2 New Street, Leicester, City of Leicester

Summary

Former house built around 1750, now barristers’ chambers.

Description

Former house built around 1750, now barristers’ chambers.

MATERIALS: the red brick walls are laid in Flemish bond, with a painted wooden eaves cornice, and Swithland slate roof covering (largely replaced by Welsh slate in 2019).

PLAN: the building is roughly L-shaped on plan, occupying the corner of New Street and Friar Lane.

EXTERIOR: the three-storey house, constructed around 1750 at the corner of New Street and Friar Lane, is Georgian in style with classical proportions. The front (east) elevation to New Street has two bays to its north side, and the side (south) elevation to Friar Lane has five bays, arranged with a wider gap between the third and fourth bays. The L-plan building has a pitched M-shaped roof to the New Street range and a hipped roof to the Friar Lane range; both roofs have a slate covering, and together accommodate three red brick chimneystacks. The walls are constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with a chamfered stone plinth course, a three-course plat band over the ground and first floor windows on the Friar Lane elevation, and a continuous heavy moulded-wood eaves cornice. The windows have painted stone sills, and segmental brick arches containing sash windows with glazing bars in flush casings (most of which have been restored). The fenestration largely consists of six-over-six pane sash windows on the ground and first floors, and three-over-six pane sashes on the second floor. The fenestration of the New Street elevation is varied, and alterations to the brickwork are evident. The entrance on the New Street elevation has an C18 door surround, modified in the C20, with a shouldered moulded architrave and cornice, panelled reveals, and a six-panelled door.

INTERIOR: The interior is roughly L-shaped on plan. The small entrance hall contains a stair and provides access to a meeting room to the north, a two-bay room to the south, a larger three-bay clerks’ room to the south-west, and access to a rear corridor to the north-west. The location of the stair and its windows suggest that it may have been reconfigured and replaced sometime in the late C19. The closed-string half-pace stair has turned wooden balusters and square newel posts, a moulded handrail, and panelled spandrel. The meeting room north of the entrance hall features a large segmental arch on its north wall. The clerks’ room contains a classical fireplace on its west wall, most likely mid-C18. The rear corridor provides access to the basement, kitchen and toilet facilities, and rear porch. It appears the half-glazed doors, toilet facilities, and rear porch may date to around 1922, when the building was adapted for use as barristers’ offices. The first floor retains some attractive interior features: the front room of the New Street range retains a picture rail and plain but attractive fireplace, and the corridor retains early-C20 half-glazed doors and matching panelling. The Friar Lane range retains some six-panelled doors; the front room retains a plain cornice and an early-C20 wooden and tiled fireplace surround, and the rear room, which was divided in the C20, retains a decorative cornice, picture rail, and marble fireplace. The second floor retains a number of early-C20 half-glazed doors to the offices. The rear room of the Friar Lane range retains a picture rail, integrated storage on the west and north walls, and plain fireplace with cast-iron grate. The front room in the New Street range retains integrated cupboards either side of a blocked fireplace. West of the rear corridor, an office retains a picture rail, decorative C19 cast-iron fireplace, and integrated cupboards to either side of the fireplace. The room in the north-west corner of the New Street range shows evidence of a potential blocked door opening to 4, 6 and 8 New Street to the north at ground, first and second floor levels; the first floor room is spanned by a segmental arch, which suggests this may previously have been the location of a stair. The basement has brick steps, brick-lined walls and brick-vaulted ceilings.

History

Leicester is one of the oldest settlements in England and its origins can be traced back at least to the Iron Age. There is significant remaining evidence of the Roman settlement particularly on the east bank of the River Soar where the bath house and palaestra at Jewry wall represent the only standing remains of Ratae Corieltauvorum and one of the largest standing pieces of Roman civilian building in the country. However, there is little known of the settlement between the Roman departure and the medieval period.

In the Middle Ages, Leicester became an increasingly important urban centre. William the Conqueror ordered the construction of the first motte and bailey castle in the late C11. This was later rebuilt in stone and the great hall survives containing one of the finest medieval interiors in the country. The city became closely associated with Simon De Montfort who became the Lord of the Town in 1281, and one of the city’s two universities is named after him. The town also became closely linked to the royal family through the earldoms of Leicester and Lancaster, which were joined under one person, Robert Beaumont, in the late C14. This led to further expansion and prosperity in the late-middle and early-modern periods.

