LEICESTER CITIZEN THE JOURNAL OF LEICESTER CIVIC SOCIETY www.leicestercivicsociety.org.uk Leicester Castle as you will not have seen it for the last nine hundred years. Our artist s impression of a Norman keep in timber, erected on the Castle Mound as it would have been shortly following the Norman Conquest. This is only one of our bright ideas for upgrading the whole area of Leicester Castle as a major tourist attraction, educational resource and focus of pride in our City. As such it would be the only replica keep on an original mound outside Normandy. But the idea is not without its critics. What do you think? No.15 April 2008 LEICESTER CASTLE. BOWSTRING BRIDGE. PUMP & TAP. MARKET PLACE MOSAIC. SILVER ARCADE. 2007 AWARDS. TEMPERANCE HOTEL. GIMSON HOUSES. STATUE OF LIBERTY. BRAUNSTONE HALL. ALL SAINTS BREWERY. JEMSOX FACTORY. TALBOT LANE. BELGRAVE ROAD. NEW WALK & THE GEORGIAN NEW TOWN. LLANGOLLEN TOUR. ANOTHER EVENING WITH OLWEN HUGHES. NOTTINGHAM AWAYDAY. CIVIL WAR. PLUS REGULAR FEATURES AND MUCH MORE.
LEICESTER CIVIC SOCIETY Founded 1971 President J.B. JOSEPHS MA (Oxon.) Vice-President The Very Reverend Alan Warren MA Provost Emeritus of Leicester REGISTERED WITH THE CIVIC TRUST REGISTERED CHARITY No. 502932 MEMBER OF THE EAST MIDLANDS ASSOCIATION OF CIVIC SOCIETIES CHAIRMAN: STUART BAILEY: 48 Meadow Avenue, Loughborough LE11 1JT. 01509-520904. chairman@leicestercivicsociety.org.uk VICE-CHAIRMAN & CONSERVATION OFFICER (LEICESTER CENTRAL, NORTH & WEST) DEREK HOLLINGWORTH: Arbroath Cottage, 21 The Newarke, Castle Park, Leicester LE2 7BY. 0116-254-7820. vicechairman@leicestercivicsociety.org.uk HON. SECRETARY & CONSERVATION OFFICER (LEICESTER SOUTH & EAST - Aylestone Village, Knighton Village, Stoneygate, New Walk, South Highfields, Evington Footpath, Evington Village, Spinney Hill Park & Old Humberstone Conservation Areas) JENNY WESTMORELAND: 358 Victoria Park Road, Leicester LE2 1XF. 0116-270- 5828. secretary@leicestercivicsociety.org.uk HON. TREASURER & MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: GORDON GOODE: 53 Cort Crescent Leicester, LE3 1QJ. 0116-285-6620 treasurer@leicestercivicsociety.org.uk & COMMITTEE MEMBERS: WEBMASTER: BEN RAVILIOUS. webmaster@leicestercivicsociety.org.uk SOCIETY ARCHIVIST: JENNIFER MACGREGOR. archivist@leicestercivicsociety.org.uk LIZ MURPHY. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ANGERED BY THE THREATS TO OUR HERITAGE? TELL YOUR FRIENDS - GET THEM TO JOIN. THERE S A LOT HAPPENING IN LEICESTER CIVIC SOCIETY - IT PAYS TO BE A MEMBER. CREDITS: Leicester Museums, Tony McAllister, Ian Johnson, Mark Neal, Bill Price, Karen Green, Brian Goodwin, Status Architecture & Planning, Nick Knight, Sir Peter Soulsby, John Rutter, Llangollen Railway. LEICESTER CITIZEN: Editorial Team: Stuart Bailey, Simon Harris, Gordon Goode. The opinions expressed in LEICESTER CITIZEN are not necessarily those of the editors or Leicester Civic Society
EVENTS DIARY Saturday 19th April: EAST MIDLANDS ASSOCIATION OF CIVIC SOCIETIES: 7 th Annual General Meeting with Dronfield Civic Society, Derbyshire. Members welcome. Contact Stuart Bailey for details if you want to join us Saturday 19 th April: HEROES! St. George - and his dragon - amongst others. Heroic fun for all the family at the Jewry Wall Museum from 11.30 to 3.30pm, with the Friends of the Museum. Admission free. See the leaflet. Saturday 3 rd May: Guided Walk: NEW WALK & THE GEORGIAN NEW TOWN : Re-live the elegance of The Regency. See advertisement and bookings page for full details. Tuesday 6 th May 7.30pm: Society General Meeting. Secular Hall. Members welcome. Saturday 17 th May: SUMMER COACH TOUR to LLANGOLLEN. Liable to be very popular. Discounts for members. See advertisement and bookings page for full details. Book now. Tuesday 20 th May 7.15 to 9.15pm: Secular Hall. 37 th Annual General Meeting - Interval with wine - followed by Gordon Goode s DELIGHTS OF OLD LEICESTER. See Official Notice. Tuesday 3rd June 7.30pm: Society General Meeting. Secular Hall. Members welcome. Thursday 19 th June 7.15pm: AN EVENING WITH OLWEN HUGHES: Visit her lovely home in Stoneygate as the guest of renowned artist Olwen Hughes. Members only. Advance booking is essential. See the advertisement and the bookings page. Saturday 28th June: EASTMACS: THE NOTTINGHAM AWAYDAY : Tours of the 1928 Art Deco Council House and the splendours of Elizabethan Wollaton Hall. See the leaflet for full details. Tuesday 1st July 7.30pm: Society General Meeting. Secular Hall. Members welcome. Saturday 5 th July: New Guided Walk: CIVIL WAR : Leicester as you would rather not re-live it! See advertisement and bookings page for details. Saturday 12 th July: ROMANS REVEALED. Jewry Wall Museum. Celebrate National Archaeology Week in classical style.11.30 to 4.00pm. Admission Free. Saturday 19 th July: EASTMACS Meeting at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire as the guests of Wellingborough Civic Society. Members welcome. Contact Stuart Bailey for details if you want to join us. Tuesday 5 th August 7.30pm: Society General Meeting. Secular Hall. Members welcome.
