16 New Street, Leicester, City of Leicester

Summary

C18 town house.

Description

C18 town house.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond with brick dressings and a Swithland slate roof covering.

PLAN: the house faces east onto New Street and has an approximately square plan. 2-4 Peacock Lane, an L-shaped building adjoining it on the north side, is not included in the listing.

EXTERIOR: the three-storey house has a shallow hipped roof with three tall, wide chimney stacks. The New Street façade has brick string courses at first and second floor levels. The entrance on the right-hand side has an early C19 doorcase with a deep cornice hood supported by shaped brackets above which are square corner blocks. The four-panel front door and jambs, which date to the 1930s, have central circular panels. The overlight, of the same date, has metal glazing bars in a diamond pattern. The rest of the ground floor is blind. The first floor is lit by a large round-arch, six-over-six pane sash window with radial glazing bars, which lights the staircase. This is flanked by six-over-six pane sashes under segmental brick arches of headers. The second floor is lit by four three-over-six pane sashes. The windows are set flush in the wall and the majority of them have been reconditioned during the recent conversion. The left hand side of the elevation continues southwards to form a short stretch of wall, at ground-floor height, with tiled coping. The section of wall which then continues westwards is of recent date and not included in the listing.

On the left-hand return (south elevation), the ground and first floors are built out with a segmental bow on the right. This is lit on each floor by three tall six-over-six pane sashes under gauged brick arches, probably of early C19 date, except for the central aperture on the ground floor which contains a modern French door. There is another to the left and a first-floor sash window directly above. To the left of the built-out bay is a six-over-six pane sash on the ground and first floor. The second floor is lit by four widely-spaced three-over-six pane sashes, also under gauged brick arches.

INTERIOR: this retains its original configuration of four rooms to each floor. Many of the high quality decorative features, including a good many fireplaces and items of joinery survive, with the exception of some of the doors which were replaced during the recent conversion. The entrance hall is dominated by an impressive open well stair with two quarter turns and a cut string with raised ornamental tread ends. The flat-section steel balustrade supports a moulded handrail which is sharply ramped up to the newel posts, some of which are fluted, with square blocks and flat square caps. The corner posts on the moulded dado are also fluted.

The principal ground floor rooms are on the south side overlooking the garden. Along with the principal rooms on the first floor, they retain moulded skirting boards and decorative cornices, and some six-panel doors in moulded doorcases. The rooms with the segmental bay have panelled shutters and very handsome marble fireplaces with corner roundels. The ground-floor fireplace is of yellow marble with a segmental arch cast iron insert and basket, and that on the first floor is of grey marble with an ornamental basket grate and fireback embellished with an acanthus leaf design. The second-floor rooms were probably partly for servants and are generally plainer but still have attractive fireplaces with timber surrounds, some with corner roundels, and decorative cast iron hobgrates or baskets.

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 to 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.

16 New Street was probably built when New Street was laid out in the mid-C18 and the site was subdivided for development. Some alterations took place in the early C19 including the addition of the segmental curved bay on the south side. The door case possibly also dates to this period but the door and fanlight were changed in the 1930s. Street directories show that for many years, from at least 1840, 16 New Street was the home of Dr George Shaw, an important figure in the Victorian town who had moved there from Manchester. In an attempt to bridge the often bitter political and denominational divides in Leicester he joined with Alfred Paget and others to form the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1835. The Society was instrumental in founding the Museum in New Walk and had strong links with the foundation of the University of Leicester. Shaw served as Chairman or President five times, the last in 1885-86 to mark the Society’s 50th anniversary. He is listed at 16 New Street in the 1888 Kelly’s Directory after which Miss Eliza Flude lived at the property, by now with mainly commercial neighbours. Miss Catherine Flude is listed in Kelly’s Directory from 1908 to 1922, after which, like the properties around it, 16 New Street changed to commercial use for a cluster of small business concerns. In the 1930s Peacock Lane was widened and numbers 2-4 were built as an extension to 16 New Street to the design of architects Cowdell and Bryan. At around this time the garden of 16 New Street became a car park. The building has recently been converted into a boutique hotel which opened in 2018.

Reasons for Listing

16 New Street, an C18 town house, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a good example of a well-preserved C18 house in a restrained neoclassical style with a handsome doorcase, elegant staircase window, and internal fixtures, fittings and joinery of a high quality;

* the staircase is a particularly handsome example in which the finely crafted fluted newel posts are strikingly contrasted with the geometrically arranged metal balustrade;

* a good number of fireplaces survive, some with elegant marble surrounds and highly decorative iron grates, which, along with other original features including window shutters, moulded cornices and panelled doors, represent a Georgian interior of some status and distinction;

* the floor plan has survived with very little modification.

Historic interest:

* it is associated with the notable Leicester resident Dr George Shaw who was a founder member of the city’s Literary and Philosophical Society;

* it is located within a significant historic townscape, developed along the northern edge of the precinct to the C13 Franciscan friary known as Greyfriars and making 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 south; the Grade II* listed St Martins Church to the north-west; and 6 and 8 St Martins, a range of Grade II listed C19 buildings to the east.

External Links

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