2: Athenaeum Buildings
At the Museum, walk across the junction onto Fawcett Street. Keep to the left-hand side for the best views of the buildings. Walk until you reach the corner where Athenaeum Street and Fawcett Street meet. The Athenaeum Building is across the street on your right. Look above the Gentoo store front.
Opened by the Sunderland Literary and Philosophical Society in 1841, the original building served as the town's first museum. The building also housed a subscription library as well as several lecture rooms. Local inventor Joseph Swan attended lectures here.
Originally built in the classical style with four great columns over the main entrance, the Athenaeum was an impressive structure on Fawcett Street.
In 1873 the Athenaeum became home to the Sunderland and North Durham Liberal Club and in 1899 it was rebuilt to accommodate the needs of the club.
The massive columns were torn down, shops were constructed on the ground floor, round-headed windows replaced the old rectangular ones and shallow pilasters or pillars that project from the wall were added on either side of every window. Dining rooms, smoking rooms, a billiard room and reading halls replaced the lecture rooms, museum and library. The three-table billiard room was the main attraction and was reportedly the best billiard room outside of London.
The Liberal Club moved out of the Athenaeum in 1915 due to the costs of maintaining the building but the billiard room survives.
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