The town also became a focus for religious devotion, with an area next to the Castle known as the Newarke, being the location for a collegiate church as well as other religious centres. After his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the body of King Richard III was brought to the town and buried in the church of the Greyfriars, a Franciscan abbey which tradition has it had been founded by De Montfort in the late C13. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey died at Leicester Abbey in 1530 on his way to face trial in London and was buried there. Other major individuals to be associated with the city include Robert Dudley, who was made Earl of Leicester by Elizabeth I.

The church of Greyfriars was destroyed in 1538, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The site was sold and a manor house built with an associated estate. Both the monastic buildings and the location of Richard’s tomb were lost by the late C17. The manor belonged to Alderman Robert Herrick and remained in the family until the early C18 when it was sold to Thomas Pares. The former Greyfriars precinct was then divided with a new thoroughfare, called New Street laid north-south across it. The street plan more generally continues to resemble that of the medieval borough, although street names have changed, with the boundaries of the precinct on the whole respected.

Throughout the early C18 the two parts of the estate were gradually parcelled and sold for development. It was in the Georgian period that the wider Greyfriars estate was developed, primarily as residences for the professional and polite classes. Many of the remaining buildings date to that period and are domestic in both scale and character. Industry did encroach at the fringes and commercial activities and industry such as hosiery appear on the 1888 map of the area. Latterly the area became the legal centre for Leicester and many of the buildings were converted into offices. The manor house was demolished in 1872 although its garden remained unencumbered of development, as did that of 17 Friar Lane. Both became car parks in the C20.

Leicester itself became an industrial centre following the construction of the Grand Union Canal, which linked the town to London and Birmingham at the end of the C18. By 1800 the population had reached over 17,000 and continued to grow throughout the C19. The first railway arrived in the 1830s and Leicester was linked to the mainline network by the 1840s, which allowed for significant industrial expansion. The major industries were textiles, hosiery and footwear. The size of Leicester increased dramatically at this time and many surviving medieval and early-modern buildings in the Greyfriars area were either replaced or refaced in brick. The C19 also saw the construction of several large schools in the area.

Although the city faced significant economic and social challenges in the C20 it remains a vibrant urban centre and is now known as one of the most culturally diverse cities in Britain. The Greyfriars area has been the focus of international attention and economic investment since the remarkable discovery of the remains of Richard III under a council car park in 2012 and his re-burial in the Cathedral in 2015. Resultant extensive research and archaeological investigation led to the scheduling of the former monastic site in December 2017 (see List entry 1442955) and the renaming of the Guildhall / Cathedral Conservation Area to Greyfriars Conservation Area.

2 New Street was built as a private residence around 1750, in a prominent location at the corner of New Street and Friar Lane. In the late C18 and early C19 the house was successively occupied by a surgeon, solicitor, physician and doctor of medicine, and remained a private residence until the mid-1860s. Sarah Nunneley appears as the owner of 2 New Street as early as 1831, and the 1861 census records her sister Elizabeth as resident with her three servants. By the mid-C19 New Street had become the centre of Leicester’s legal professions, and from around 1867 2 New Street became used as a ‘house and counting house’, serving as the offices of the county court which was across the road at 30 Friar Lane. The building remained in use as solicitors’ offices until 1903, after which it was purchased by architect Stockdale Harrison and solicitor Henry Flude. The building became tenanted by accountants, and by 1916 the building was home to various war relief charities. The first barristers to lease accommodation at 2 New Street arrived in 1922, and shared the offices with no less than seven other tenants, including the Leicester Women’s Conservative and Unionist Association, an auctioneer, a solicitor, two yarn agents, a boot and shoe machinery agent, and an oil merchant. 2 New Street is shown as offices on the 1944 Goad Map, and as offices of the Royal Exchange Association insurance company on the 1961 Goad Map. It was not until 1966 that the barristers’ chambers occupied the whole of the building, and it has remained in the same use since.

Reasons for Listing

2 New Street, a former house built around 1750, now barristers’ chambers, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* it is a good example of a mid-C18 town house with a pleasingly proportioned composition and subtle classical detailing that relieves its relatively austere architectural character, typical of such houses during this period.

Historic interest:
* it is located within a significant historic townscape, developed within the precinct of the C13 Franciscan friary known as Greyfriars, and makes a notable contribution to its rich architectural character and historic evolution.

Group value:
* it is surrounded by many designated assets with which it has strong group value, especially the scheduled Greyfriars to the north, and the Grade II-listed 4-8 New Street to the north, 23-27 Friar Lane to the east, and 18-28 Friar Lane and 2 Wycliffe Street to the south-east.

External Links

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