page_title: Washington, Tyne and Wear
section_title: Building the New Town
hierarchical_section_title: Washington, Tyne and Wear / History / Building the New Town
caption_attribution_description: The Galleries shopping centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear, Northeast England.
context_page_description: Washington is a large town in the City of Sunderland local government district of Tyne and Wear, England, and part of historic County Durham. Washington is located geographically at an equal distance from the centres of Newcastle, Durham and Sunderland, hence it has close ties to all three cities.
  Washington was designated a new town in 1964 and became part of the City of Sunderland in 1974. It expanded dramatically, by the creation of new villages and the absorption of areas of Chester-le-Street, to house overspill population from surrounding cities.
  At the 2011 census, Washington had a population of 67,085, compared to 53,388 in 2001.
context_section_description: Washington's design was developed through the New Towns concept aiming to achieve sustainable socio-economic growth. The new town is divided into small self-sufficient "villages". It was originally also divided into the 15 numbered districts, a fate that confused many visitors to the area. These numbered districts have gradually been removed as well as increased, and now road signs indicate the villages' names instead of district number.
  Washington's villages are called:
  Donwell
  Usworth (originally Great Usworth)
  Concord
  Sulgrave
  Albany
  Glebe
  Barmston
  Biddick
  Washington Village (the original village and location of the Old Hall)
  Columbia
  Blackfell
  Oxclose
  Ayton
  Lambton
  Fatfield
  Harraton
  Rickleton
  Mount Pleasant was also added to the list of numbered districts (14), despite being out of the Town "boundary line" of the River Wear and having a DH4 Postcode (Houghton le Spring); however, it does hold a Washington dialling code starting 0191 415/416/417.
  Built on industry, Washington contains several industrial estates, named after famous local engineers, such as Parsons, Armstrong, Stephenson, Crowther, Pattinson, Swan and Emerson.
  A lot of the land that makes up the town was purchased from the Lambton family, Earls of Durham who own the estate of the same name, which includes their ancestral home, Lambton Castle.
  In 1970, Washington hosted the English Schools Athletic Association (ESAA) annual National Championships, attended by the then Lord Lieutenant of County Durham.
  On 15 November 1977, the very first SavaCentre hypermarket (a venture between Sainsbury's and British Home Stores) opened at The Galleries. By 2005, however, it had been rebranded as a traditional Sainsbury's as the SavaCentre brand was phased out.
  The former Court House on Liberty Green has now been converted into private residences.
caption: The Galleries shopping centre is the town's main commercial centre.
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