40 Friar Lane, Leicester, City of Leicester

Summary

A former Turkish Baths, dating to 1872 in the Venetian Gothic style, built to the designs of John Breedon Everard, now in use as offices.

Description

A former Turkish Baths, dating to 1872 in the Venetian Gothic style, built to the designs of John Breedon Everard, now in use as offices.

PLAN: the building has a near-square footprint. It formerly took up almost the full width of the block between Friar Lane and Millstone lane, but half of the building was demolished in the mid C20.

MATERIALS: the building is constructed in red brick with ashlar dressings. It has a slate roof.

DESCRIPTION: the principal elevation of the building is to the north west and is of three storeys and seven bays. There is a two-leaf panelled door to the far right with a round-headed fanlight and hood, which has simple moulding and acanthus detailed brackets. A later doorway has been inserted into a former window in the fourth bay from the left. There are two plate glass sashes between the doors and three two-over-two sashes to the left of the newer opening. The openings on the first and second floor above follow the same rhythm of irregularly spaced openings. There is a decorative terracotta panel below the window of the third bay and an ashlar string course. Three later flat-roofed dormers pierce the brick parapet at regular intervals. The windows are set in segmental headed openings with ashlar keystones. The rainwater goods have been removed from the elevation.

INTERIOR: the front of the building contains offices on the ground floor which are accessed through the later doorway. Beyond that the main Venetian Gothic octagonal bathing hall remains. The space is double height with a central open hall with side passages and a mezzanine on the southern side. It has 8 marble and granite columns, standing on moulded ashlar bases, supporting finely carved capitals decorated with acanthus leaves, flowers and insects. These support 8 pointed arches with white and black masonry detailing, and a further 8 larger interlocking moulded ashlar arches with complex vaulted ribs decorated with dog-tooth and brick infill. Above is a large octagonal lantern, with eight pointed windows containing stained glass. The roof is a polychromatic chevroned brick vault with masonry ribs supported on stub columns which are interspaced with the windows. Some of the vaulted passages which lead off the main hall have brick arches supported on finely carved ornate capitals. At the rear of the space is a now blocked up doorway which formerly led to the heating rooms. The walls retain ceramic tiling. Below the hall is a large brick-lined cellar which mirrors the layout of the hall above with a main central space and side passages. The supporting columns have shaped detailing along their shafts. There are former doorways now blocked with breeze-block which led to the now demolished part of the building.

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-medieval 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 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 at this time. 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 King 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 (Schedule entry 1442955) and the renaming of the Guildhall/Cathedral Conservation Area to Greyfriars.

The Turkish Bath at 40 Friar Lane was built in the early 1870s and was originally nearly double the size of the current building. When it opened it was one of two Turkish Baths in the area, the other located in nearby New Street. The Baths were originally managed by John Drake and then had several proprietors during the rest of the C19. It closed in 1903, although it then reopened in 1908 under the management of Hardington and Elliot. The baths closed again and for good after the First World War. In 1960 the Leicester Law Library took over the building, the cooling room being used for the main library space. The building was divided and the rear section which contained the heating rooms has since been demolished. The remaining building became offices after the Law Library vacated it, and remains in use as such. The cooling hall itself had been subdivided with the insertion of a floor, but this has been removed by the current owner.

The architect of the Baths, John Breedon Everard (1844-1923) was born in Groby, Leicestershire. He was the son of a mine and quarry owner, Breedon Everard. In 1862, he was articled to John Brown, a partner in Messrs Brown and Jeffcock, a firm of civil and mining engineers based in South Yorkshire. He then worked on the Midland Railway before establishing his own practice as a civil engineer in Leicester in 1868 with a particular focus on civic water supply. Everard was elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1870, a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1886, and a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1887. He was also President of the Leicestershire Society of Architects. By the end of the century he was in partnership with Samuel Perkins Pick another architect and engineer of note. The firm continues in practice as Pick Everard. Everard is well represented on the National Heritage List for England, see for example the Church of St Peter in Coalville which he designed as a memorial to his parents (List entry 1295209), and buildings at the Cropston Reservoir Water Works complex (List entries 1074630 and 1178122).

Reasons for Listing

40 Friar Lane, dating to 1872 and built in the Gothic style to the design of J B Everard, is Listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for the quality of the design and construction of the former heating hall which is a highly decorative and visually arresting space.

Historic interest:
* as a design by J B Everard who is one of the most distinguished and noted architects of the area, part of a large and notable family and whose works are well represented on the National Heritage List for England;
* as an example of the many Turkish Baths built at the time, one of two built in the Greyfriars area in the latter C19.

External Links

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