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HOME SWEET HOME

A CENTURY OF LEICESTER HOUSING 1814-1914

By
Dennis Calow
LEICESTER - WEST END in 1934. An aerial view of the area where the Author grew up, centred on Great Holme Street. The cruciform building with a pyramid roof at left centre is the Emmanuel Baptist Church, and the corner
shop and three houses owned by his father are one block further to the right (see original plans on p.100 & p.101). The 2-storey storage building (originally a bakehouse) at the rear is clearly visible. Tramlines run along
Braunstone Gate and a tram is passing the bowstring girder bridge of the Great Central Railway from Marylebone to Manchester, the last main line of the railway age, which came boldly crashing through the existing built up
area in the late 1890s. Five terraces of 2-room blindback cottages (in Curzon Terrace, Earl Howe Terrace and Foxon Street) are at lower right centre. Most of the other dwellings have four or six rooms. Almost every building
to the West (left) of the railway and most of the railway itself were demolished and the area redeveloped for housing and industry in the 1970s, as was much of the area to the East. The splendid Bowstring Bridge remained in
isolation and under threat of demolition by an unimaginative Council with no interest in, or knowledge of, its importance in railway history. It was finally demolished October 2009.
Home Sweet Home

CONTENTS

1. Introduction p.4

2. A century of Leicester housing 1814-1914 p.5

I - Change from home working to the Factory System –


influx of workers - early unregulated developments –
2-room cottages - construction details – layouts -
beginnings of regulation - evolution of standard
Leicester terraced house - larger villas - 'mansions'

II - Between the wars - 'slum' clearances – their aftermath p.20


- the situation today

3. Drawings of typical developments, house plans, and elevations: p.26

Key to notation

A. Plans before Building Regulation (1814 - c.1860) p.27

B. Plans after Building Regulation (c.1860 - 1914) p.42

C. Elevations of typical examples p.56

D. Details of typical 1830s 2-room cottage, showing furnishing p.97

E. Original 1870s plans of corner shop and 3 houses p.99

F. The development of elevational details p.101

Appendix I - 172 St. Matthew's dwellings without a street frontage p.104

Appendix II - Some street names p.105

Appendix III - The-68 occupants of 1-16 Willow Cottages, St. Matthew's p.106
at the 1901 census

Appendix IV - Glossary of architectural terms used in the text p.107

Appendix V - Development of typical neighbourhoods c.1880-1915 p.109


Maps of West End & Westcotes, St. Marys Fields, &
St. Matthews

Appendix VI - Brief notes on the clearances p.116

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Home Sweet Home

INTRODUCTION

Until the age of fifteen I lived in Great Holme Street, West End, Leicester – a working
class district built in the 1870s (and demolished in the 1970s), where my father ran a
typical corner shop. We were surrounded by terraced houses of the period, plain,
simple, and rather repetitive, which made me think that all such houses were like those
in our neighbourhood. Although my bedroom floor was six inches out of level and the
door had triangular patches top and bottom to make it fit, I took it for granted. The
houses generally seemed sound enough, and it never crossed our minds that, thirty-five
years on, the entire neighbourhood would be destroyed and a major new road,
Narborough Road North, would be carrying heavy traffic where our home used to stand.

In the late 1940s I became an architectural student and, like most of my generation, was
brainwashed into believing that everything built before the Swiss architect and theorist
Le Corbusier arrived on the scene was worthless - fit only for demolition to make way
for the brave new world that he heralded.

Later, in the mid-1950s, when the clearance of such neighbourhoods resumed after the
wartime interruption, their potential historical interest struck me and I began taking
photographs, trying, with varying success, to keep ahead of the demolition contractors.
This took up a good deal of my spare time, on and off, until the 1970s, when the
programme finally ended, after some 12,500 houses had been demolished.

Later still, like many others, I began to appreciate the architectural qualities of the
remaining Victorian houses and, since retirement, have made a detailed study of them,
culminating in systematically walking, in late 2004 and early 2005, literally every one of
the hundreds of streets of the period in Greater Leicester, from Blaby in the south to
Syston in the north and from Glenfield in the west to Humberstone in the east.

That project made me acutely aware of the skills in brickwork, stonework and joinery
which went into such houses, and of the enormous variety of delightful and inventive
detail still to be found, despite the dreadful ravages caused by well-meaning
'improvement' during the last thirty years.

It is my hope that this essay may stimulate readers to enjoy what has given me so much
pleasure, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Malcolm Elliott, Rowan
Roenisch, Colin Hyde and Ian Leith for looking over the preliminary drafts and offering
helpful suggestions and encouragement.

Dennis A. Calow

July 2007

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Home Sweet Home

A CENTURY OF LEICESTER HOUSING - 1814-1914

Though difficult to appreciate now, when the population of Greater Leicester is


approaching half a million, Leicester in the early 1800s was a modest market town of
about 20,000, about the size of Market Harborough today, centre of its County and of
local affairs but of no more importance than many others.

