Sunderland Quaker Meeting

26/07/2026

Sorry, another long gap. Lots of things going on.

So, We are looking at "The Old Tyre Shop" on the corner of High Street West and Villiers Street.
We were thinking about what we could do with it and how we could do it. As mentioned previously this was over a period of four or five years.
As part of the regeneration of the area, the council wanted "active use" on the groundfloor which translated into something, probably retail, going on that would draw people in and make the area a destination.
This was not something we had considered before for a building in which to hold Quaker Worship but we understood the brief and started looking at options.

Then everything went into hyper drive.

Working with the Tyne & Wear Building Preservation Trust we applied for funding under the newly created Heritage at Risk Capital Fund and were successful in securing a grant of £858K for the project.
This was early in July 2025.
A condition of the grant was that it had to be spent on the eligible items identified to bring the building back into use by the end of March 2026.
That was really no time at all and we had our work cut out.
We chose our architects
Mosedale Gillatt https://www.mgarchitects.info/
along with our QS: DRC Consulting Limited https://www.drc-consulting.co.uk/
and then the construction team
True North: https://truenorthconstruction.co.uk/
After all the planning work was completed work started on site in November 2025.

Please note that this picture is actually from March 2026. I wanted to show the building "under Construction" but I can't find any pictures from December when the work started.

26/07/2026

The first complete draft of Our Quaker way will be available to Friends at the next Yearly Meeting session in November.

Explore the opportunities Woodbrooke and Quakers in Britain are offering to help Friends read, reflect and respond to the draft.

Visit www.woodbrooke.org.uk/learn/learning-for-communities/read-reflect-respond/ to find out more and sign up to receive updates.

15/06/2026

Here we have what was known as "The Old Tyre Shop"
177 High Street West / 1 & 2 Villiers Street, Sunniside, Sunderland.
2021.
Car park next door, empty brownfield site behind.
Council own the freehold as they did for most of the area as part of the regeneration plan for Sunniside.
The regeneration plan had been talked about for ages and many people didn't think it would happen. The area didn't have a great reputation.
The building itself is not listed but was on the heritage at risk register.
What could be done with it?
2021 to 2025 we were talking with Sunderland City regeneration and Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust about what we might do, what exactly the terms would be and how things might work.
Meanwhile other plans were moving.
The brownfield site was designated for social housing and the next door car park for retail with flats above.
https://sunnisidesunderland.com/nile-and-villiers/

https://www.wearetown.co.uk/construction-begins-on-nile-villliers-in-sunderland/

There is also a push to promote the Sunniside Community, getting everyone in the area to work together to enable positive change.

https://sunnisidesunderland.com/

14/06/2026

So we were still looking for a new Meeting House.

We were having conversations with Sunderland City Council regeneration officers.
We'd been talking with them since 2018.
We had quickly established that finding then buying a plot of land then designing a building and building from scratch was beyond our reach so we were looking at existing buildings to adapt.
Whilst we were searching, the council officers put us in touch with Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust.
https://www.twbpt.org.uk/
They had been working with Sunderland City Council on some buildings in the Sunniside area of Sunderland, especially the buildings now occupied by the Sunshine Cooperative https://sunshinecooperative.co.uk/pages/about-us
and Pop Recs https://poprecs.co.uk/
It was thought we might want to occupy one of them.
There was one, actually it was three properties made into one. 177 High Street West / 1 and 2 Villiers Street, red pin on the map picture.
The Preservation Trust had fixed the roof and secured the property but they were not in a position to continue with the property. So we (Northumbria Quakers), TWBPT and Sunderland Regeneration officers started talking about possibilities.

14/06/2026

14/06/2026

From our discernment in 2018 this is the vision statement we created that then led us to the decision to move from our former Meeting House and then onto what was to come ...........

We weren't planning on selling the building until we had somewhere else to go to but Covid had shut everything down and we had no room hire income. So we put the building on the market and sold it to a great family who loved the building and who subsequently spent a lot of time and money on it returning it to what it had always been, a lovely family home.

See: https://www.instagram.com/edwardianrenovationroker/

14/06/2026

So, we had no Meeting House, which wasn't a problem whilst the lockdowns were in effect but we did need to find somewhere else to meet and hold Meeting for Worship.
We had been talking with a local organisation, Back on the Map about possible collaboration over a new building so we asked them if we could hire a space from them whilst we searched.
They agreed and we have been meeting at their Carnegie Corner building every Sunday since the end of the lockdowns.
The building used to be a library funded by Andrew Carnegie and built in 1908 / 1909.
One of many links. Andrew Carnegie stayed in the former Meeting House in Roker Park Road when he was visiting Sunderland. The building in Roker was built and owned by the then Lord Mayor. (Black & White Picture)

12/06/2026

This is the fireplace in the downstairs room where we used to meet for worship each Sunday.

So, we investigated and discerned different options and then decided.
We decided to sell this building and to move.
We wanted to be back in Sunderland City Centre.
We wanted to be more visible.
We wanted to be part of Sunderland's regeneration.
So we started looking at options, planning to find somewhere and then sell.
This was in 2019.
Then Covid happened.

12/06/2026

Sunderland Quakers used to meet in this building.
It was a lovely building with some quite amazing features.
We had the room hire working well, generating a healthy income but we weren't all convinced that this was the place we should be.
So we started thinking and exploring.