Impressive Sunderland Civic Centre was nearing completion

Work on Sunderland’s new £3.5million Civic Centre is nearing completion. The impressive building in West Park, about 400 yards from the present Town Hall, is due to be handed over in May and for the first time in many years, most of the departments of the Corporation will come together in the same premises.

For many years the office accommodation at the Town Hall, built in 1890, has been inadequate to contain more than the Town Clerk’s and the Borough Treasurer’s departments. All the other departments have been dispersed throughout the town.

The new Civic Centre consists of three principal elements. The largest contains the administration accommodation for more than 900 employees of the various departments, occupying about 200,000 sq, ft,

The Civic Suite occupies the second element, and the third is a large multi-storey car park for use of staff, visitors and also for the general public about their day-today business in the town centre. The Centre lies on rising ground overlooking the town centre. It is intended that the character of the Civic Centre shall be informal, and the low buildings will contain a series of courts and terrace. The block is then, roughly, in the form of a figure eight.