The history of the Winter Gardens Museum

Winter Gardens. Image courtesy of Ian Britton through creative commons.

The Winter Gardens Museum was established in 1846 in the Athenaeum Building on Fawcett Street and was the first municipally funded museum in the country outside of London. It contains Britain’s only known example of a gliding reptile,  which is also the oldest vertebrate capable of gliding flight and was discovered in Eppleton Quarry.

Eppleton Quarry. Image courtesy of Nick Garratt through creative commons.

In 1879, the museum moved to its current building next to Mowbray Park on Burdon Road, it now includes a library and winter garden based on the Crystal Palace Gardens that stood in Hyde Park, London.

Crystal Palace General view from Water Temple. Image courtesy of Philip Henry Delamotte, Negretti and Zambra through public domain.

The U.S President, Ulysses S. Grant,  was in attendance at the laying of the foundation stone by Samuel Storey in 1877 and the building opened in 1879. During World War II, Winter Gardens was damaged by a parachute mine in 1941. It was  later demolished with a 1960s extension in its place.   In 2001 a lottery funded refurbishment of the Museum provided a Winter Gardens extension.

Example of a parachute bomb from 1945. Image courtesy of USAF through public domain.

The Winter Gardens in 2003  was recognised as the most attended museum outside of London. It  has various exhibitions such as a large collection of the locally made Sunderland Lustreware Pottery, a stuffed Lion, the remains of a Walrus brought back from Siberia in the 1880’s and the first Nissan car made in Sunderland .

Example of Lustreware Pottery. Image courtesy of VAwebteam through creative commons.

LS. Lowry described Sunderland as his second home after discovering it in 1960. The museum has a collection of his artwork which is only surpassed by the Lowry Gallery in Manchester.

The Winter Gardens also houses an excellent botanical collection of over 2000 plants and trees, displayed to their full splendour in naturalistic settings under a single-span opaque 30 metre dome. This is a great exhibition for the budding green fingered enthusiast. Visitors can see many growing examples of trees and plants from around the world such as tea, coffee, sugar, citrus fruits, date palms, bananas, pineapple, mango, the vanilla orchid and gingers, as well as a number of plants that are used to make many important medicines.

Winter Gardens walkway and water feature. Image courtesy of Glen Bowman through creative commons.

A walkway allows visitors to take to the treetops, where they can look at all the amazing sights the gardens have to offer. There are also some more commonly known plants that are more familiar with holidaymakers as well as some spectacular water features both inside and out.

The museum is open Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm, and Sunday 2pm – 5pm and it is free entry.

Below is some footage inside the Winter Gardens.