The Donnison School Development
The Donnison School Buildings on Church Walk, The East End, Sunderland

The Proposal

The repair and restoration of these significant buildings would in itself be an important achievement for the built heritage of the City of Sunderland as well as for its social history. However, as with any listed building, restoration is only a step towards securing its continued conservation. To ensure it remains in good repair a use must be found that can contribute to its future repair and maintenance, keep it insured and enable current and future generations to appreciate it from the outside and preferably from within as well.

This proposal will not only secure the built fabric but will also put the former school to a valuable and very appropriate use. Living History North East (LHNE) propose to use it as a base for training, its own office and administrative centre as well as a new community resource and heritage centre. In this way many people will not only benefit from the work of Living History North East but will be privileged to use a conserved historic school. The proposal has another virtue in that it can contribute to LHNE’s potential to sustain its activities and therefore its financial future.

The cornerstone of the LHNE’s business strategy is the restoration and re-use of the Donnison School Buildings as appropriate premises in which to locate an oral history centre for the North East region.

The purchase and refurbishment of the buildings is seen as the catalyst for:

The proposal to date has attracted significant interest and LHNE’s ambitions are to realise this proposal before the end of 2006.