22/08/2026
Our final week at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens 💚
Next Saturday, 29 August, Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens closes its doors to the public until 2028 as work begins on its major redevelopment. Sadly, it will also be the final day for our Sea Change café inside the museum.
So, if you’ve ever visited us, or have been meaning to, we’d love to see you one last time this week.
Every coffee, lunch and cake bought from Sea Change has helped us do something we’re really proud of: create meaningful paid employment and opportunities for disabled and neurodivergent people.
We’re enormously grateful to Sunderland Council, Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens , the Museum & Winter Gardens team, Mini Moderns ® , our partner organisations and, most importantly, everyone who has visited and supported the café during our time here.
Thank you so much for giving our team the opportunity to show what an inclusive workplace can be.
Sadly, the closure also means that some members of our café team will lose their jobs. That’s undoubtedly the worst part of all of this. We will continue to support those affected and hope that, as Sea Change develops and new opportunities emerge, we can find ways to work with those staff again in the future.
But this isn’t goodbye to Sea Change.
Our smaller Sunderland café at WEAR, Vine Place WEAR CAFE remains open, as does our flagship Sea Change Café on Ocean Road, South Shields. Our mission to create more inclusive employment opportunities continues.
For now, we’d simply love to make this final week at the Museum a busy and memorable one for the team.
Please come and see us, support the café and help us finish our time at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens on a high. 💚
Last day: Saturday 29 August.
