Over the past weeks, our campaign to Save the National Glass Centre has grown from a shared concern into a powerful, united movement—one that has been strengthened every single day by your voices, your presence, and your unwavering belief that this iconic place must remain at the heart of Sunderland’s cultural life. We want to thank every one of you who has stood with us, both in person and online. Your commitment is the reason this campaign has momentum, visibility, and hope.
A Night That Made History
On Wednesday 19th November, more than 120 supporters braved the stormy weather to attend the open meeting at City Hall. The turnout was nothing short of inspiring. It was a clear demonstration that the people of Sunderland care deeply about the future of the National Glass Centre—enough to show up, speak up, and stand together.
The presentation delivered by our campaign team was thorough, well-evidenced, and transparent. It laid out the complex challenges surrounding the future of the Centre in a way that was accessible and honest, and it showed—beyond any doubt—that there are better choices than simply letting the NGC slip away.
Council leader Michael Mordey listened carefully throughout the meeting. Yet, despite the strength of evidence and the passion in the room, he appeared unmoved. That makes our next steps even more vital.
Taking the Fight Forward
In response to the meeting, our remarkable campaigner CB has put together two crucial documents to help every one of us take action:
An open letter that supporters can share widely
A specially crafted action list for the council leader
Both documents are available for download here. Please share them, sign them, send them—every message counts. Every signature counts. Every voice counts.
Together, We Are Impossible to Ignore
The future of the National Glass Centre is far too important to leave to quiet decisions behind closed doors. Our city deserves transparency, creativity, ambition—and above all, respect for the cultural institutions that shape who we are.
Thank you for continuing to show up. Thank you for speaking out. Thank you for believing that Sunderland deserves to keep its world-class centre of creativity, education, and innovation.
This campaign is far from over—but with your support, it is stronger than ever. Keep sharing. Keep talking. Keep pushing. Together, we will make sure that the National Glass Centre’s light does not go out.
After another shock announcement that the National Glass Centre will close on Sundays from March 16th Save the National Glass Centre Campaign calls for more boots on the ground.
Sign up for updates on how to help the campaign by emailing savethengc@gmail.com with Newsletter in the subject line.
Yet again the offer for locals and visitors is weakening with the University of Sunderland deciding that working families will only be able to enjoy a visit to the “world-class” cultural venue on one day of a usual working week – Saturdays.
Campaigners believe that the university should not have the sole responsibility for deciding the much-loved attraction’s future. They are questioning why Sunderland’s second most popular visitor attraction, after the Stadium of Light, (Tripadvisor) will be closing on Sundays, the second most popular day for visitors (according to Google).
Tenants have been told by email that,
“The decision has been taken by the University of Sunderland to balance the needs of students, staff and visitors to the NGC, with the University’s efforts to ensure the NGC runs as sustainably as possible until the planned closure of the building in July 2026.”
The NGC used to host about 230,000 visitors in a usual year according to Sunderland Culture. People north of the river are worried about what will happen to local businesses such as B&Bs, shops, cafes and pubs if the NGC closes in summer 2026.
A substantial amount of money will need to be raised, and work has barely started on developing a robust business model for the self-sustaining glass making hub. The predicted footfall of 50,000 visitors at Glassworks will make it much harder to afford to employ 16 “creative roles”.
1700 schoolchildren used to visit the NGC annually to learn about the unique heritage of Sunderland and experience the thrill of glassmaking, yet there is no mention of children in the new plan.
If the plan for Glassworks fails to overcome all the challenges, we could be left with nothing!
Campaigners now know through Freedom of Information requests that the university has written off the value of the NGC and NGCA in its accounts, previously the “net book value” was £10.6million (FOI2425/10/16), assets created for the community using a huge amount of public money.
The Chair of the Board of Governors has written that “the land is not of significant value and even that would be largely offset by the cost of removing the building and any potential landscaping” (11.04.24).