The Chairman s Page Alas - I have been pushed ignominiously onto the fourth page. At least it s in the good cause of bringing you a twenty page Journal for the first time. But what - I hear you say - are they going to put into this massive publication? The good news is that we are doing more than ever for our members and it takes more space to advertise a summer packed with so many events. The bad news is that this is Leicester and much of our historic built environment is under threat as never before. A tsunami of low level and invariably poor quality, regeneration is spilling out from Leicester s regeneration heartlands and is swamping historic buildings in areas of the City hitherto deemed relatively safe from the depredations of the developer. You will be able to read about and share my mounting horror at what is happening. Many of you will have read vague items in the Leicester Mercury about proposals for a Cathedral Square by the Cathedral authorities and for a dramatic rethink on London Road Station by Leicester Regeneration Co. These are initiatives that it would be good to think the Civic Society could welcome and support. Though to date there has been no consultation on either, I promise you that I shall be working to ensure that we are not only consulted but have a practical input at the early stages. However later you will be able to read just how limited consultation has been over the Castle proposals with the City Council s consultants. I have witnessed three remarkable things in Leicester over the last six months. In October, angry residents of Glenfield Road, supported by angry members of this society, literally took to the streets over the threat to the Gimson Houses. The placards read Save Leicester s Heritage. In December angry regulars at the Pump & Tap, supported by angry members of this society, took to Duns Lane to protest over the planned destruction of the pub and the monumental Bowstring Bridge nearby. In March angry members of the Victorian Society, supported by angry members of the Civic Society marched down Granby Street over the threat to Thomas Cook s Temperance Hotel. The placards read Protest March. What result these protests have had you will able to read about later. My point is that only a few years ago such physical protest would have been quite unthinkable. Angry letters would have been written, fists would have thumped tables at meetings but public protest in the street would have been unheard of. Clearly the people of Leicester are now saying enough is enough! Our historic buildings are constantly under threat from greedy developers, egged on by Planners and Councillors who don t care - or who quite clearly don t care enough - about the historic built environment of our City. Over the coming months the protests will no doubt continue and Leicester Civic Society will be doing its level best to ensure that they do continue wherever and whenever necessary. Those who doubt me should read on. Developers, Councillors and Planners - you have been warned; the people of Leicester are increasingly up in arms over your schemes. Ignore the people at your peril. Last year members expressed a wish that we make more of an event out of our Annual General Meeting. We have responded to this and are endeavouring to turn the evening into more of a relaxed event, were I can hopefully meet and talk with as many of you as possible. I look forward to seeing you there. Stuart Bailey
EVENTS PAST & FUTURE ANNUAL DINNER 7 th December: A crowd of us had a jolly good time. Many thanks to Gordon Goode for organising this event yet again. It is now time for a change and we are looking for a January 2009 dinner at a suburban village location. The dinners that John Burrows organised in Humberstone Village were amongst the best attended in years. So now let s have another village. - Volunteer(s) please. REGENERATION IN LEICESTER 18 th March: John Nicholls told us in no uncertain terms that economic regeneration funds rescue and reuse of the historic built environment. We agreed unless it helps to destroy it first of course. The large number of members who turned up enjoyed an excellent, thought-provoking evening. Thank you to John. HEROES! Saturday 19 th April: Family fun as the Friends of Jewry Wall Museum celebrate St. Georges Day in inimitable style. A lot of fuss is made about England not celebrating its national saint s day. But in Leicester we do things properly. 11.30 to 3.30pm. Admission free. NEW WALK & THE GEORGIAN NEW TOWN. Saturday 3 rd May: A welcome return for one of our most popular guided walks. See advertisement and bookings page for details. LLANGOLLEN Saturday 17 th May: Summer Coach Tour. There is plenty to see and do in Llangollen. You also get to visit Telford s amazing River in the air with a guide who has taken his own boat on it and who will be attempting to give you the correct pronunciation in Welsh! This is proving a very popular tour. Regulars who have not yet booked should be aware that due to the March mail drop, at the time of going to print (26 th March) there are only 14 seats left. See the advertisement and the bookings page - and book now to avoid disappointment. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Tuesday 20 th May: After the formal bit we can relax over a glass of wine and be entertained by some more of Gordon Goode s Delights of Old Leicester. See you all there! AN EVENING WITH OLWEN HUGHES Thursday 19 th June: Following the success of last November s talk, Olwen Hughes has invited Society members to spend a summer evening in her lovely Stoneygate home, A Victorian Evening in a Victorian House. Members only and advance booking essential. See the advertisement and the bookings page. THE NOTTINGHAM AWAYDAY Saturday 28th June: Following the success of last year s Awayday in Buxton, Nottingham Civic Society welcome us to the second city of the region (!) Tours of the 1928 Art Deco Council House and the splendours of Elizabethan Wollaton Hall will make this a bumper bargain day out not to be missed. See the leaflet for full details. CIVIL WAR Saturday 5 th July: It wasn t all cavaliers and roundheads dashing about in colourful costumes. This was a nasty Civil War. A lot of people were killed and Leicester was besieged, stormed and badly damaged. Find out more on our new guided walk that will follow the fighting from The Newarke to St. Martins. See the advertisement and bookings page for details. ROMANS REVEALED Saturday 12 th July: Celebrate National Archaeology Week. Find more out about recent excavations in Leicester. See the finds. Meet the archaeologists. Take a Grand Tour of the Roman Baths. Jewry Wall Museum 11.30 to 4.00pm. Admission is free. See the advertisement for details. THE NATIONAL TRAMWAY MUSEUM, ARKWRIGHT MILLS AND MUCH MORE! Saturday 6 th September: Late Summer Tour. Industrial Heritage in the glorious Derbyshire Dales. Trams, Mills, Canals & Pump Houses. Advance bookings open on the Llangollen Tour, or see Leicester Citizen No.16 due out in August, or the web site for full details. ROMAN LEICESTER Saturday 27 th September: Another favourite walk returns. Roman Leicester sold out last time. See Leicester Citizen No.16 due out in August, or the web site for full details.
