Sunderland Market

The High Street served as a market area since Bishop Morton's charter of 1634. The wealthier butchers had their shops in the lower part of their houses on the south of the High Street, near The Shambles, and stalls can be seen projecting from houses opposite on Rain’s Eye Plan which also shows specialist areas for bakers, seed merchants, vegetables, poultry and dairy produce. The Eye plan also shows stalls of a butchery market in the middle of the High Street between Church and Union street and a market cross (HER ref. 79). The known Post Medieval market area of the High Street is likely to have had medieval origins.