Sunderland County Court building enters new chapter after major transformation

One of the city centre's grandest buildings is entering a new chapter.

The former County Court in John Street, which is a fine example of Italianate architecture, has stood proud since 1876 dealing with the area's non-criminal civil and family legal matters.

It hadn't been used by the Ministry of Justice since 2018.

But after a sympathetic restoration to maintain historic features at the Grade II-listed building it's now home to 43 boutique student apartments known as Botanical View Court, in honour of its views of the Winter Gardens and its former life as a court.

It's the result of 18 months of building works by new owners Sendrig Construction Ltd, with a team of 50-70 workers, who created the apartments to meet the demand for high-quality student accommodation in the city centre.

All 43 en-suite apartments, which range from 16sq metres to 31sq metres spread across seven floors, were all snapped up soon after going on the market and Botanical View Court has already welcomed its first wave of tenants.

Building works have included restoration of the building's original features, as well as the creation of a three-storey fully non-combustible extension over the former car park at the court.

As well as the 43 rooms, which include eco-friendly technologies, it features communal areas including a laundry room operated via an app.

It's been a long road to completing the project, including six months of recording heritage assets of the building, an unexploded ordinance survey and navigating the pandemic.

And Terry Gorham, Head of Development at Sendrig Construction Ltd, said it's great to finally see students making it home for the academic year.

"I love this building," he said. "Although we are in the heritage quarter here, there's nothing else like this building with its Italianate facade.

"We felt really passionate about maintaining the quality of the building as keeping as many of its assets as possible."

The Royal Coat of Arms which once hung in the court room has been restored and is now on the wall in one of the communal rooms, alongside photos of former judges who presided in the court in the early 1900s.

Meanwhile, the names of the floors doff their cap to the history of the building with names such as Gallery Level, Chambers Level and Counsel Level.

Due to the nature of the building, each of the rooms differs in footprint and eight are self-contained with their own cookers. All 43 are en-suite with tea stations including a fridge, toaster and kettle.

Sendrig, whose headquarters are in Newcastle, will continue to manage the building.

Speaking about what appealed to the building and maintenance firm about investing in Sunderland, Terry said: "We looked at the Masterplan for Sunderland and it fitted perfectly with our vision. There's big plans for Sunderland and the city centre is fast changing and we wanted to be part of that."