BUILDINGS AT RISK Feedback from the article in last December s Leicester Citizen clearly indicated that members want to see this as a regular feature with the Society s register of buildings at risk, rather than waiting for the annual register published by English Heritage. The English Heritage register only counts the 8% of buildings listed as Grade 1 or Grade 2-Star, ignoring the 92% listed Grade 2. Leicester City Council does not maintain a register of Grade 2 listed buildings at risk. Or do they? We have recently received a copy of the East Midlands Regional Plan Annual Monitoring Report 2006/07, published February 2008. To compile these reports, civil servants working for the East Midlands Regional Assembly bombard local planning authorities throughout the region for facts and figures, and Section Five Environment, has a table of Grade 2 Buildings at Risk. The figures for Leicester show 20 at risk for 2005/06 out of 373 (5.4%) and 23 at risk for 2006/07 out of 338. (6.8%) You will note instantly that we seem to have lost 35 listed buildings in one year, a remarkable achievement even for Leicester. This would seem to indicate the figures are suspect and concocted as a reply to the Regional Assembly over two separate years and without reference to each other. In any event our register extends to both the Local Interest List and other prominent buildings in Conservation Areas. LEICESTER CASTLE Listed Grade 1 and a Scheduled Ancient Monument, the Great Hall and John O Gaunt s Cellar continue to languish in obscurity and decline after the contractor employed to conduct minimal repairs, went broke eleven years ago. The City Council has taken an extra year to appoint consultants to advise on restoration, now put at about 12M. There was much recent publicity about their commitment to the Castle as an important complex of historic buildings and a potential major tourist attraction. When the County Council said they might put money into the Castle the City Council said they might match this or might put even more money up front. (Note the repeated use of a certain word) Anyway our Vice- Chairman Derek Hollingworth was given some alternative dates to meet the consultants and armed himself with lots of bright ideas. However the last date came and went. Derek queried what was happening, only to be told Oh the consultants have gone now. So much for consultation! We do however hold to the following as basic principles: a) Restoration of the Castle Buildings, Great Hall, John O Gaunt s Cellar and houses on Castle View as a Museum of Saxon, Norman and Medieval Leicester to compliment the Newark Houses Museum and to allow Jewry Wall Museum the space to concentrate on the Roman collections. b) A physical link between these buildings, the Castle Mound and Castle Gardens. c) Construction of a replica wooden Keep on the Castle Mound. This would be a part of the Museum complex and the only such replica outside Northern France. A somewhat fanciful vision of the Norman Castle as first built. Leicester Museums
TAKE ACTION: 1. See our campaign page on the web site www.leicestercivicsociety.org.uk and find out what you can do to help secure a better future for Leicester Castle - and keep up the pressure. 2. Sign our online petition. 3. Get others to do the same. 4. Write to Councillor Kitterick as Lead Cabinet Member for Regeneration. 5. Contact your local MP. There are some excellent comments on the petition. Tony McAllister says: Leicester City Council needs to think more about the City's glorious heritage and re-direct more resources to preserving its history & giving the citizens of Leicester tourist & historical attractions that they can have pride in. Why can't Leicester Castle keep be a major attraction? Why does the Castle area have to remain unseen & only open on a few occasions yearly? BOWSTRING BRIDGE & THE PUMP AND TAP Well December came and went and still no footpath stopping-up order. The City Council has now given itself an extension to the temporary order. A temporary order is under the control of the Council as Local Highway Authority. It has to be for a set period and when it expires the Right of Way is automatically reinstated. In addition the Council may do nothing whilst it is in force to permanently jeopardise the Right of Way. A permanent order is applied for by the Council and is then entirely a matter for the Government Office for the East Midlands (GOEM) who will advertise on site and prominently in the local press. Once so advertised you will have one month to object. We strongly suspect that the City Council is getting cold feet over this whole destructive project. The level of protest is likely to be enormous - thousands - and De Montfort University are feeling the financial pinch due to the high costs of their ongoing schemes. The Civic Society supports DMU in the concept of a new central swimming baths but Duns Lane is clearly the wrong location. TAKE ACTION: 1. Please join with the Civic Society and local residents in fighting to save the Bowstring Bridge and The Pump & Tap Pub. 2. See our campaign page on the web site www.leicestercivicsociety.org.uk and find out what you can do to help. 3. Be prepared to object to the Footpath Stopping Up Order we need all of you to take action. 4. Support local direct action at the pub. 5. Sign our online petition. 6. Get others to do the same. 7. Write and protest to Councillor Kitterick as Lead Cabinet Member for Regeneration. 8. Write and protest to the Head of Estates at DMU at his office in Southgates House and copy in the Pro Vice-Chancellor at his office in the Newarke. 9. Write to your local MP. Keep up the pressure! There are very many extremely good comments on the petition: Ian Johnson writes: The City Council has no regard for our historical heritage. The citizens of Leicester do care but their council is not listening. So much for Leicester City Council working for you. They should remember that they are public servants not our masters! The bridge neglect and the proposed demolition are just more vandalism inflicted upon this once great City by the people who should be its guardians. De Montfort University should be ashamed of themselves for thinking so little of the importance of Leicester s industrial legacy. Why not set this up as a challenge for its budding student architects to implement the bridge and the old brewery. De Montfort have already shown it lacks imagination and sensitivity to Leicester s historical past with the box monstrosity of a building that they have put up at the Newarke - with more to follow no doubt. Mark Neal says: Even in my short life span of 28 years I have seen many older buildings been ripped down only to see identikit hideous sites replace them! This needs to stop and we need to keep what heritage we have left in Leicester alive! The same goes for the Pump and Tap where I have been going for many years, its nice to go to somewhere where you can relax and enjoy a drink with friends and girlfriends without all the pretentiousness of the new city centre bars! Bill Price writes: As an ex-engineer I can assure you that this wonderful Bridge is very serviceable and should not be pulled down. Lobby Councillors - give them a hard time. They are elected to represent the people of Leicester, if they don t listen then don t vote for them again. There are literally hundreds more comments such as these. Thank you all for your continuing support.