Many of its houses were old, some still half-timbered and infilled with wattle and daub
or brick nogging, and, in many cases, still thatched.

The more recent houses, built during the previous hundred years in the style we now
call 'Georgian', were of brick, with local Swithland slate roofs and small-paned sash
windows. They were mainly fairly large and occupied by solicitors, doctors, surgeons,
architects, and businessmen.

There had as yet been no great change to stimulate the erection of large numbers of
small houses at any one time, and industry was still on a fairly small scale. Framework
knitting, the largest, was to a great extent carried on in the homes of the workers,
incidentally in appalling conditions.

The western limit of building at the time was just beyond the West Bridge over the
River Soar, and to the north were only Frog Island and St. Margaret's. To the south,
development had reached to where De Montfort Street now runs, and beyond were
orchards, market gardens, country estates, and fields. Later suburbs, such as Knighton
and Aylestone, were still villages, well away from the town and completely rural.
To the residents at the time, the idea that a continuously built-up area would eventually
extend 13 miles from beyond Whetstone in the south to East Goscote in the north would
have seemed incredible.

About 1820 the change to the factory system, using water or steam powered machinery,
began to get under way. Production was increasing, and more and more workers were
drawn in from the countryside. For the first time, large numbers of new dwellings were
needed in a hurry.

As the prospective tenants were poorly paid and rents had to be within their means, the
new dwellings had to be cheaply built and on the least expensive land that was
available. They also had to be close to the factories, as working hours were long and
tiring and there was no public transport.

The new industries, in turn, had to be near the river or the recently arrived canal to
bring in raw materials and take away their finished goods and, in the case of dyeworks,
to obtain their water and remove their waste products. Some also used the river's flow
to turn water wheels powering their machinery, and a weed-clogged mill leat can still be
seen from the Hitchcock's Weir towpath footbridge at Frog Island.

The result was that the first new streets arose on the lowest, most flood-prone areas
nearest to the established town, in St. Margaret's and Frog Island, and also to the north-
east, in what is now St. Matthew's.

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Development to the west was limited by the flood meadows of the river (straightening
and widening was still sixty years ahead), and to the south by the extensive area of the
South Field, owned by the Corporation and eventually used for various civic purposes
including the Cattle Market, Welford Road cemetery, the Lancaster Road fire station, De
Montfort Hall, the Wyggeston Schools, and Nelson Mandela Park.

Until about 1850 there was very little control of building, and developers had an almost
free hand. Streets could be as narrow as 20ft. between house fronts, (e.g. Neale Street
and Little Bedford Street in St. Matthew's), poorly paved and lit, and dwellings could be
built in any arrangement to maximise the number on the site. Many were built in the
rear yards or gardens of existing premises, in rows along one or both boundaries,
without windows to their rear, and having only a few privies in a common yard.

Many hundreds of these tiny cottages, 13ft. x 13ft. or so, some even smaller, were built
in the 1820s, 30s, and 40s and were the target of the earliest 'slum clearance' schemes
in the 1930s. A few survived, due to the interruption of the 1939-45 war, until clearance
was resumed in the 1950s. Cramant Cottages, behind 52 King Street are probably the
only ones remaining, and are just about recognisable, although much altered, first for
offices, currently, delightfully converted to a nursery school. Not only were these
earliest dwellings very small, but they became grossly overcrowded as the pressure of
population increased and the Irish famine of 1845 drove desperate penniless
immigrants to seek work in England.

As well as the hundreds built in existing rear yards, new developments also included a
good many back dwellings (usually 2-room but sometimes 4-room) built behind the
street front houses. Their layout depended on the shape of the site, particularly its
depth, and could vary from one or two to a terrace with as many dwellings as the street
front (e.g. 73 ½ - 99 ½ Curzon Street, St. Matthew's). In a few instances (e.g. Ernest
Cottages, Willow Street) there was a further row behind the first.

Although even the 4-room dwellings were of less than 500 sq.ft. they were often
occupied by parents and four or five children, or even more, the children having to sleep
two or four to a bed - ideal for the spread of illness. The 1901 census notes a Shoe Laster
and his wife and seven children (aged 1 to 12) living in a 4-room dwelling at 5,
Brunswick Terrace, Taylor Street, St. Matthew's.

The back dwellings could not be seen from the street and were usually approached by a
covered entryway - the only sign of their existence being a cast iron plaque above its
arch. The entryways (known in Leicester as 'entries') were as narrow as possible to
save frontage, sometimes as little as 2'5" but usually 2'9", the width being governed by
the number of lines of paving brick used to pave them.

Appendix A lists 172 back dwellings in the St. Matthew's area. Their names are
intriguing - some being topical (Brunswick, Curzon, Delhi, Alma, Great Northern), some
personal (Brown's Yard, Ernest Cottages), and some a cynical joke (Sunbeam Cottages!).

