Sunderland Civic Centre

The building was commissioned to replace Sunderland Town Hall which by the 1960s, was considered too small. Civic leaders decided to procure a new civic centre: the site they selected had previously been occupied by a residential area known as West Park. Construction of the civic centre started in January 1968. It was designed by Spence Bonnington & Collins in the Modern style, built at a cost of £3.4 million and was officially opened by Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon on 5 November 1970. The design for the new low-rise building, which made extensive use of red brick, involved two connected hexagons arranged on a north–south axis: there were continuous rows of glazing with brickwork…