LEICESTER CIVIC SOCIETY SATURDAY 3rd MAY 2008 NEW WALK & THE GEORGIAN NEW TOWN A Guided Walk by Stuart Bailey From Welford Place at 10.30am Cost: 2.50 Followed by lunch in the Marquis of Wellington SEE THE BOOKINGS PAGE. Other guided walks in the series include, Ancient Leicester Part 1, Ancient Leicester Part 2 Medieval Streets, Victorian Leicester, Roman Leicester, Old London Road, Around the Walls of Leicester, Leafy Leicester and Civil War. All walks can be booked for private parties of from six to twenty-four. Telephone 01509-520904. Email chairman@leicestercivicsociety.org.uk MARKET PLACE ROMAN PAVEMENT This small but important relic, left mouldering in a dirty corner of Market Place South, speaks volumes about official attitudes towards heritage in Leicester. The mosaic was found in the Cherry Orchard Roman Villa on Norfolk Street during excavations prior to construction of the Western Relief Road in the 1970 s. The disinterested response we had from Leicester Museums and the Yorkshire Bank was fairly telling. The Yorkshire Bank told us that it might be on their wall but it's nothing to do with them, as they don t own the building. Leicester Museums told us that the pavement was not theirs, may need conservators attention and that they will not accept responsibility for transport, restoration and display. We are not satisfied with this sort of response and strongly suspect that the real owners of the building occupied by the Yorkshire Bank might have a name that sounds something like either: a) Yorkshire Bank Properties, or b) Leicester City Council. We are asking the people of Leicester to join our campaign to rescue the pavement and have it housed indoors; somewhere safer and where more people can view it without the filthy old lager cans and fag packets of the Market Place. Jewry Wall Museum, the Highcross Shopping Centre and the Market Hall have all been mooted as possibilities but no one wants to make the first move for fear of having to spend money. TAKE ACTION: 1. See our campaign on the web site www.leicestercivicsociety.org.uk and find out what you can do to achieve a secure future for the Roman pavement. 2. Sign our online petition. 3. Get others to do the same. 4. Write to the Manager of the Yorkshire Bank - but he doesn t reply to letters so copy in the Customer Relations Manager, Yorkshire Bank, Clydesdale Bank Exchange, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB as well. (By the way the Yorkshire is part of a group now owned by the National Australia Bank in Melbourne and we don t mean Derbyshire. So you will have to go a long way to find their Chairman. Though given their muchtrumpeted environmental policy, it might just be worth it) 5. Write to Leicester Museums. 6. Write to the City Council Markets Manager. 7. Contact your local MP. Keep up the pressure. Once again there are some excellent comments in our e-petition. Karen Green writes: I have never understood why this beautiful piece of our history is left to rot where it is. It's a graffiti ridden, forgotten Roman artefact, in a place where no one notices, and drunken buffoons urinate around it to their hearts content. Shame on the 'powers that be' for not relocating it to a place where it can be safely protected for generations to come. We live in an age where our history seems to matter not, and in a town with as much history as ours; it simply beggars belief to allow such relics to fall by the wayside. Let's have this pavement protected; there is far too much emphasis on the Council patting themselves on the back for all its new creations, when a lot of us are breaking our hearts over the old!
THE SILVER ARCADE Still no news but don t let that stop you joining our continuing campaign to put pressure on owners Lukegate to restore and reopen the Silver Arcade. Put Lukegate into your search engine and you ll find the Civic Society campaign on page one! TAKE ACTION: 1. Please join with the Society in keeping up the pressure to reopen the Silver Arcade as small shops. 2. See our campaign page on www.leicestercivicsociety.org.uk and find out what you can do to help. 3. Sign our online petition. 4. Get others to do the same. There are more first-rate personal comments on the e-petition. Brian Goodwin writes: I used to love the small independent shops there and the Silver Arcade had a special feel to it, like your own personal shopping experience. It is such a shame to let such a unique and attractive building stand empty, and for no justifiable reason. There is nothing else like it in Leicester. NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Notice is hereby given of the 37 th Annual General Meeting of Leicester Civic Society to be held at the Secular Hall Leicester, on Tuesday 20 th May 2008 between 7.15pm and 8.10pm. In accordance with the Constitution of the Society, the purposes of the meeting will be: 1. To receive the Annual Reports of the Chairman & Public Relations Officer, Vice-Chairman, Hon. Secretary and Hon. Treasurer. 2. To elect a Chairman & Public Relations Officer, Vice-Chairman, Hon. Secretary and Hon. Treasurer, together with not more than nine other society members, to comprise the committee of the Society for 2008 2009. The existing Chairman & PRO Mr. S. Bailey, Vice-Chairman Mr. D. Hollingworth, Hon. Secretary Mrs. J. Westmoreland, Hon. Treasurer & Membership Secretary Mr. G. Goode, Webmaster Mr. B. Ravilious and committee member Mrs. L. Murphy have all indicated their willingness to stand. Following the resignation of Mr. K. Dickens, Mrs. J. Macgregor was co-opted onto the committee and has subsequently indicated her willingness to stand for the position of Society Archivist. There are vacancies for up to six other committee members. Any nominations for officers and other committee members must be received by the Hon. Secretary in writing with the supporting signatures of proposing and seconding members, no later than Tuesday 13th May 2008. 3. Any other business proper to the meeting. Please inform the Hon. Secretary no later than Tuesday 13th May 2008, if you wish to raise any items under this heading. The meeting will be followed by an interval of 20 minutes during which wine will be served. From 8.30 until 09.15pm Gordon Goode will present Delights of Old Leicester. Please note that whereas non-members are very welcome to attend by the interval, they may only attend the formal meeting as observers, speaking only at the discretion of the Chair and not able to vote in the proceedings. Mrs. Jenny Westmoreland Hon. Secretary 1 st April 2007.
