39841 57035
Details
SUNDERLAND
NZ3957SE SAINT THOMAS' STREET 920-1/18/209 (South side) No.4 Borough Social Services Area Office
GV II
Formerly known as: River Wear Commission Offices ST THOMAS' STREET. River Wear Commissioners' offices, now Borough Social Services' Area office. 1907. By John Hall. Scottish red granite, rock-faced basement and polished doorcase; Durham sandstone ashlar. Slate roof. Free Baroque style. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and basement, 7 windows. Basement windows in outer bays. Ground floor has banded rustication. Central bay has wrought-iron gates to internal steps up to double panelled door. Rusticated entrance surround has open segmental pediment hood on Tuscan pilasters and big scroll brackets; big key cartouche with carved pair of dividers. 2-storey oriel above has top segmental pediment. Outer pairs of bays project under open segmental pediments. Windows with vertical glazing bars in double-keyed architraves except basement triple keys. Roof parapet has raised bracketed panels over outer pediments. Right return to John Street 2:2:2 bays in similar style. INTERIOR: partly inspected. Alabaster and marble archway from entrance to oak-panelled hall and stair-well with oak columns, Tuscan on ground floor and Ionic above, with moulded entablatures. Open-well stair and gallery with ramped wide grip handrail on turned balusters; close string with laurel-wreath pulvinated frieze. Panelled doors on both levels have architrave surrounds with pulvinated frieze and cornice. First-floor board room has moulded panels with raised fields, pilasters with carved swags, carved entablature, bolection-moulded marble fire surrounds, segmental-arched ceiling with bands of rich stucco decoration. A building which represents the considerable history of the management of the Wear. The Commission was set up in 1717. (Corfe T: The Buildings of Sunderland 1814-1914: Newcastle upon Tyne: 1983-: 31; Corfe T: Sunderland A Short History: Newcastle upon Tyne: 1973-: 49,50; Milburn GE and Miller ST: Sundrland River, Town and People: Sunderland: 1988-: 158, 167 NOTE 32).
Listing NGR: NZ3984157035
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 391584
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Milburn, G E, Miller, S T, Sunderland: River, Town & People, (1988), 158, 167
Corfe, T, Sunderland A Short History, (1973), 49,50
Corfe, T, The Buildings of Sunderland 1814-1914, (1983)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 09-Jun-2026 at 20:07:25.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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