Back dwellings became rarer later, but were still being built in the 1870s and 80s, in
Highfields, Spinney Hill, and West End.

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To the best of the Author's knowledge, the only examples still occupied are 1-4 Ruding
Terrace (behind Ruding Road, West End) and the four houses comprising Latimer Place
(behind40 to 46 Brandon Street, St. Mark's).

The great majority of dwellings built before regulation faced or backed onto common
yards, usually fully paved with blue paving bricks
draining to a central channel, but sometimes having
small gardens defined by dwarf walls, or rickety
fences put up by the occupants themselves. The
number of dwellings sharing a yard varied from two
to a dozen or more; behind 30-54 Brook Street, St.
Matthew's, for example, was Court
A, shared by 13 street front dwellings and two back
dwellings.

With no planning control, industrial buildings, even


malodorous ones such as breweries, tanneries, and
slaughterhouses could be built wherever a suitable
site was available, and many of the new dwellings
faced or adjoined high brick walls, behind which
noisy machinery was operating. Behind the dwellings
on both sides of Crafton Street, (although as late as
the 1860s) for example, ran 260 ft. long ropewalks.

If the developer had a small corner of ground left over, Latimer Place entry on Brandon
not large enough even to squeeze in another 2-roomer, Street – one of only two remaining
it was quite common for small stables or workshops to examples of occupied back
be included in the scheme, using the same entryway as dwellings in Leicester
the residents.

In at least one instance (78-80 Wheat Street, St. Matthew's - see p.38) quite a large
workshop, 33' x 23' 3", occupied the second floor over the two dwellings below. In
Nottingham, for lace workshops needing good light, this arrangement was very
common.

Also in the St. Matthew’s area, between and behind the dwellings, were large and small
factories and workshops engaged in hosiery, knitwear, boots and shoes, toys, shoe
heels, embroidery, printing, machine building, boxmaking, pattern making and sheet
metalwork, as well as bakeries and breweries.

Many local people could find jobs literally on their doorsteps, and Appendix I lists the
occupations (from the 1901 census) of the occupiers of a typical group of 16 dwellings
sharing a common yard - Willow Cottages off Taylor Street in St. Matthew's. Many are
employed in the Boot and Shoe or Hosiery trades, and are described as Rivetters, Heel
Scourers, Finishers, Machinists, Menders, etc.

At no.6 Willow Cottages were parents, four children, and a lodger. If the lodger had the
small second bedroom, did the parents and four children have to share the 11' x 10' 9"
main bedroom, or did some of them have to sleep downstairs? In the sixteen houses

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lived 68 people, from a baby of two months to a man of 66, sharing a common yard, 82'
x 30', containing 8 w.c.s in two blocks of four.

Smoke from the tall chimneys of the factories emerged directly above the dwellings, but
so much was being discharged from the massed chimneys of the dwellings themselves
that, at least in winter, it may have made little difference. The new brickwork, slating,
and paintwork soon disappeared beneath a sooty coating, not to be seen again until the
Clean Air Acts a century or more later.

In some of the growing industrial towns, pressures were even greater than those in
Leicester. In Liverpool and Birmingham, a common pattern developed of 3 or 4 storey
back-to-back houses, with cellars (often used as separate dwellings) facing narrow
courts off the streets. Nearby Nottingham, surrounded by lands which could not be built
on because they were subject to grazing rights, became so congested as to be among the
worst in the country, with many thousands of 3 and 4-storey back-to-backs packed
unbelievably closely together.

In Leicester, growth at the time was not as rapid (its greatest growth came 50 years
later) and building land was available. Consequently, most of the new dwellings, often
called 'cottages', were 2-storey, only a few being built back-to-back or to a greater
height.

The earliest designs echoed the recent 18th c. houses, with half- round arches to the
front (and often only) entrance door, segmental arches to the windows, and small-
paned horizontally or vertically sliding sashes with slim, traditionally moulded glazing
bars. The windows were originally set in the outer half of the wall, but later were
invariably set to the inner face, exposing less paintwork and being better sheltered from
the weather.

Many dwellings had only one room to each floor, sometimes as small as 10ft. x 10ft., but
usually about 13ft. x 11ft., plus a steep and narrow stair across a rear or side wall, which
often rose directly into the one bedroom with no partition and only a flimsy 2' 6"
balustrade. There would normally be a door at the stair foot.

The only heating would be from an open coal-fired cooking range in the living-kitchen,
and sometimes a small cast iron 'register' grate in the bedroom. The only provision for
washing and food preparation was a shallow cane-glazed 'London' type sink, about 4"
deep, under the stair, which was also the only place to store the coal.

Water was usually from wells sunk on the site, with a common hand pump in the yard,
(no piped water as yet) and sanitary provision, if it could be called that, was privies over
deep cesspits, emptied at night by the Corporation's delightfully named 'nightsoil men'.
Pollution of the wells from the cesspits was a frequent cause of disease, but a system of
sewers was not installed until the late 1850s.

