A historic grade II listed North East building which was built by a tea merchant in the 1870s has hit the market following a renovation.

The Elephant Tea Rooms building on the corner of Fawcett Street and High Street West in Sunderland City Centre is now up for grabs for an undisclosed price.

This comes after in 2019 it was announced that Sunderland City Council had acquired the Elephant Tea Rooms, and was supporting a number of other projects including the redevelopment of Mackie’s Corner.

It formerly housed a RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) branch before it closed in 2018.

Plans got the green light in 2021 and since then the 7,736 square feet building has been under works including bringing everything from the brickwork to intricate stone dragons back to life.

The listing online reads: "The Elephant Tea Rooms is a Grade II listed building situated within the heart of Sunderland city centre.

"Built between 1872 and 1877 by Henry Hopper for a local tea merchant, it provides a blend of the high Victorian Hindu Gothic and Venetian Gothic styles.

"The building was designed to highlight the exotic origins of the tea sold there.

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"The building is formed as a combination of three historic buildings and provides accommodation across basement, ground, first and second floors beneath pitched slate roofs.

"The façade has recently been renovated to provide an attractive frontage more in keeping with the character of the building.

"The property benefits from a highly decorative façade onto Fawcett Street including a stone and terracotta pinnacle on the south corner of the façade."