Engine House And Boiler House At Ryhope Pumping Station

The engine house and boiler house form part of Ryhope Pumping Station, built between 1866 and 1869 by Thomas Hawksley for the Sunderland and South Shields Water Company. They are constructed of English bond brick with ashlar dressings and have a Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings and a shingle ventilator roof.

The engine house is a two-storey building with a basement, featuring a four-by-one window arrangement. The east-facing gable has brick parapet walls with ashlar coping to side steps leading to a panelled door within a two-storey corniced projection. The doorcase is of ashlar with panelled pilasters and a semicircular overlight within a high entablature. A blank panel sits above the door, with a three-light window above. A modillioned cornice runs along the top, and a stepped three-light window is set within the gable peak. Giant corniced angle pilasters support the projection at the edge of the shaped gable, which rises to an obelisk finial. The returns have longer windows on the ground floor, featuring corniced surrounds and central ball finials. Smaller windows are above, with long keystones in bays defined by giant pilasters, which have a continuous cornice and finials on stepped panels above the pilasters. All windows contain stone mullions and transoms. The roof has a high central ridge with an octagonal, louvred ventilator and swept eaves to a tall, conical shingle roof.

The attached boiler house to the west is a single-storey building with four cross gables, shaped and with finials, rising from pilasters with cornices. Each gable has a recessed plane containing doors in keyed elliptical stone surrounds on the south (except for a renewed door with a plain stone lintel), and two-light windows on the north, with small slits in the gable peaks.

The interior retains the original pumping equipment, including engines by R & W Hawthorne and boilers from 1908. The complex is a fine example of the work of Thomas Hawksley and showcases engines from one of the region's earliest engine manufacturers. It is cared for by The Ryhope Engines Trust and is occasionally operated for demonstration purposes. The site is designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.