The privies were a tight fit, sometimes only three feet long, and had no window – light
and air (sometimes too much of it) coming from gaps above and below the doors. They
had a full width hinged wooden seat with a nicely rounded hole in it, and two-seaters
were not unknown. W.C.s were not made compulsory until 1882.

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Front and back exterior walls were normally one brick (225mm) thick, but some rear
walls, party walls, rear extensions, entryway walls, and sometimes gable walls if
another house was expected alongside, were only half brick (112mm). Sometimes the
expected house never arrived, which is why gable ends painted with black bitumastic
paint, or roughcast, in a desperate attempt to keep out the damp can still sometimes be
seen. Party walls above ceiling level were only taken up as piers to carry the purlins,
and even those were often 'honeycombed' - voids between each brick - to save bricks. A
family row could be heard, through the roof space, several doors away.

Thresholds would be natural York stone and window cills brick set on edge and
stuccoed, or a course of blue slope bricks. In the cheapest houses even cills were
omitted, one of the causes of later damp walls.

Dampcourses were either non-existent or a single course of blue brick, which still
allowed damp to rise by way of the joints. Later, two courses became compulsory.
Ground floors were of red quarry (square) tiles or pavers ('paviours' in Leicester) on a
bed of ashes, guaranteed to rot any floor covering, but tenants could not afford any,
except perhaps rag mats.

The earliest houses had window shutters, and their pivots can still be seen here and
there. Alongside the front door (and occasionally by the back door also) would be a
bootscraper, consisting of a recessed stone block with a decorative iron bar fixed to its
face. Most of the blocks still survive in later examples, although the iron scraper itself
has often rusted away.

In Leicester, the flues from front and rear rooms were almost always gathered into a
single stack centred on the roof ridge, unlike in Nottingham where two separate stacks
emerging half way up the front and rear roof slopes were more common. The ridge
stack saves brick and lead work and does not have to be carried so high to avoid down
draught. It also avoids valleys behind the stacks, which, particularly if flaunched rather
than leaded, can be a source of trouble. On the other hand, the brickwork needed to
gather the flues over takes rather more skill.

Single and grouped chimney stacks were sometimes cylindrical, built of special
segmental bricks, or octagonal (e.g. Rawson Street, Southfields).

To save brickwork and slating, roofs were low pitched (about 30 degrees) and even
lower on the rear extensions. Roof timbers were as light as possible, and purlins were
often just poles, still with their bark on. As lead flashings were expensive, mortar
flaunching was used round chimney stacks and at roof steppings, which often cracked,
letting in wet. Gutters were of wooden box pattern, with cast iron downpipes
discharging onto the yard or street footway paving (later prohibited). The gutters were
fixed to a fascia board planted directly onto the wall face, with no eaves projection,
which saved a course or two of slating and a soffit board, and shortened the rafters.

Floor joists were as thin as 1 1/2", but those in the rear extension might be 3"x 3", to
save a little headroom.

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In the very earliest examples, the thick irregular slates from the local Swithland
quarries were used, but the canals and the expanding railway system (beginning with
the Leicester and Swannington railway to West Bridge station in 1832) soon brought
the thin, regular, lighter (and, of course, cheaper) Welsh variety. The Swithland slates
needed skilful grading into sizes before they could be laid (largest at eaves, smallest at
ridge), were more difficult to lay, and needed heavier roof timbers, so their beautiful
texture and shine after rain became a luxury confined to more expensive buildings, and
the quarries finally closed in the 1880s. Their quality was such that reclaimed examples,
by now at least 130 years old, are still in demand for prestigious roofs.

Roofs were of course totally uninsulated, and the residents had nothing between their
bedclothes and a frosty winter's night but the ceiling plaster and either thin Welsh
slates or pantiles (in a few cases). They awoke to pretty frost patterns on the window
glass.

As concrete had not come into use at the time, foundations could only be of brick
footings, which were taken down to an absolute minimum depth to save cost. If the
houses were on made ground, or over ditches or old ponds, there was often subsidence,
leading to out of level floors and distorted window frames, which the lime mortar
accommodated to some extent, leading to 'wavy' brick coursing.

Facing brickwork was normally in Flemish bond and, in the first years of terraced
housing in Leicester was often chequered, with headers of a contrasting colour, often
lighter than the rest of the work. In the cheapest houses, hidden away in courts and
yards, the bricks used for facing were little better than commons, some resembling
rejects, with cracks and 'kissmarks' where bricks had crossed one another when being
fired.

External walls were built almost as two separate half brick leaves - facings outside and
commons inside - and as the commons were laid with a thicker bed joint the courses did
not always coincide. Consequently the headers in the Flemish bond are often 'snapped' -
i.e. cut in half, not bonding the two leaves together.

