174 to 175 High Street West

The building is three storeys high plus attic space. Brick, painted dark brown. It has a poor quality shopfront at ground floor, three large windows at first floor, 3 smaller windows at second floor and rooflights in the attic.

The building has previously been dismissed as a post-war rebuild because its High Street West elevation has definitely been rebuilt. However further examination in 2018 after the removal of detritus has revealed that this is the original late 18th or early 19th century building, and only the High Street West elevation has been rebuilt. The building’s plan of two rooms per floor, including two in the basement (with an extended chimneybreast for the back kitchen), and a hallway to the east with staircase to the rear is identical to that of No. 170-171. Much of the internal detailing has been lost, however, the render on its rear elevation has decayed enough to reveal the original construction, in uncoursed stone rubble with fine red bricks used to form window jambs and radiating headers. This is consistent with other buildings of the later 18th and early 19th centuries in Sunderland, and with the use of brick and stone in combination observed in the north basement wall and area of No. 170-171. Its rear elevation also provides a guide to the original fenestration of the three buildings, with one window, currently occupied by 19th-century plate glass sashes, lighting the back room on all three storeys and a further window lighting the stair (the latter opening was subsequently widened to form the access to the later outshot). Behind the boarded windows of the first floor front room lie late 19th-century plate glass horned sash windows, suggesting a greater retention of historic fabric even on this side of the building than previously thought.