The City Rooms, Hotel Street, Leicester. Architect John Johnson. Commenced in 1792 as a hotel the building was finally completed as Assembly Rooms in 1800. This drawing is from the 1815 edition of Nichol s History of Leicestershire. After an interval of over two centuries the current owner has now fulfilled the original hotel concept with on-suite accommodation in the rooms above the ballroom. Photo: Status Architecture & Planning 207 years after John Johnson along comes Steve Wells with something completely different. The short roof slopes face south and have solar panels for hot water supply that are not visible from the ground. Our viewing team particularly loved the semi-rural setting, a stones throw away from the busy Welford Road, and the absence of standard parts as used by the large majority of contemporary house builders.
THE 2007 CIVIC SOCIETY AWARDS Nine nominations were received for eight buildings in the 2007 awards scheme. This is more than the previous two years put together, and an encouraging sign that the scheme is now gaining in popularity after a shaky start. However four of these buildings, The frontage of London Road Station, The former Pfister & Vogel Warehouse 78-80 Rutland Street, Curve Performing Arts Centre, Rutland Street, and Knighton Croft, Knighton Road, were unfinished at the end of the year, and these nominations have now been carried over to the 2008 scheme that will be launched with the publication of Leicester Citizen No.17 in December 2008. The adjudication panel consisting of our Chairman Stuart Bailey, Vice-Chairman Derek Hollingworth and Secretary Jenny Westmoreland, made lengthy site visits throughout Saturday 24 th February. Society members Jennifer Macgregor, and Richard and Ann Allsopp - for whose input we were very grateful - joined us for parts of the day. However the final decisions were ours alone. Nominations in the New Build category were for new offices at No.1 Colton Square, adjoining St. George s Conservation Area, by Gordon McKenzie of De Novo Architecture, London, and for the Eco- Houses at 15A to 15C Church Lane, Knighton, by Steve Wells of Status Architecture, Leicester. The panel was unanimous in making an award for excellence to the Eco-Houses. We were particularly impressed by the use of a prominent site, with the houses looking into the conservation area but adding to its character in an almost rural setting. Also the massive interior dimensions made larger in appearance by an open plan ground floor, and the fact that these were seen as no barrier to committed sustainability in the design. Nominations in the Restoration category were for Delemere House, 325 London Road by Gareth Share of Kent, Porter, Warren Architects, Leicester, and The City Rooms, Hotel Street by Naresh Parmar, as owner and project manager. (Two nominations received) The panel was particularly impressed by the standard of restoration work at Delemere House, originally built in the 1920 s as a home for the Pick Family but suffering from appallingly inappropriate additions and extensions in the 1960 s and 70 s. The reuse of Swithland slates, the quality rendering and tile voussoirs were all of particular note. Notwithstanding the above the panel was however unanimous in making an award for excellence to the City Rooms. We were delighted by the painstaking effort and attention to detail lavished by Mr. Parmar as the new owner of these splendid Georgian Assembly Rooms, after several years of neglect by the previous owner, Leicester City Council. The City Rooms are listed Grade 1 and much advice has had to be taken from English Heritage, and heeded carefully. The work has involved the use of specialist contractors for restoration of the plasterwork and gold paintwork in the great ballroom, and has taken 18 months to complete. The Society is particularly pleased to welcome as its guest of honour HM Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Jennifer, Lady Gretton JP, who will present the awards at a ceremony to be held at the Belmont House Hotel, De Montfort Street on Friday 4 th April. Invitations for members to attend were issued with the spring mail drop at the end of February and the evening will be reviewed in Leicester Citizen No. 16 due to be published in August.
STONEYGATE CONSERVATION AREA SOCIETY www.stoneygateconservation.org.uk After designating Stoneygate a conservation area you might think that the City Council would possess a comprehensive collection of photographs that both record what is being conserved and help safeguard it. But you would be wrong. Happily though, this situation is soon set to change. By the end of the year, Stoneygate s unique character will be both recorded and protected against unauthorised development by a new photo database of conservation area properties. This initiative - which has evolved over the last two years - is the result of co-operation between the Council s Conservation and Culture & Regeneration Departments and the Stoneygate Conservation Area Society; helped by the support of Castle and Knighton Ward councillors and the active involvement of Sir Peter Soulsby MP. The importance of photographic evidence was highlighted by two recent enforcement cases relating to properties at 18-20 Stoneygate Avenue (see left) and 2 Knighton Park Road that were built as family homes but have since been converted into apartments. Their owners had breached planning rules by carrying out work without first seeking permission (the former) and by exceeding planning permission (the latter). Having failed to persuade the owners to reverse or modify the work themselves, the Council was compelled to issue enforcement notices that lead to appeals. The Council s argument was critically weakened by its failure to provide photographic evidence showing the buildings as they were before the work was carried out. At 2 Knighton Park Road success hinged on their ability to convince the Inspector that a side extension was constructed less than four years before the enforcement notice was issued. They couldn t, the appeal was upheld and the extension has now become a permanent feature (see right). At 18-20 Stoneygate Avenue the Council had no photographic evidence that new windows fitted without permission had replaced original timber windows panelled with highly decorative stained glass and no photographs that the owner could use to help him reinstate the destroyed features. In both cases, the Inspector s commented that if clear photographs had been available to provide conclusive, dated evidence of the buildings appearance before the changes were made, the notices would have been upheld and the appeals dismissed. A walkabout of the Stoneygate Conservation Area hosted by Sir Peter Soulsby and a photographic exhibition `Jewels and Carbuncles' gave councillors and council officers the opportunity to see some of the area s most outstanding buildings and architecture and the problems caused by unauthorised development. These were followed by a discussion examining the contribution that a photo database of conservation area properties could make to the Council s enforcement effort. The outcome was heartening. Everyone present agreed, not only on the importance of conserving Stoneygate's unique architectural legacy but also the benefit of having the photo database to underpin the City Council's ability to achieve this. It should be available to planners by the end of the year. A number of recent planning applications have related to care homes or their conversion. At the time of writing three are pending. At 4 Clarendon Park Road a second application proposing eight apartments (one fewer than before) has been submitted but still makes inadequate provision for off street parking. A second repeat application has been made to extend 31 Knighton Drive apparently to allow its future transition from care home to apartments. The latest care home-related application concerns one of the conservation area s loveliest buildings, 3-5 Knighton Park Road (see above) a pair of late-victorian villas designed in the Italianate style. A change of use to 13 apartments had already been allowed but the new application proposes conversion into four houses with a single-storey rear extension. The reversion from multiple-occupancy or social use to individual home is relatively rare so this is an interesting proposal. It appears sympathetic. The only changes visible from the street would appear to be the removal of the existing conservatory and its replacement by a side porch extension, the removal of sections of boundary wall to create separate vehicle entries for each of