Until the 18th century English bricks had been about 2 in. (50mm) deep, but the
introduction of a Brick Tax in 1784, based on quantity rather than volume, caused a
change to 25/8 in. (later 27/8 in.) bricks, which attracted less tax but do not look nearly
as well. At Measham, near Ashby-de-Ia-Zouch, Wilkes' yard marketed bricks about six
inches deep, known as 'Wilkes' Jumbos', but they were not widely used, perhaps
because they were not easy to lay.

The change to the deeper brick had occurred before the large scale building of terraced
houses really got under way, and almost all but the earliest Victorian houses of Leicester
were faced with 27/8" bricks, laid very skilfully with 3/16" bed joints.

After about 1860, all classes of dwelling in Leicester, from the 2-room cottage to the
factory owner's mansion, were almost always faced with the local smooth hard red
brick, (known as 'Leicester Tapped'). There were several makers right on the edge of
the city, at Humberstone and Gipsy Lane for example, and others a little further away.

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A great deal of decorative banding and chequer work was done with the strongly
contrasting 'Staffordshire Blues', which were dense, impermeable, frost proof and
expensive - so expensive that the quality of a larger house could almost be judged by the
amount of blue brickwork in its design.

The main use of blues, however, was where their frost and damp resistance was needed,
in chimney cappings, wall copings, plinths, cills, thresholds, damp courses, and external
paving, and these qualities are largely responsible for the way in which houses from
about 1870 onward have survived in such good condition

There was also a grey-white facing brick, used mainly for larger houses (e.g. New Walk
and Fosse Road Central), but p.44 shows an exceptional group of five small houses in
Farnham Street, Spinney Hill, which were faced with it.

Only the street elevations would be in facings including, at street corners, only those
actually abutting the footway. All others, including of course the entryways, would be in
local commons, including the simple segmental arches to door and window openings.
The local commons had, and still have, a not unpleasant appearance, quite unlike the
blotchy effect of the 'Fletton' commons from the Bedford and Peterborough areas which
being made in enormous quantities and therefore cheaper, swamped the market from
the 1920s onward. These were not of course intended to be used where visible, but the
need to keep costs down ensured that they were.

The granite setts and kerbs used for paving the earlier streets and footways tended to
be of an inferior grade - small, irregular and unevenly laid. Lighting was by gas,
electricity not arriving until very late in the century, and the earliest terrace houses did
not even have that. It was brought (in pipes fixed to their front walls) later. The early
gas street lights were usually bracketed from the houses and their glimmering pools of
light were few and far between. Every evening the gas lighters made their rounds,
carrying long poles over their shoulders and stopping to ignite each light. Later streets
had cast iron lamp standards, often made in Leicester foundries, with a projecting
bracket for the maintenance man's ladder.

Some rather better houses had two rooms to each floor, and others even had a small
single storey scullery projecting to the rear, perhaps 7 ft. x 5' 4" or thereabouts,
normally having only half- brick walls and containing the usual shallow cane-glazed sink
on brick piers and a corner 'copper' for washing clothes. This was an iron tub with a
wooden lid, set in brickwork, with a fire door beneath for a coal fire to be lit to heat the
water. The windows of the sculleries usually differed from the rest of the house, in
having side-hung casements or horizontal sliding sashes, known as 'Yorkshire' lights,
which often jammed and were draughty. When a third bedroom was added above the
scullery, as it was in later developments, that also had the same types of windows and,
of course, the same half-brick walls, quite useless for keeping out the cold and damp.

Until about the l870s, cellars were often provided under part of the larger terraced
houses, and were partly used for storing coal, delivered by a pavement grating and a
brick chute. There would also be a decorative cast iron grille in the pavement or wall to
allow some light to penetrate to the cellar window. As effective damp proofing - with all
the walls and floor in blue brick - was far too expensive to contemplate, most cellars

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were very damp and not really a lot of use for other purposes. Some even flooded from
time to time.

The earliest terraces were built as a row of identical units, i.e. not alternately right and
left handed, but it was soon realised that 'handing' was more economical. Combining
two stacks into one used less brickwork and flaunching, and sharing the scullery party
wall, of course, saved an entire wall and its foundation.

Another big advantage was that the rear projections, now becoming more common,
were perhaps ten feet apart, rather than five, overshadowing the middle room much
less. Right up to the cessation of terraced house building, the rear projections were
always a problem, by displacing the middle room window to one side and limiting its
light and outlook. Various ideas to improve this were tried - one was to have a recessed
larder before the kitchen projected, another was to have glazed French doors, but the
problem remained. The poorly lit middle room
was one reason why terraced houses became
unpopular in later years.

A rather wider frontage would have made the


rear projections unnecessary, but there was
always the pressure to make the most of every
inch to save road and sewer costs and to
minimise the facade open to view.

Half brick party walls saved 4 1/2" on each


house, 2'7 1/2" entryways instead of 3' made
that 9", and a 10'7 1/2" room rather than 11'
totalled 13 1/2", enough in a terrace of 10 to
allow for another house.

