Dock Office At North End Of Hudson Dock With Hydraulic Accumulator, Walls And Piers

The building is a dock office constructed in 1850 by John Murray for the Sunderland Dock Company. Around 1875, a hydraulic accumulator was added, designed by Sir W Armstrong & Co for the River Wear Commission, to serve a swing bridge. The structure is built of coursed squared limestone with ashlar sandstone dressings, and has a Welsh slate roof with an ashlar chimney. It is designed in a Modified Baroque style.

The exterior consists of two storeys and three bays by three bays, with an eastern staircase wing and a south-east tower. The north elevation features alternate block surrounds and projecting flat stone lintels over the double doors with overlights at the centre and in the left stair wing. Panelled doors are located in the stair case. Similar jambs and projecting flat sills and lintels are visible on the ground-floor windows. The first floor includes a sill band and windows with lugged architraves, the central one rising as a key across the entablature. Most sash windows retain glazing bars, with the exception of those in the left bay and over the centre door, which have been replaced with casements. Rusticated quoins are present, and the top entablature has a gutter cornice and blocking course. The low-pitched hipped roof includes a corniced ridge chimney.

The right return features a blocked central upper window and a fire door with an external fire escape, as well as sash windows with glazing bars in the left bay, which now accommodates the hydraulic accumulator for the swing bridge. The rear left return displays a tower with slit lights and clock faces in the top stage, beneath a bracketed cornice and blocking course.

Inside, the ground floor was originally a house and the first floor an office, now both used as offices. Features include panelled doors with architraves, some original chimney pieces, and simple stucco decoration. The hydraulic accumulator, located behind the first return bay on the right, has walls that appear to be wood, possibly concrete with shuttering markings, and still contain the original machinery. A stone staircase within the tower leads to the clock chamber, currently used for access to dock traffic lights, and has a renewed balustrade with some original stick balusters, however the handrail is renewed in straight sections.

A high stone yard wall with ashlar coping on the left return encloses a triangular area between the stair and tower. This wall includes an entrance with two square piers having flat stone coping, one of which is damaged. The swing bridge features original machinery but is no longer operated by the hydraulic accumulator.