the properties and shrubbery at right angles to the house to demarcate new property boundaries. There is no stated intention to create a vehicle access from Cone Lane or hard surface the rear gardens. Elsewhere Castlebeck Care Ltd has received permission to build a two-storey side extension to 13 Toller Road to accommodate an on-site laundry/staff utility area and provide further accommodation for residents while work has commenced on the site of the Signature Senior Lifestyle development at South Lodge, 307 London Road Infill development has been another theme. Permission has recently been given to build single houses in gardens at 5 Southernhay Road, 34 Springfield Road and 14 Woodland Avenue. The proposed building at the latter site can be viewed online and looks interesting. Such development has been ongoing in Stoneygate since the Great War and these days results from many factors; increases in land values, lifestyle preferences for more manageable gardens and central government house building targets. On this small-scale, it is often done well, as can be seen at 10 Beechcroft Road. On a larger scale two applications are pending. An amended plan has been submitted by David Wilson Homes to build 24 dwellings together with new vehicular access and associated parking and landscaping at 7 Stanley Road. An application has been made by Eastern Range Ltd to develop the plot left empty by the demolition of the Christian Science Reading Room at 22 Knighton Park Road. The proposal is for 2 X 3- and 4-storey blocks of 10 apartments and 4 townhouses. Two other applications pending are worthy of mention. The first is a proposal to convert 75 Clarendon Park Road into apartments, adding a new two-storey rear extension and separate `coach house to provide twelve dwellings on the site together with car parking spaces on what is currently a rear garden. The second is a proposal to extend the Hindu Religious & Cultural Centre on Clarendon Park Road by replacing the existing print works at 7 Portland Road with a two-storey extension for use as a dining room and reading room. This building was outside the Conservation Area when permission was granted for the recently built entrance porch and shikaras but was brought into the Conservation Area at the same time as the Article 4 legislation was ratified last year. New elevations are likely to have a marked and lasting impact on the Portland Road street scene. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TEMPERANCE HOTEL MORE BUILDINGS AT RISK Hurrah for the Victorian Society! The protest march was a big success. One hundred marchers attracted much needed publicity for the fate of Thomas Cook s Hotel. We can only hope that the worsening economic climate, coupled with a level of protest continuing has high as ever over twelve months after planning permission as gained, will lead to the developers backing out of this wantonly destructive scheme in the Granby Street Conservation Area. The Civic Society will continue to do its bit to back protest. GIMSON HOUSES Well - the local residents won and the Civic Society is very proud and pleased to have been of assistance with this remarkable example of people power. The real heroes are however Eastern Counties Housing Association for having the courage to pull out of an unpopular scheme despite the blessing of the City Council. The Association could have demolished the houses in a few short hours, and with complete impunity. Planning permission should now be granted to a new owner who wishes to retain the houses, and we can all breath easier. STATUE OF LIBERTY Still no action - and it s still in its skip! Hammersons were interested at one point, with a view to relocating the statue in the new Highcross Shopping Centre. But things have gone ominously quiet. BRAUNSTONE HALL Leicester City Council continues to make excitable noises about the Hall being the perfect investment opportunity. But the awful truth is that no one wants to take on an eighteenth century country house with such a mammoth backlog of maintenance and restoration accumulated by its current owner!
ALL SAINTS BREWERY The brewery buildings are an important part of the All Saint s Conservation Area - if only by virtue of being one of the very few parts of the conservation area left intact. The Civic Society had been campaigning since 1990 to have a conservation area declared, but only when the houses opposite All Saints Church fell down through neglect (No.150 was listed) did the City Council take action. Too little too late! Sadly history seems to be repeating itself. The brewery stands along the entire north side of the ancient churchyard. It possesses an excellent early 19 th Century manager s house, typical of brewery houses of the period. (One in Birmingham City Centre has been lovingly restored) Also a splendid dray way surfaced in gigantic pieces of granite. The property was derelict and run down, and the City Council served a Building Preservation Notice. So far so good. However the Council then got cold feet and lifted the notice. The building was immediately trashed, wrecking interiors and pulling out doorframes and windows. Planning Officers said nothing could be done, as this did not require planning permission, even in a conservation area. But surely this constituted demolition by stealth and the owners should be applying for planning permission for demolition in a conservation area? In addition best practice is that planning authorities will not consider this without seeing what is the replacement proposed. But forget all that in Leicester. Even as you read this these buildings may be no more. This is disastrous for our City. An entire conservation area is being lost piecemeal because not enough was done in the first place. To prove that the above - which should be outrageous nonsense - is in fact the truth, we don t just bring you the pretty pictures! This is the former All Saint s Brewery in the process of being wrecked. The granite sets designed to take the weight of brewery drays drawn beneath the two-storey archway, can be seen under the remains of shattered fittings and broken glass. Much more could have been done to save these buildings. The conservation area should have been designated years earlier with full appraisal and management plan in place to ensure rescue and reuse of the former brewery buildings, the houses opposite the church, Elbow Lane School and the Duke of Cumberland pub with remains of the Roman and Medieval North Gates in-situ in its cellars: all of which, except the brewery, have now been irretrievably lost.
