4: Elephant Tea Rooms
At the corner of High Street West and Fawcett Street are the Elephant Tea Rooms directly on your left (above RBS).
Wealthy tea merchant Ronald Grimshaw hired Frank Caws to design the building standing before you. As at Corder and Sydenham House, Caws merged eastern and western architecture. The corner turret is distinctly Indian while the colourful, pointed arches and horizontal band are of a Venetian Gothic influence.
Can you spot the other Gothic elements?
Hint: Look for the stone beasts projecting from the building that are commonly found on cathedrals).
The elephant gargoyles with tea chests on their backs captured the attention of the people of Sunderland in the late 1870s and the building became known affectionately as the 'Elephant Tea Rooms'.
