Grange Road/Wylam Street, water company offices

Circa 1880. Purpose built for the Sunderland & South Shields Water Co. offices, which was formed in 1852. Public health provision was completely transformed in the Nineteenth Century. Overcrowding in urban areas and poor sanitation had become a serious problem in Victorian Britain. The General Board of Health was established by the Public Health Act 1848. Local Boards of Health were set up throughout the country. Responsibility for water supplies and drainage was given to corporations. Cleadon Pumping Station was opened in 1862. The system was fairly unregulated and a further Public Health Act was established in 1875 to combat filthy urban living conditions which caused various public health threats, including the spreading of many diseases such as cholera and typhus. The Act required all new residential construction to include running water and an internal drainage system. Now Northern Rock. LOCAL LIST