The university’s own documents show that the NGC building has not been well maintained, leading to a backlog of repairs. The documents also show that there is a workable solution with build costs of around £6.6million.
Considering all this, campaigners are appealing directly to the university to allow Sunderland City Council to step in and take back full control and return the centre to what it was, a “world-class cultural asset” for the public to enjoy.
In the summer of 2026, the last university students will leave the building. This leaves plenty of space for the important heritage of glassmaking to continue whilst developing an even more enhanced offer for visitors, artists and our future generations by celebrating the religious, industrial and maritime heritage aspects of Sunderland’s proud history.
There are several organisations in Sunderland that could be drawn together under one roof. Never forget that Sunderland was the largest shipbuilding town in the world, that there is a little bit of Sunderland in millions of cupboards around the world in the form of Pyrex dishes, or the memory of Venerable Bede and his creation of the idea of the English as a people. Why can’t our city’s proud heritage be celebrated more?
Whilst The National Glass Centre will probably never beat The Stadium of Light and become the most popular visitor attraction in Sunderland it certainly could continue to enjoy its current second place!
Remember to email us! We are planning something and we need you all to be part of it!
By Jo Howell Sunderland based photographic artist and save the National glass centre activist
Save the National Glass Centre needs you to share the petition!
2024 marks 1350 years of glass making on the banks of the river Wear. A humongous triumph to be celebrated.
Yet there is silence.
The cathedral for glass is no longer permitted to shine with pride. This is a great tragedy that we have the power to stop.
Glass heritage on the river Wear, St Peter’s
We need radical change. Right now. To stop the cultural vandalism that is going to be inflicted on Sunderland. The City builds towards net zero and digital infrastructure whilst denying the people their authentic cultural identity.
Now is not the time to divest in our unique skills and throw away more than a millennium of prestige. As we move away from plastic towards sustainability we need to be investigating the potential of glass in future technologies.
The City is enjoying success for the local film industry after the chancellors budget announcement allows for the Crown Studios to go ahead. It seems crass to allow the decline and disappearance of a unique building with such specialist artisans inside. Let me propose a UK blown away! Let me suggest that we may need glass for props in period dramas and science fiction productions.
The National Glass Centre 2024
We are a City of scientists, artists, engineers and innovators. Let’s innovate and not capitulate ❤️
Our campaign is still here and we think it’s time to supercharge it to maximum effect. Whilst we are extremely proud and grateful for every single one of you. That’s 33,000 inclusive of our local paper based petition. We want 100,000 of you on board so we can take this to government level.
I know you all agree to the vital part that the National Glass Centre has played in all of your lives is worth saving. Whether you live in one of the 78 signing countries, or right on the doorstep this legacy means something to all of you.
Please get sharing across social media ❤️ the longer we wait the harder the fight will be. Let’s get a wriggle on!
All our heartfelt thanks from everyone at
Save the National Glass Centre campaign
If you can help further please email us. We are calling all hands on deck ❤️
2024 has arrived and we need committed people to help!
By Jo Howell
Save the National Glass Centre Campaign
As a campaign that is run entirely by volunteers from the community, and in fact from further afield, we have achieved a lot in a year.
The public meeting way back in June 2023, was well attended, and we have had a regular core group of 5 who have attended meetings on zoom and in person, and a regular in-person group of between 8 and 12.
Everyone has come to the campaign with various different backgrounds, talents, and strengths.
We are looking for some extra people to commit to our monthly zoom meetings.
We need some help digitally to ease the workload for those who have already given so much.
Do you want to help Save the National Glass Centre? Can you commit to regular attendance, and a voluntary workload?
We need the following skills:
Social media marketing – regular updates across all platforms twice weekly
Proficiency with google drive, google docs, spreadsheets, digital literacy.
Minutes and record keeping – weekly online and in-person once a month. Including meeting agendas, invites, and meeting reports.
