Sunderland Museum Museums

Exciting hands-on exhibits and interactive displays tell the story of Sunderland from its prehistoric past through to the present day.

In the Museum discover the history of the City from its prehistoric past to the present day in exciting displays interpreting the collections with hands-on exhibits, computer interactives and video presentations.

The amazing new Winter Gardens is home to over 1,500 of the world's most exotic and unusual flowers and trees. The Gardens also include exciting water features and a stunning treetop walkway, from which visitors can look down on the plants below.

Sunderland Museum contains a wide range of collections, which are of local, regional and national importance. These have been growing since early in the 19th century, and are still expanding. Particular strengths are local history, including shipbuilding and coal mining, natural history, geology, glass and pottery made on Wearside, 19th and 20th century art, work by L S Lowry, archaeology and ethnography. Highlights of the collection on display include the largest collection of Sunderland lustreware pottery in the world, the Londonderry glass table service (made on Wearside in the 1820s) and a rare fossil Gliding Reptile (Coelurosauravus) which is 250 million years old.