11 New Street, Leicester, City of Leicester

Summary

Mid-C18 town house, converted into flats in the late C20/ early C21.

Description

Mid-C18 house.

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

PLAN: 11 New Street is positioned in a row of terraced buildings facing west onto New Street. It has a U-shaped plan consisting of the original main range and rear north wing, and a south wing added in the mid-C20.

EXTERIOR: the three-storey house has a symmetrical façade with a low plinth and moulded wooden eaves cornice. It is three window bays wide with splayed outer bays. The fenestration consists of eight-over-eight pane sash windows in moulded cases under cambered gauged brick arches. The first-floor sills form a continuous band. The central bay is dominated by a stone Tuscan porch with a panelled frieze and moulded cornice. The fanlight has delicate wrought iron glazing bars in the form of an arch with fanned segments. The six-panel door is not original.

INTERIOR: this has been converted into flats but still retains some historic features. The front door opens into a small hall with red and green tiles which leads to a stair with winders at the first turn, a closed string and turned balusters supporting a moulded handrail. There are two plain wooden fireplace surrounds (with blocked openings) on the ground and second floor; a more elaborate stone fireplace of mid-C19 date with a semicircular arched opening and attached shafts to the jambs; and a simple fireplace of exposed wood with a chevron pattern to the frieze, of probable early C20 date. A window on the rear range retains a pair of panelled shutters which open and shut on runners. The brick vaulted cellar has alcoves and storage shelves.

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.

11 New Street was built as a house in the mid-C18 when New Street was laid out and the site was subdivided for development. It is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1888 with an L-shaped plan, the principal range facing west onto New Street with a rear north wing. The map regression shows that between 1954 and 1966 a rear extension was built on the south side. The building was later used as offices, certainly by the mid-C20 when it is labelled as such on the 1944 Goad map. Around 1998 the rear wing to the south was mostly demolished, surviving as garden walls. 11 New Street has since been converted into flats.

Reasons for Listing

11 New Street, a mid-C18 town house converted into flats in the late C20/ early C21, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a good example of a mid-C18 town house with its splayed projecting end bays and handsome classical doorcase creating a well-proportioned composition.

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 west, 13 New Street to the north, and 12, 12a and 14 New Street to the west.

External Links

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