Riverside Sunderland Explained: What Is Being Built on the Old Vaux Site

Riverside Sunderland is the name for the long-running redevelopment of the land between the city centre and the River Wear, centred on the former Vaux Brewery site. If you have walked past Keel Square in the last few years, you will have watched it happen one building at a time. This guide explains what the scheme is, what has been finished, what is still under construction and what you can actually go and see.

The back story is told elsewhere on this site. The brewery closed in 1999 and the site sat empty for two decades; our short history of Sunderland and lost buildings of Sunderland cover Vaux itself, and moving to Sunderland covers what the changes mean for day-to-day life. Here the focus is on the plan.

What Riverside Sunderland is

The official Riverside Sunderland programme sets out a target, once complete, of 1,000 homes for around 2,500 residents, a million square feet of office space and up to 10,000 people working on the site. It is led by Sunderland City Council, with funding from central government, Homes England and the North East Mayor, and private investors for some of the office buildings. In 2026 the area was included in the Riverside Sunderland Creative Mayoral Development Zone.

The scheme is best understood as three overlapping parts: offices and public buildings on the Vaux plateau, culture and leisure along High Street West and the river, and new neighbourhoods of homes on both banks.

The offices and public buildings

Keel Square, the public square at the top of the site, was the first piece of the programme. The first office building, The Beam, opened on Plater Way in 2019. Its tenants have included Ocado Retail and North East Screen.

City Hall followed in 2021. As well as the council it houses teams from the Department for Work and Pensions, Sunderland College and the housing association Gentoo, and its council chamber seats 300. The building won the British Council for Offices "Best of the Best" award in 2022. There is a cafe, Brew & Bake, open on weekdays.

The next large office development was Maker & Faber, a £100 million investment by Legal & General in two Grade A office buildings, which opened in 2025 with Just Eat among the tenants. A Holiday Inn with 120 bedrooms opened on Keel Square in December 2022, with The Botanist and the Keel Tavern on its ground floor.

The most recent public building on the plateau is not an office at all. The Sunderland Specialist Eye Hospital, run by South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, opened in July 2026 on Plater Way. It replaced the Sunderland Eye Infirmary on Queen Alexandra Road, which had served the city for more than 80 years.

Culture and the river

At the eastern edge of the site, the Fire Station on High Street West opened its new auditorium in December 2021. Across the square, Culture House opened on Keel Square on 12 September 2026 and is now home to the City Library.

Nearby, a group of Georgian merchants' houses on High Street West has been restored, as has the former Elephant Tea Rooms, and the old Gilbridge Police Station has been refurbished as The Yard.

The biggest change to how people move around is the Keel Crossing. The footbridge opened on 18 October 2025 and links the Vaux plateau with the Sheepfolds on the north bank, so the walk from the city centre to the Stadium of Light no longer means a detour over the Wearmouth Bridge. A new Riverside Park is being built in phases.

Best for: Walk from Keel Square across the Keel Crossing to Sheepfolds Stables and back over the Wearmouth Bridge for a short loop that takes in most of Riverside Sunderland.

The homes still to come

Homes are the part of the plan that is furthest from finished. The programme describes four new neighbourhoods:

• Vaux, where around 135 homes are under construction. The scheme includes designs from the RIBA "Homes of 2030" competition, modern versions of the single-storey Sunderland cottage, and allotments and orchards at Kingsley Gardens.
• Farringdon Row, with around 165 homes planned.
• Ayre's Quay, with around 80 homes.
• Sheepfolds, on the north bank beside the stadium, which is the largest. In August 2026 the government announced that Homes England would invest £27.7 million to unlock the Sheepfolds neighbourhood, described as more than 350 homes, on top of £10 million already committed by the North East Mayor.

The council has said it aims to deliver more than 1,000 homes in the city centre. At the time of writing the first of the Vaux homes were still being built, so it is too early to say when residents will move in.

Beyond the Vaux site

Two related projects are often mentioned in the same breath. Sunderland station has had its southern entrance rebuilt as part of a wider plan for the station. And at Pallion, further up the river on the south bank, the council has planning permission for the first phase of the Crown Works Studios film and television complex, a scaled-back version of a much larger scheme first proposed with private backers. As of October 2026, work on the first studio building was expected to begin within weeks, with delivery planned over two years.

In Sunniside, the council signed an agreement in June 2026 with the developer Muse to look at the potential for new homes around the historic streets east of the city centre. That work is at the feasibility stage, with a masterplan to follow.

Sheepfolds Stables

On the north bank, the Grade II listed railway stables beside the stadium have been converted into Sheepfolds Stables, a food hall and events space. Propa! is one of the kitchens there. It is the obvious place to stop if you are crossing the river on foot, and our Stadium of Light match day guide covers the walk to the ground.

See it today

You can see most of Riverside Sunderland in a short walk:

• Keel Square, with City Hall, The Beam and the Holiday Inn around it.
• Culture House, open to the public as the City Library.
• The Fire Station on High Street West, with a regular programme of gigs, comedy and theatre.
• The Keel Crossing, open to pedestrians and cyclists.
• Sheepfolds Stables on the north bank.

Best for: Construction sites at Vaux and Riverside Park are fenced off, but the paths around Keel Square and the bridge are open, and you can see the work going on from the Keel Crossing.

For a wider walk, our heritage walking trail starts nearby, and the history of Sunderland High Street explains how this end of the city centre grew up.

Spotted something new on the Riverside we have missed? Get in touch.