Any feature which saved a few inches was


worthwhile, and there was a way of forming
front doorways which made the brickwork
opening no wider than the door itself, saving
the width of two door jambs the drawing above
right shows how this was done.

Although the earliest mass-produced houses were very basic by the standards of today
or even by those of the later 19th century, compared with the mud and thatch hovels in
the villages from which their occupants had come, they were little palaces.

It has to be remembered that they were newly built, not yet coated with grime, their
roofs newly slated and the nails not rusted, their paintwork fresh, their walls not
penetrated by rising damp, and the privies not yet much used.

To have water available, reasonably solid walls, newly slated roofs that did not (yet)
leak, paved and lit streets and yards, and tiled floors rather than trodden earth, were
very real improvements. Even the sash windows were a huge advance on the sagging
casements with broken glass, or none, to which they had been accustomed.

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At first the new developments were built in fairly short runs of, say two to twelve
dwellings, as investments by builders or small developers uncertain of the demand and
having limited capital, but by the 1880s and 90s, when Leicester was really booming,
whole streets were undertaken at a time, so great was the increase in population caused
by industrial prosperity.

The extent of a particular run of houses can often be seen from the cast stone or cast
iron name plaques which were a decorative feature of their frontages. These are a study
in themselves, often giving the date of building or historical references such as to the
Crimean or Boer wars. Others carry personal names, names of flowers, local villages, or
politicians of the time, and a few mention district names which never caught on, e.g.
'New Leicester' in St. Matthew's or 'High Leicester', which was on 21-23 Oxendon Street,
Highfields, built in 1866.

At the south end of the town, away from the low-lying flatlands and on the rising ground
of the old South Field, other terraces, of much better quality, were being built, for
instance the area near to the prison originally known as Newtown - a name which has
unfortunately survived only in the name of Newtown Street.

These houses were of much better quality, having wider frontages, larger rooms, higher
ceilings, wider and less steep stairs, and larger windows, and were set on wider and
better paved streets, although there were also pockets of cheaper houses nearby, e.g.
Duke Street, James Street, and Marquis Street, where now stands the Welford Road
multi-storey car park.

The developers' freedom to do almost whatever they pleased began to come to an end
when, in 1842, Edwin Chadwick's ‘Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring
Population’ was published. This made clear the appalling conditions existing in the
larger British cities, and action began to be taken to alleviate the worst abuses by
introducing regulations controlling building.

From 1696 there had been a Window Tax, not finally repealed until 1851, which had
caused many a window to be bricked up in larger houses, but which had little or no
effect on the type of dwelling being discussed, because they had no surplus windows to
eliminate.

The Public Health Act of 1848 brought the first regulations into force, followed by other
Public Health Acts and local regulations which have become steadily more stringent
right up to the present day, when every aspect of building is regulated to the ultimate
degree.

The earliest regulations concerned basic matters such as width of streets, space
between dwellings, provision of W.C.s and their connection to sewers, thickness of
walls, ceiling heights, window sizes, ventilation and so on. Leicester was still growing
rapidly (60,000 by 1851) and the next developments were much better built and laid
out due to the new controls.

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Sheet glass became available at about this time, leading to the abandonment of the small
panes which had been the only size possible, first to the front windows only, later to the
rear also, and the appearance of windows was now quite different. The new sashes had
only a central vertical glazing bar, making them easier to paint and to clean, and letting
in more light. Needless to say, they were enthusiastically welcomed and rapidly became
almost universal.

In the late 1850s there arose a fashion for 'hood moulds' over door and window
openings, carried on scrolled brackets known as ‘consoles’, producing an appearance
which enables houses from this period to be easily recognised (see p.64). They can be
seen in the Newtown area, in South Highfields (e.g. Lincoln Street), and in St. Andrew's
(Walnut Street), but this was not a period of greatest building activity in Leicester,
which came much later in the 1880s and 1890s.

In the second half of the 18th century there had become popular among the wealthier
landowners a fashion for simulated 'Gothic' details - not seen for some 250 years. They
were not very seriously studied and were more of a light-hearted surface treatment,
often carried out in stucco, a style which has become known as 'Gothick'.

In the 1830s, however, there was an intense revival of interest in the Middle Ages,
particularly in the churches remaining from that period, many of which had fallen into
decay. Certain architects active at the time, notably Augustus Welby Pugin, made a
detailed study of correct Gothic detail and propagated the idea that the style of the 12th
century - Early English - was the only truly Christian style, which should be adopted by
all serious architects. Eventually, by the 1850s and especially the 1860s, the 'Gothic
Revival' style became all the rage for all types of building, including for larger houses.

Its most obvious feature was, of course, the pointed arch, found not only in brickwork
and masonry, but also in window bars, door panelling, wall panelling and ironwork.
Steeply pitched roofs of 60 degrees or even more, complicated decorative barge boards
to gables, polished granite columns, bands of coloured tiles and brickwork, floral
capitals, openwork ridge tiles, and fishtail slates, are all indicators of this period.

