Where is Elephant Tea Rooms?

Elephant Tea Rooms is in North-East England, United Kingdom (postcode SR1 1BB), in the parish of Sunderland, unparished area.

How do I get to Elephant Tea Rooms?

The nearest railway station is Sunderland, about 0.1 km away. Drivers can use postcode SR1 1BB.

When was Elephant Tea Rooms built?

Built or established in 1877. Designed by Frank Caws.

Who owns Elephant Tea Rooms?

Elephant Tea Rooms is owned by Royal Bank of Scotland.

Is Elephant Tea Rooms a protected site?

Yes — Elephant Tea Rooms is part of the Durham Coast SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Is Elephant Tea Rooms free to visit?

Yes, Elephant Tea Rooms is free to enter.

How do I get to Elephant Tea Rooms?

The nearest railway station is Sunderland, about 0.1 km away. Drivers can navigate to postcode SR1 1BB.

Natural landmarks · North East England

Elephant Tea Rooms

In or near Sunderland.

Free admission

Elephant Tea Rooms in England North East, United Kingdom.

Plan your visit

Typical visit: 1 h–2 h
Nearest railway station: Sunderland · 0.1 km

Free entry
Dog-friendly

Getting there & planning your visit

The nearest railway station to Elephant Tea Rooms is Sunderland, located just 0.1 km away. Entry to the tea rooms is free, and the location is accessible. You can use the postcode SR1 1BB for sat-nav directions.

Directions on Google Maps →

Elephant Tea Rooms is a place of interest in England North East, United Kingdom — drawn from open-data sources for visitor reference. See the linked Wikipedia article for the full description.

Photo gallery

Protected designations

Site of Special Scientific Interest: Durham Coast SSSI

Designations sourced from Natural England open data under OGL v3.

From the Wikipedia article

The Elephant Tea Rooms is a Grade II listed building in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. The building was constructed from 1872 to 1877 by Henry Hopper to a design by architect Frank Caws for William Grimshaw, a local tea merchant and grocer, in a blend of the high Victorian Hindu Gothic and Venetian Gothic styles. This was a selling point, as the exotic style and name advertised the exotic origins of the tea sold there. The building has housed the Local History Library of the city since 2020. Many internet sources give Ronald Grimshaw as the name of the tea merchant and grocer, but William Grimshaw's great-grandson of that name was not born until 1905, thirty years later. See Bill Greenwell's "The Elephant Tea Family" (2021). The building was restored between 2022 and 2024 with funding from Historic England.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Background

Architecture

The exterior is polychrome and was constructed from brick, terracotta and faience. The ground floor has a full-width tiled fascia continuing along to the neighbouring building; this 20th-century alteration may conceal earlier detail. The arcaded first floor has sash windows with sloping sills in the Gothic faience arcade, clasping rings and crocket capitals to the nookshafts, alternate block jambs, raised pointed arches and roll-moulded dripstring. The ogee window heads have fleur-de-lys finials in front of lozenge-patterned terracotta spandrels. The eaves cornice has a corbelled trefoil frieze. The attic windows have faience surrounds, similar to the first floor arcade, two trefoil-headed…

Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Coordinates: 54.9074, -1.3821
District: Sunderland
Parish: Sunderland, unparished area
Postcode: SR1 1BB
Parliamentary constituency: Sunderland Central
Established: 1877
Nearest railway station: Sunderland — 0.1 km
Official site: www.jackywhitesmarket.co.uk

Sources

wikidata: Q5359374 (CC0)
wikipedia: Elephant Tea Rooms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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