SUNDERLAND shares Newcastle's long history, river setting and industrial heritage but cannot match its architectural splendour. Formed from three medieval villages flanking the Wear, it was one of the wealthiest towns in England by 1500, and later supported the Parliamentary cause in the Civil War. The twentieth century made and broke the town: from being the largest shipbuilding town in the world, supporting a dozen shipyards, Sunderland slumped after ferocious bombing during World War II. Depression and recession did the rest.

There's little to turn the head in Sunderland's pedestrianized centre, although the revamped Sunderland Museum on Borough Road (Mon 10am-4pm, Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 2-5pm; free) does a very good, multimedia job of telling the city's history. The attached Winter Gardens , housed in an impressive new steel and glass hot-house that belatedly replaces the original Victorian glasshouses bombed by the Germans in 1941, are worth a look, too.

The main interest in Sunderland lies across the River Wear, whose remodelled, landscaped Riverside is actually the oldest settled part of the city. Here, in front of the university campus buildings, the early Christian church of St Peter (Easter-Oct daily 2-4pm; by arrangement at other times, call 0191/567 3726), built in 674 AD, is the elder sibling of St Paul's church at Jarrow. The tower and west wall are original Saxon features and the church displays fragments of the oldest stained glass in the country, the work of seventh-century European craftsmen. The extraordinary building further down on the waterside is the National Glass Centre (daily 10am-5pm; £5; tel 0191/515 5555, ), which tells the story of British glass-making - a traditional industry in Sunderland since the seventh century, when workshops turned out stained glass for the north's monastic houses and churches. There's plenty to get your teeth into, not least glass-making demonstrations in the on-site workshop (call for times).

Further north, out in the beach resort of Roker (bus #E1, #E3 or #19) the church of St Andrew's on Park Avenue (Mon-Fri 9.30-11.30am) is known as "the cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement". The nave echoes the upturned hull of a ship, while the sanctuary has a beautiful painting depicting the heavens, with an electric light fitting at the centre of the sun. The tapestries and carpets are from the William Morris workshop, and like the church they date from the early 1900s.

The main stop for Metros from Newcastle is in the central train station opposite the Bridges Shopping Centre, but get off at the previous stop, St Peter's, to walk along the north side of the river to the National Glass Centre or St Peter's Church. All buses use the Park Lane Bus Station , a five-minute walk south of the train station in the city centre, while the tourist office is just to the east on the main shopping drag, Fawcett Street (Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 10am-4pm; tel 0191/553 2000, tourist.info@sunderland.gov.uk ). For daytime food in the city centre, try 21 John Street (closed Sun), a relaxed, airy Italian café offering everything from made-to-order sandwiches to pasta and more substantial dishes.

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