Sunderland's tea room elephants get their trunks back

Sunderland's famous terracotta elephants have got their trunks back.

Restoration work has been taking place on the landmark Elephant Tea Rooms building in Fawcett Street in the city centre, led by Sunderland City Council.

The Grade II-listed building has been undergoing external repair and enhancement works designed by Mosedale Gillatt Architects Ltd, including striking new shop fronts and the reinstatement of lost decoration and features.

As part of the work, new trunks for the elephants adorning the building have been recreated using the original moulds.

Specialist restoration work to the building’s terracotta features has been carefully undertaken by local stone masons Mason and Forster.          

The accurately recrafted trunks have now been reinstated on the three elephants that adorn the façade and give the building its name.

Decorative features including dragons and parapet finials have also been repaired or reinstated.

Sunderland City Council said the work demonstrates the unique, high-quality craftsmanship that has gone into the restoration.

Councillor Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: “The Elephant Tea Rooms is one of our city’s most iconic buildings, and its restoration will play a key role in reviving this historic area and improving the look and feel of our city centre.

“We have some fantastic heritage buildings in Sunderland, and I’m delighted we’re able to protect and maintain them with the traditional craft skills used by local contractors and look forward to seeing the final transformation of the Elephant Tea Rooms when it is complete.”

Jules Brown from Historic England, said: “We’re delighted to grant aid repairs to this wonderfully unusual Gothic building, handed down to the people of Sunderland by the Victorians as something to bring real joy and enrichment to the city centre. It’s great news the elephants and gargoyles are restored, and the spectacular new ground floor frontage will continue what Mackie’s Corner opposite began during the Heritage Action Zone – to bring this important city centre spot back to life.”

Other work includes a new Georgian-style timber shop front has been completed and enabled the Local Studies Service to re-open at the beginning of October for a series of planned events while the remainder of the enhancement works are being completed.

This includes the striking new brick shop front to the original Elephant Tea Rooms that features arches of specially made bricks and vaulted corner turret feature with stone column.

The building is one of the architectural highlights of Sunderland and the transformation is expected to be completed by the contractor NCS Ltd in December this year.

Constructed at the height of Victorian wealth and investment in Sunderland and opened to the public in 1875 as a grocer’s shop and tea warehouse for Grimshaw & Son, the building has a distinctive Hindu Gothic style.

The external restoration project is being supported with a total of £720,000 funded by Sunderland City Council, Historic England and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) through the Future High Street Fund and Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) projects.

The Local Studies service currently within the building will be paused at the end of the year as the team prepare to digitise the catalogues and improve access to the growing archive.

Local studies will return in three phases: phase one begins early next year with the launch of a new digital platform, phase two will see a traditional local studies offer delivered from Washington Library when it reopens in Spring 2024, and the final phase will see a digitally reimagined local studies offer open in Culture House during the Summer of 2025.