Pennywell
Coordinates: 54°53′49″N 1°26′34″W / 54.897068°N 1.442749°W
| Pennywell | |
 Pennywell
Pennywell shown within Tyne and Wear |
|
| Metropolitan borough | City of Sunderland |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan county | Tyne and Wear |
| Region | North East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SUNDERLAND |
| Postcode district | SR4 |
| Dialling code | 0191 |
| Police | Northumbria |
| Fire | Tyne and Wear |
| Ambulance | North East |
| EU Parliament | North East England |
| UK Parliament | Sunderland South |
| List of places: UK • England • Tyne and Wear | |
Pennywell is one of the UK's largest post-war social housing schemes, and is situated in the central-west area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, North East England. Pennywell is the largest local authority housing estate in the City of Sunderland. The estate was built between 1949 - 1953 and consists mostly of semi-detached houses.[1]
The Pennywell estate has 2847 houses, 11% of which are privately owned and has a total population of 10,709[1] This figure is considerably lower than in previous decades, when the Pennywell area housed over 20,000 people.
Since the 1980s, Pennywell has suffered high levels of knife crime and anti-social behaviour, which culminated in the fatal stabbing of 22-year-old Kevin Johnson outside his house on Patrick Road on the morning of 19 May 2007.[2]The killers (19-year-old Dean Curtis, 17-year-old Tony Hawkes and 16-year-old Jordan Towers) were all convicted of Mr Johnson's murder on 23 November that year and sentenced to life imprisonment. At the trial, it was revealed that after stabbing Mr Johnson they had gone on to attack another man in the area and also damaged two cars.[3]Mr Johnson's family later had two applications for criminal injuries compensation rejected on the basis that he had contributed to his own death by leaving the safety of his home to confront the teenagers about their noisy behaviour. A third application for compensation was successful, but the Johnson family received a mere £5,500 - half of the standard amount.[4]
As a result, the Gentoo Group are undertaking a massive programme of renewal and regeneration for the area which will provide a high standard of modern housing for social housing tenants and homeowners alike. The first phases of this plan, at Waterford Green, are nearing completion.
An industrial area on the western edge of the suburb has, among other businesses Calsonic's injection moulding plant and the Sunderland Echo building.
[edit] References
 |
This Tyne and Wear location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