CIVIL LEICESTER CIVIC SOCIETY SATURDAY 5TH JULY 2008 WAW WAR A NEW GUIDED WALK by Stuart Bailey From From The The Hawthorn at 10.30am Buildi Building, The The Newarke at 10.30am Followed by lunch in the Highcross SEE THE BOOKINGS PAGE Cost: 2.50 Other guided walks in the series include, Ancient Leicester Part 1, Ancient Leicester Part 2 Medieval Streets, Victorian Leicester, Roman Leicester, Old London Road, Leafy Leicester, Around the Walls of Leicester and New Walk & The Georgian New Town. All walks can be booked for private parties of from six to twenty-four. Telephone 01509-520904. Email chairman@leicestercivicsociety.org.uk JEMSOX FACTORY Following the debacle of the Gimson Houses, one would think that planning officers and the Development Control Committee would be much more careful about planning permissions that involve the loss of buildings on the Local Interest List. But not a bit of it! Only weeks after proposals for demolition of the Gimson Houses were abandoned in the face of strong public protest, permission was given for the demolition of the Jemsox Factory and its replacement with a ghastly, 12-storey, concrete hotel building. The 1880 mill building on Welford Road was described as incongruous in its context. Presumeably in the context of the poor quality tat that now surrounds it? Opposite are some images of the proposed hotel. 4. How will this rubbish improve the appearance and status of Leicester? 5. How can a 4-star hotel sit in such an exceptionally dull building? 6. Did the DC Committee nod off during its meeting? 1. How is this any more congruous with its surroundings? 2. Whatever happened to quality? 3. Whatever happened to exciting modern architecture?
EVEN MORE BUILDINGS AT RISK BISHOP STREET POST OFFICE. Splendid 1930 post office building. Ideal for a - Post Office. But we all know what happened. Ideal for the proposed Indian Consulate? But just outside two conservation areas and not listed, so wait for the inevitable crisis before long. MIDLAND BANK GRANBY STREET. Goddard s 1872 masterpiece that delighted John Betjemen. Listed Grade 2- Star in the Town Hall Square CA but stands empty. A permanent home for the Attenborough Ceramics Collection? EAST GATES COFFEE HOUSE, High Street CA. Edward Burgess 1885. Splendid wood carving above the sympathetically modernised ground floor is beginning to look the worse for wear. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CLUB and FORMER REGISTRY OFFICE Pocklington s Walk. Former also by Edward Burgess, the latter by Shenton & Baker in Venetian Palazzo Style. Both listed Grade 2 and in the Market Street CA but both empty and owned by the City Council. Beware! CHALLIS & HALL. Former wine merchants and warehouse, corner Humberstone Gate and Clarence Street - quite a history. SECULAR HALL. Listed Grade 2. Famous Leicester Landmark badly in need of repair. LATIMER HOUSE. Knighton CA. Planning permission for demolition and construction of 71 houses refused but the house stands empty. CHURCH OF ST. SAVIOUR. St. Saviour s Road. Splendid hill top church by Sir George Gilbert Scott 1884. Listed Grade 2-Star but declared redundant and fabric already in decline. TALBOT LANE Last year the City Council decided to remove Talbot Lane, together with the whole of the Scheduled Ancient Monument Site of Vaughan College, the Roman Baths and St. Nicolas Church from the Castle Conservation Area. Exactly why remains a worrying secret but it wasn t long before standards began to fall. In this case the Paris lamp standards on Talbot Lane fell, to be replaced by some ultra-modern experimental ones that the Highways Department are really excited about. The word incongruous springs to mind. But the lights certainly are very bright and certainly will help with all that fast-flowing traffic that thunders along Talbot Lane! BELGRAVE ROAD Members responded angrily to the Mercury describing Belgrave Road as run down prior to its rebirth as Leicester s Golden Mile. The list of shops, pubs, banks and cinemas was almost endless and underlines what a loss of community we underwent when the flyovers were built. Other members tell us that the Mercury has been doing the same thing with the Old West End and they have their own long list of lost shops and pubs along Hinckley Road and Braunstone Gate. FRIENDS of JEWRY WALL MUSEUM, THE PORTABLE ANTIQUITIES SCHEME & UNIVERSITY of LEICESTER ARCHAEOLOGICAL SERVICE ROMANS REVEALED JEWRY WALL MUSEUM, SATURDAY 12 th JULY 2008 11.30 to 4.00PM ADMISSION FREE See Roman and Iron Age finds, discover information on latest excavations in Leicester, meet the archaeologists, take part in Roman Activities, and enjoy a: GRAND TOUR OF THE ROMAN BATHS
LADIES & GENTLEMEN OLWEN HUGHES HAS MUCH PLEASURE IN INVITING YOU TO A VICTORIAN EVENING IN A VICTORIAN HOUSE THURSDAY 19 th JUNE 2008 at 7.15PM OLWEN S HOUSE WAS BUILT FOR ARTIST IN WOOD CARVING THOMAS BIRCH. IT IS HOPED THAT THOMAS S GRAND DAUGHTER, MONA CAN BE PRESENT TO TALK ABOUT THE WORK OF HER GRANDFATHER AND SHOW HIS ARTISTRY IN THE HOUSE. MEMBERS ONLY 3.00 Including Coffee & Biscuits ADVANCE BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL BY 12 th JUNE PLEASE. TICKETS WILL BE ISSUED - SEE THE BOOKINGS PAGE. Regulated by The Law Society ************************************** LEICESTER: 3 De Montfort Street, Leicester LE1 7GE. Phone: 0116-255-7566 WIGSTON: 158 Leicester Road, Wigston. Telephone: 0116-288-8988 OADBY: 22 The Parade, Oadby LE18 1DS. Telephone: 0116-271-4129 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE BOOKINGS PAGE Please photocopy this page if you do not want to cut your Journal. PLEASE RESERVE PLACES ON THE GUIDED WALK NEW WALK & THE GEORGIAN NEW TOWN ON SATURDAY 3rd MAY 2008. I ENCLOSE IN FULL PAYMENT. NAME ADDRESS POSTCODE PLEASE RESERVE PLACES ON THE TOUR TO LLANGOLLEN ON SATURDAY 17 th MAY 2008. I ENCLOSE IN FULL PAYMENT. I/WE WILL JOIN THE COACH AT NAME ADDRESS POSTCODE PLEASE SEND ME TICKETS FOR AN EVENING WITH OLWEN HUGHES ON THURSDAY 19 th JUNE 2008. (Deadline for bookings 12 th June) I ENCLOSE IN FULL PAYMENT NAME ADDRESS POSTCODE PLEASE RESERVE PLACES ON THE GUIDED WALK CIVIL WAR ON SATURDAY 5 th JULY 2008. I ENCLOSE IN FULL PAYMENT. NAME ADDRESS POSTCODE ADVANCE BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL FOR ALL OF THE ABOVE EVENTS AND SHOULD BE MADE TO: STUART BAILEY, 48 MEADOW AVENUE, LOUGHBOROUGH, LEICESTERSHIRE LE11 1JT. CHEQUES SHOULD BE MADE PAYABLE TO LEICESTER CIVIC SOCIETY.
