Sunderland London Train

Sunderland is a city in Tyne and Wear in the north east of England. It lies at the mouth of the River Wear which also runs through the city with the two sides of the city connected by the Queen Alexandra Bridge at Pallion and the Wearmouth Bridge just north of the city centre. Much of the city is located on a low range of hills running parallel to the coast.

Over the centuries the city grew as a port, trading coal and salt. The city also began shipbuilding in the 14th century and was once regarded as being the "Largest Shipbuilding Town in the World" and by the 19th century Sunderland had grown to absorb Bishopwearmouth and Monkwearmouth.

Following the decline in the city's shipbuilding, the shipyards along the Wear were redeveloped into a mixture of residential, commercial and leisure facilities which includes St. Peter's Campus of the University of Sunderland, the North Haven housing and marina development, the National Glass Centre, the Stadium of Light, home to Sunderland Football Club, and the Riverside Retail Park. Adjacent to the Stadium of Light is the Sunderland Aquatic Centre which contains the only Olympic size swimming pool between Leeds and Edinburgh.

Located in the south east of England, London is divided into thirty two boroughs and is a vibrant, multicultural city. It is the largest city in the United Kingdom and also the largest city in the European Union and is regarded as an international capital of culture, music, education, fashion, politics, finance and trade.

The commercial capital was the City of London. This had a dense population and all the other pre-requisites of a medieval city: walls, a castle (The Tower of London), a cathedral (St Pauls), a semi-independent City government, a port and a bridge across which all trade was routed so Londoners could make money (London Bridge).

A few miles upstream was the government capital (Westminster). This had a church for crowning the monarch (Westminster Abbey) and palaces. As each palace was replaced by a larger one, the previous one was used for government, first the Palace of Westminster (better known as the Houses of Parliament), then Whitehall, then Buckingham Palace. The two were linked by a road called The "Strand", old English for riverbank.

The 'green lungs' of London are the many parks scattered throughout the city including Hyde Park, St James Park and Regent's Park. Most of the larger parks, such as Richmond Park, have their origins in royal estates and hunting grounds and are still owned by the Crown, despite their public access.