| Elephant Tea Rooms | |
|---|---|
 The Elephant Tea Rooms | |
  Location within Tyne and Wear | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Hindu Gothic |
| Location | 65–66Fawcett Street,Sunderland,United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 54°54′27″N1°22′56″W / 54.907434°N 1.382132°W /54.907434; -1.382132 |
| Construction started | 1873 |
| Completed | 1877 |
| Client | Ronald Grimshaw |
| Owner | Royal Bank of Scotland |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 3 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Frank Caws |
TheElephant Tea Rooms is aGrade II listed building inSunderland,Tyne and Wear,England.[1] The building was constructed from 1872 to 1877 by Henry Hopper to a design by architectFrank Caws for William Grimshaw, a local tea merchant and grocer,[2] in a blend of the high VictorianHindu Gothic andVenetian Gothic styles. This was a selling point, as the exotic style and name advertised the exotic origins of the tea sold there. The building has housed the Local History Library of the city since 2020.[3]
Many internet sources give Ronald Grimshaw as the name of the tea merchant and grocer, but William Grimshaw's great-grandson of that name was not born until 1905, thirty years later. See Bill Greenwell's "The Elephant Tea Family" (2021).
The building was restored between 2022 and 2024 with funding fromHistoric England.[4]
The exterior ispolychrome and was constructed from brick,terracotta andfaience. The ground floor has a full-width tiledfascia continuing along to the neighbouring building; this 20th-century alteration may conceal earlier detail. Thearcaded first floor hassash windows with slopingsills in the Gothic faience arcade,clasping rings andcrocket capitals to thenookshafts, alternateblock jambs, raisedpointed arches androll-mouldeddripstring. Theogee window heads havefleur-de-lysfinials in front oflozenge-patterned terracottaspandrels. Theeavescornice has acorbelledtrefoilfrieze.
The attic windows have faience surrounds, similar to the first floor arcade, two trefoil-headedtransom lights overmullioned lights, each window is in a high gable with round-headedniches in a banded faience decoration and mouldedcoping. Between the gables there are bracketedcorniced shelves carrying faience elephants under bracketed gables with trefoilbargeboards with a crocket decoration and elaborate finials.
The roundoriel cornerturret has nookshafts like the other first floor arcades but with arcaded central lights and blind arches, below a band of linked,splayed shafts and large eavesgargoyles. Above are furthergablets are at the foot of the banded round turret with bracketed, eaves and aBuddhist-style conical faience roof with a series of ringed ribs. Smaller high cones on patterned drums are behind the crow-stepped gable foot at the end of each front.
The steeply pitched roof is ofslate, has ridges from each gable with terracottacrestings, faiencegablecopings and tall, faience coping (behind the elephant gablets) and brick chimneys.
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