INTERVIEW WITH SIR PETER SOULSBY On Friday 14 th March committee members had a meeting with Sir Peter Soulsby, MP for Leicester South, and long-time member of the Civic Society. Sir Peter wanted to discuss our concerns and ways in which he could potentially be of help to us. The following is a summary of the main points we made at the meeting. The Civic Society is good at looking after its members and therefore attracting and retaining new ones. Over the last few years we have established a web site, improved our journal and created a professional exhibition stand that we take to events. We are active in the East Midlands Association of Civic Societies that represents the fifty Civic Societies of the East Midlands Region. We are working better than ever before with other local societies. We have a close working relationship with Stoneygate Conservation Area Society. We have joined the Heritage Network of Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society. We are supportive of the Victorian Society and the Leicestershire Industrial History Society. We are working better than ever before with Leicester Regeneration Co. and with local architects and business through our increasingly successful annual awards scheme. Though we would wish to appoint an outreach officer to take our message to local businesses, schools, colleges and minority communities from whom civic societies are often isolated. We see ourselves as the critical friend of Leicester City Council as Local Planning Authority. However we are constantly ignored and our advice is seldom heeded. We are committed members of the City Council Conservation Advisory Panel - as is the Victorian Society. However many member organisations entitled to attend the panel s meetings do not bother as the Council is notorious for only consulting the panel at the last minute when Development Control have already made up their minds what to recommend to Councillors. Therefore any recommendations of the panel that may run counter to this (Temperance Hotel, Jemsox Factory) are ignored. This is extremely demoralising. The City Council continue to refuse consideration of Stoneygate Conservation Area Society for membership, when they clearly have much expert opinion to contribute in respect of this importance conservation area, and whilst the panel remains under populated for the reason given above. There is no other proper consultation with the Council whatsoever. Either they consult after they have already decided what to do, (Castle Conservation Area Appraisal) or they promise consultation that does not materialise. (Leicester Castle) Leicester badly needs an Urban Design Forum chaired by senior planners and representing potential developers and heritage bodies such as the Victorian Society and ourselves. This would serve to diffuse many problems in advance and could lead to an era of unprecedented cooperation over the exciting opportunities for regeneration and tourism offered by the City s historic sites and buildings. Current proposals for London Road Station by Leicester Regeneration Co. and a Cathedral Square are ones that the Society would love to support. At the moment heritage bodies such as ourselves are trying to deal with so many historic buildings and structures at risk at once that they struggle to cope. We fire fight whilst the Council maintain a disinterested attitude that bodes ill for the historic built environment of Leicester. There are numerous recent examples of this: Despite a commitment to the protection of buildings on the Local Interest List in the City of Leicester Local Plan, the Gimson Houses redevelopment was still given planning permission. Planners refused to consider conservation area status or a Section 215 order. According to one ward councillor, planning officers told Eastern Counties Housing Association, No one is going to protest over the Gimson Houses. Far from acting as a warning, the debacle of the Gimson Houses failed to prevent redevelopment of the Jemsox Factory being approved, despite the fact that this too is on the Local Interest List. Sir Peter is to consider the facts we put to him and promises a further meeting.
LEICESTER CIVIC SOCIETY O U R P O P U L A R S E R I E S O F C O A C H T O U R S C O N T I N U E S SATURDAY 17 t h MAY 2008 LLANGOLLEN THE FAMOUS WELSH MOUNTAIN RESORT. INCLUDES GUIDED TOUR OF THOMAS TELFORD S ENGINEERING MASTERPIECE - THE PONTCYSYLLTE AQUEDUCT. Llangollen s famous bridge over the River Dee. Photo John Rutter. Llangollen Railway. COACH DEPARTS: HUMBERSTONE GATE (Secular Hall) BIRSTALL (Station Road) LOUGHBOROUGH (The Rushes) RETURNING AT 6.30, 6.50 and 7.00PM 8.00AM 8.10AM 8.30AM FULL FARE: 20.00 (MEMBERS 18.00) CONCESSION: 19.00 (MEMBERS 17.00) Senior Citizens, Students, Unwaged. DISCOUNTS FOR MEMBERS. JOIN NOW - SHOW THAT YOU CARE! ADVANCE BOOKING ESSENTIAL TO: STUART BAILEY, 48 MEADOW AVENUE, LOUGHBOROUGH LE11 1JT. CHEQUES PAYABLE TO LEICESTER CIVIC SOCIETY SEE THE BOOKINGS PAGE