This kind of detail was usually too expensive for the smaller house, but there are in
Leicester one or two examples in the lower price ranges of pointed brickwork arches,
and a few of ‘Gothic’ glazing bars. There are also a good many examples of a favourite
eaves treatment of the time - coloured ceramic tiles (commonly 6in.x 6in.) forming a
frieze, interrupted by decorative wood or cast iron eaves brackets, often quite large and
often in pairs. These can produce a really charming effect, particularly when the sun is
casting good shadows.

Another important development was the introduction of cast artificial stone, which
could be used for decorative door and window lintols and surrounds, and for cills. It was
easier to erect than brick arches and more weather resistant than stucco for cills. By the
1870s it was predominant, and plain (or very simply margin moulded) cast stone
lintols, often incorporating a dummy keystone, were the hallmark of Leicester houses of
the period. Many have been demolished, but there are still some around in the older
streets of St. Andrew's, say, or Highfields.

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Home Sweet Home

At first, the new lintols had 70 degree raked ends, bearing only about 0.5", following the
brick arches which they replaced, but around 1880 it was realised that this was no
longer necessary, and square-ended patterns, bearing a full half brick, took over,
avoiding the cutting of the adjacent brickwork. Examples can often be dated by this
major change in appearance.

There are a few transitional examples of square ended lintols with a raked one moulded
onto their faces, but this hangover soon disappeared and lintols now became more and
more varied, eventually evolving into the truly wonderful range of designs current in
the 1880s and 90s, just a few of which are shown on p.102 & p.103.

By the 1880s, the period of Leicester's greatest expansion, the passion for ‘Gothic’ had
died down. Further regulations had produced wider streets, more rear space, 1-brick
party walls, higher ceilings etc. and, with the Borough (as it was then) steadily growing
more prosperous, tenants were better paid and could afford the rising rentals needed to
support higher building costs.

Some rooms now had decorative plaster cornices and central ceiling rosettes, doors
were thicker, and front doors had boldly projecting bolection mouldings to impress the
visitor. Shared common yards were now a rarity, and the standard became the walled
private yard with rear access from the street by way of a covered entry. The entries
often served only two houses, with yard gates set at 45 degrees, but many served up to
six or eight, depending on the ownership of the plots.

In the Newfoundpool district there was an unusual arrangement - 6 ft. wide rear access
ways with through connections to both adjacent streets, making short cuts possible, but
these have recently given rise to nuisances and are now being gated off.

Rear access was compulsory in Leicester, unlike, for instance, in Bristol, where dust bins
had to be carried through the house, and anything needed for the rear had to pass the
same way.

The yard dividing walls were usually half brick with piers, capped with blue coping
bricks, and much of the yard was paved with blue pavers, either plain or with a diamond
or square pattern of grooves, set in a bituminous material on ashes.

By this date most houses consisted of a front parlour, middle living room, and a
reasonably sized kitchen, with a bedroom above each. Front and middle bedrooms now
had fireplaces. The third bedroom was at first only accessible through the middle
bedroom, but a major change - reversing the direction of the stair to rise from the
fireside corner of the middle room - made possible a passage to keep the middle
bedroom private. There was a door at the stair foot and a useful storage space under the
stair, usually one step down to give a little more headroom. The kitchen ceiling was
usually some 9 in. lower than the other rooms, causing a step down to the back
bedroom above.

Beyond the kitchen would be a lean-to extension, containing a fuel store and W.C., and
often a general store. Even larders began to be included in the better houses, as was an
entrance hallway to avoid passing through the front room on every occasion.

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Home Sweet Home

Thousands and thousands of this almost standard Leicester house, with many minor
variations, were built in the 1880s and 1890s in Spinney Hill, North Evington, Evington
Valley, West Humberstone, Humberstone Park, Highfields, West End, Westcotes, St.
Andrew's, Dane Hills, Newfoundpool, Woodgate, Clarendon Park, Aylestone, Aylestone
Park, Abbey Meadows, Knighton Fields, South Knighton, St.Mary's Fields, Oadby,
Wigston Magna, South Wigston, Belgrave, Thurmaston, Syston, Northfields, Glenfield, &
Anstey.

The streets during this period were still paved with granite setts, but of a more regular
pattern and more evenly laid. Most have been replaced by, or heavily patched with,
tarmac, but a few have survived intact - a particularly good example being Agar Street in
Belgrave.

By 1881 the population had reached 120,000 and by 1901, 210,000 (not including
suburbs) - a tenfold growth during the century.

Houses from this period were well-built and did not fall within the parameters for
demolition in the 1960s and 70s. Instead they became the subject of' Improvement
Grants' for the installation of items such as bathrooms, hot water supply, inside W.C.s,
and new doors and windows, and many thousands benefited from the scheme. Such
houses have since risen enormously in value as residents have tired of long commuting
journeys and have appreciated more and more their convenience, despite the lack of
parking space.

