Doxford House with conservatory

Doxford House is a large house, dating probably to around 1820, with alterations made around 1900. It was originally a private residence, later used as a hall of residence for Sunderland Polytechnic, and includes a conservatory and a forebuilding. The front and forebuilding are constructed of ashlar, while the rear is brick with ashlar dressings. The conservatory is of cast iron and glass, with a roof that is not visible.

The main house is three storeys high with four windows, and has a two-storey wing to the left, containing two windows. The front features mullioned and transomed windows on the ground floor, surrounding a double door within the conservatory, and sash windows with fine glazing bars on the upper floors, set within plain stone surrounds with sill bands. The upper windows are smaller, and the left wing has a long stair window. The taller section has an eaves band below a gutter cornice and a blocking course, while the lower two-storey section has a blocking course above the eaves band. The roof of the higher part has corniced end chimneys, and the roof of the lower section is not visible. A bowed projection with three windows is on the left return, featuring renewed French windows on the ground floor and sash windows with glazing bars and plain reveals above, set below an eaves gutter cornice and a blocking course. The rear elevation has similar sash windows in tooled stone surrounds.

The forebuilding is in an Italian Renaissance style, with heavily rusticated pilasters, voussoirs, and jambs framing a high, round-headed double door, which has studded panels. Similar round-arched openings flank the central door, with wrought-iron grilles. Half columns of Tuscan detail support an entablature that breaks forward on large scroll brackets. The door keystone rises to a richly carved tympanum, featuring a heraldic device resembling that of the Collingwood family, beneath a serpentine open pediment.

The conservatory has a cast-iron frame with wood mullions on low stone end walls, and a hipped roof. Inside the house, the open-well stair has turned balusters. The hall features a high-quality chimney-piece and overmantel with low relief Greek detail, and the common room has a mahogany chimney-piece and a ceramic overmantel. Some panelling exists. A stone imperial stair leads from the conservatory to the forebuilding, incorporating a stone balustrade and a cherub lampholder on the newel. Elaborate cast-iron brackets support the roof members. A reinforced artificial stone grotto is attached to the conservatory wall, containing cavities and cusped bowls interspersed with stalagmites and stalactites.