Complete with bandstand, shady walks, a pond with ducks and gulls and an award-winning children's play park, Mowbray Park in the middle of dusty Sunderland is the perfect oasis if you're in need of something green. The museum adjacent to the park is well known for some excellent exhibitions too.
We picked the boy up there the other day and I was struck again by how necessary this haven is in the centre of town. The boy has always headed for his favourite statue of the walrus, on which there have been many photographs.
There is also the very famous war memorial, which Himself says is one of the most visited and most significant in the country - and he should know. In more recent years the British army's post 1945 campaigns have been commemorated on separate walls around the World War memorial, which adds interest as well as pathos to the scene, a further reminder of the history of the area.
Indeed, Sunderland is a city which wears its history on its sleeve, some might say a careworn sleeve, and it is a city where the old, Victorian realities sit closely together still - compared to say, Newcastle, which has been cleaning itself up for the C21st ever since I have known it.
It is interesting to note, however, that several new developments have been taking place in Sunderland and there is certainly something exciting going on around the old Vaux Brewery site as well as improving the access to the Wearmouth Bridge. Demonstrating its new city status perhaps? Let's watch this space.
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