Organisation – updating the team, events, excellent filing skills, coordination of different tasks across the team.
Data management – properly filed, and stored with data protection regulations met.
Research – archive, public data, personal stories, heritage, social equity, local economy, wider cultural landscape.
Letter writing – MPs, newspapers, governors, funders, heritage bodies, etc
Emailing newsletters – monthly newsletters with up to date info, fresh photographs, exciting and inviting, easy to read.
Blog and website management
YouTube and moving image content creators
Also in the coming months we are going to need:
Fundraisers, accountants, finance officers, policy writers and similar.
Please email Jo Howell with details of which area you can commit to help with.
You will need to have availability to attend for 1 hour Zoom meetings currently every Friday evening at 6pm, and in-person meetings are the 3rd Thursday of every month, 6pm at the Queen Vic Hotel in Roker, Sunderland.
We do have some excellent writers, photographers, industry professionals, and glass artists on board.
The second year of our campaign is going to have to raise the bar, and we need you to help.
Email: savethengc@gmail.com Include which area you are interested in helping us with, and a short paragraph about your experience.
Read through our website and blog, and share this with anyone you think could be a good fit for the campaign.
Thank you!
All the best
Jo Howell
And everyone working in the Save the National Glass Centre Campaign
My mind has been blown! The overwhelming support that we have received in the last few days has been amazing. When we met with the the photographer, and Katy, we found out that the petition was nearly at 20,000 signatures. Today we are at over 25,000.
I think it safe to say that there is a lot of support for the national glass centre to continue on in it’s current format. The loss of glass blowing would be untenable by all the signatories. We have been inundated with testimonies about how important the centre has been to people. Reasons ranging from fantastic career opportunities the NGC and NGCA have offered artists, to the importance of its role in mental health and wellbeing. The National Glass Centre is a source of great pride.
In other news, we have set a public meeting for June 2023 at St Peter’s Church. I need to approach some key speakers, and to organise the format. So, more details will soon follow.
St Peter’s church by Jo Howell
Keep sharing the petition, and if you haven’t written to our MP yet, neither have I! So we had better get on with writing emails, letters, and organising the public meeting.
I will also hand print cyanotype versions of the below design in a made to order format.
All proceeds will go towards campaign costs like signage and mail outs. The campaign is run by volunteers made up of concerned locals, and people whose businesses are likely to be affected. We encourage you to sign up for our mailing list, and to follow our blog for updates.
Save the National Glass Centre original made to order prints
The petition is nearing 20,000 signatures. We have cross party support. Now we are going to take this to the Sunderland MPs. There is definitely a need and a want to save this important asset.
Save the National Glass Centre photo by Jo Howell 2023
Screenshot from Instagram April 2023 showing George Clark’s support
Shy bairns get nowt!
The wonderful George Clark is an architect, a TV personality, and he was raised a mackem in Sunderland. Lots of people in the area look up to George as a beacon of success, and he still talks very fondly of Sunderland. Bearing all of this in mind, I thought I’d try to reach out to him, and a couple of other local heroes via Instagram and twitter.
So far, George is the only one to have picked up our campaign. Thank you 🙏 that doesn’t mean that the other celebs won’t jump on board, they may just need a little more courtship.
Directly because of George’s post on Instagram we gained over 100 new signatures on our petition! And, lots of people learned of the #SaveTheNGC campaign via the comments underneath.
We need champions of all kinds to help us turn the tide to save the national glass centre and the national gallery of contemporary art (situated inside NGC). We need to show that value and cost are two entirely separate things. And, the value of what we currently have far outweighs short term commercial gain.
Artwork by Regeneration North East SALT art group 2023
Once it’s gone there will be no resurrecting it. The 25 years of kudos and excellence will go with loss of the artists and the skilled staff and the building.
Sign our petition. Write to your MP. Share far and wide. Ask your celeb mates to get in touch. Send me NGC art, stories, articles, films and whatever you have. Let’s prove the value.
