St Mary's Church, Sunderland
church building in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England, UK
St Mary's Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in the city centre of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, situated on the corner of Bridge Street and St Mary's Way. It is a Grade II listed building, designed by Ignatius Bonomi. Built from 1830 to 1835, and is the earliest Gothic revival church surviving in Sunderland.
History
Construction
In 1830, Ignatius Bonomi submitted designs for the church to have a capacity of 1200 people. On 15 September 1835, the church was opened by the Apostolic Vicar of the Northern District, John Briggs.
By 1851, the population of Sunderland had grown and it was estimated that there were at least 4000 Catholics living in the city. In 1852, two side chapels were added to the church to accommodate the growing congregation. Bonomi had allowed for such an expansion in his initial designs.
In 1937, an organ was added to the church. It was acquired from the Rex Theatre in South Shields and refurbished in 1992.
The public source identifies “St Mary's Church, Sunderland” as church building in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mary's, Church and Sunderland.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q22087138. Authority coordinates are 54.908, -1.383. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1830, 1835, 1200 and 1851.
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This entry incorporates text from “St Mary's Church, Sunderland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.