The University of Sunderland is running a slick public relations campaign to rid itself of the prestigious National Glass Centre (NGC) at little cost. It may even make a good profit. It no longer wishes to have a large public exhibition space, café, shop, expensive glass furnaces and multi-purpose teaching facilities which attract hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. The University considers that the NGC no longerforms part of its key academic objectives.
The University’s strategic aims, as set out in its Annual Report and £250m Investment Plan(January & February 2023), is to concentrate on technology and health. It’s the white hot heat of technology and not the heat of outdated glass furnaces that it desires. And the University wants to ramp up its politically sexy Canary Wharf London campus, close to Government and the country’s financial centres. Perhaps it should now be called the University of London and Sunderland?
To justify its closure proposal, the University commissioned in early 2022 architectural, structural and cost reports (published in March 2023) which artificially inflated the cost of bringing the NGC up to modern standards. Instead of the report’s lower £14m estimate, the University has chosen to go with a much higher £45m estimate, partly by including the replacement cost of 25 year old mechanical and electrical plant which has already been written off over 5 years of depreciation.
Studio glass detail shot from NGC 2021
Having inflated the cost, and before publicly announcing the imminent closure of the NGC in early January 2023, the University convinced Sunderland’s local MP, Julie Elliott, Sunderland Culture, and Sunderland City Council that the NGC’s retention was not economically feasible. And, no doubt, that keeping it could prejudice future University investment in its St Peter’s campus and elsewhere in the city. All have, in consequence, accepted the NGC’s closure in principle.
The University have made a small gesture by saying it might be possible to retain some glass “academic work” and exhibition display space elsewhere in central Sunderland (no glass furnaces). But at the same time it hedged the retention possibility by saying this would only happen “as far as it is practically possible and viable”. No-one knows where a reduced NGC could go. The proposed Culture House has been mentioned as a possibility, but it is relatively small and already has much of its recently reduced floor area pre-allocated for a library, café, local history collection and other cultural uses. It is unlikely glass teaching and exhibition space, let alone furnaces, could be fitted into the building on a sufficient scale to justify calling it a“National” glass centre.
Dotting the NGC’s present functions around the city would destroy its attractiveness as an institution and visitor attraction. The joy and unique selling point now of the NGC is that you can visit everything in one place – see an exhibition, watch glass being blown, have a meal or drink, and take a course.
What no-one has so far mentioned is what the University will do with the vacated NGC site, which is in a much sought after riverside position, just right for luxury residential development. And the University has not said whether any of the funds from the disposal or redevelopment of the NGC site will be returned to Sunderland people.
Detail shot of studio glass made in NGC 2021
A number of important questions remain to be answered:
– Why has the University artificially inflated the cost of retaining the existing iconic and nationally regarded NGC building?
– How much money is the University prepared to “gift” towards the alternative NGC provision that is currently being sought?
– Why have the City’s representatives so quickly accepted the NGC’s closure withoutclosely examining the University’s cost figures and without having any confirmed alternative provision?
– What happens to the NGC site?
And, lastly, the most important question:
– Will Sunderland’s representatives agree to the plan by a financially driven University, keen on increasing its liquidity level and being net cash positive, to close down and divest itself of a cultural, artistic and architectural jewel which provides work, education and pleasure for many thousands of people, both locally and nationally?
At best, at the end of all this, what will be left will be just a small and inconsequential glass exhibition and teaching space, possibly scattered throughout the city. It would be a forlorn shadow of its present greatness.
At worst, an alternative site(s) for the NGC will not be found.
Whatever the result, the University will congratulate itself on having successfully removed an unwanted liability from its books whilst at the same time making a financial killingto add to its existing £51.5m cash reserves.
This is not the way for a renowned and rich“anchor” institution to treat Sunderland’s people, or its artistic community, or its proud history and heritage.
Save the National Glass Centre 