Most of the houses from this period were still built directly fronting the street, with no
front garden at all, but in some more favoured areas, Westcotes in particular, they were
set back six feet or so and given that hallmark of Victorian respectability, one or more
bay windows.

These added a couple of feet to the front room, provided a focal position for an
aspidistra in a brass pot, and made it possible to look up and down the street to keep an
eye on the neighbours' comings and goings.

The type of house with the bay window directly abutting the footway (as in Coronation
Street), although common in Manchester was very rare in Leicester, but there are a few
in the Clarendon Park area.

This was the really prosperous period, when Leicester's architects and builders went to
town on the facades of their houses, with a riot of invention and fascinating detail which
would be impossible to reproduce today. Every conceivable combination and
permutation of ideas can be found in the neighbourhoods built during those twenty
years including, for example, ambitious attempts at Jacobean or stepped Dutch gables.

Brick and tile makers were vying with one another to issue catalogues packed with
illustrations of fancy chimney pots, ridge tiles, finials, plaques, and moulded bricks in
enormous variety, which were seized upon and incorporated into designs with great
enthusiasm. Some of the most inventive designs, in a very wide range, came from the

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Home Sweet Home

Haunchwood Brick and Tile Co. Ltd. of Stockingford, Nuneaton, just over the
Leicestershire border into Warwickshire.

The cast stone people were doing the same, offering a huge range of delightfully detailed
and excellently made lintols, door and window surrounds, arch sets, bay window sets,
cills and quoin stones. Their products were finely cast, without blemishes, and with
sharp arrisses (angles). The moulds were absolutely accurately made, including subtle
reverse and other curves, rosettes, fleurs-de-lys, floral swags, and many other
variations, all a delight to the eye.

The joinery manufacturers were not to be outdone, and joined in the general delight in
inventiveness. Never had there been such an enormous variety of doors and windows
on offer - richly panelled front doors, bay windows of every shape and pattern, oval
windows, round bullseyes, porches with barley sugar posts, half-round door frames, and
endless other offerings, all beautifully made from seasoned material and incorporated
as soon as they were in the latest catalogues. What a time for building! No wonder
people used to say 'They knew how to build in the old days'. This was without a doubt
the peak of craftsmanship in domestic building.

One advantage of terraced houses is that they have only one short elevation exposed to
the street, and only a door and two or three windows to deal with, so the elaborate
designs which everyone was evolving could be afforded and were actually carried out,
unlike the almost complete lack of such details since that period.

The oversailing eaves courses, supporting a cast iron ogee profile gutter, which had
replaced soffits with eaves brackets, also became ever more varied and decorative, and
were carried to four or five courses above the bedroom ceiling level to make a more
impressive elevation. In this they were successful, but the rigid triangulated tying of
rafters and ceiling joists was now interrupted and roof spread occurred from time to
time, exacerbated by the shaking of wartime bombing, sometimes necessitating the
insertion of steel tie rods. As party wall gables were still not always complete, purlins
were sometimes not solidly built in, and there were one or two cases of roofs simply
sliding into the street when the purlins racked over.

Another noticeable feature of this period was the tendency towards larger window
areas, by setting them in pairs or threes with narrow brick or stone piers between, or by
widening the openings by using deeper stone lintols, now four or even five courses
deep.

The wider windows had two or three lights, with the mullions formed from the two
adjacent sash boxes. Under the influence of the 'Domestic and Vernacular Revival'
movement, filtering down from a group of leading Architects in London, upper sashes
now reverted to small panes, the novelty of being able to obtain large panes having
worn off, but the lower sashes continued with just the central glazing bar, presumably
to maintain the street observation post!

As terraced house facades were always short of width, any idea for saving a few inches
soon became the standard, an example being the Leicester way of forming front door
frames. The jambs were recessed behind the face brickwork and only a thin planted

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Home Sweet Home

stop board showed in the opening, saving two inches compared with exposing the
whole frame.

Other improvements to building standards included two course dampcourses,


frostproof blue brick chimney cappings, better facing bricks, deeper and more richly
moulded skirtings, and hollow, boarded ground floors instead of solid paved, at first to
the front room only - later to the middle room also. Gas was now fitted as standard for
cooking, and for the incandescent mantles used for lighting, operated by a chain pull and
giving a bright white light.

Some sections of society, e.g. shop owners, teachers of music and dancing, small
builders and manufacturers, civil servants, managers, and minor professionals, were
getting so much better off by now that there was a demand, beyond the standard two-
storey house, for a much larger type of terraced house, which came to be known as a
‘Villa’.

These usually had three storeys, with plenty of bay windows and much delightful
architectural detail, and were built along the more important roads of each new
development. Their rooms were large, the ceilings high, the fire surrounds elaborate,
the stairs had heavy newel posts with turned decorative finials, there was a scullery as
well as a kitchen, and there would be four or even five bedrooms. Eventually, at long
last, they even included an inside W.C. (previously regarded as unhygienic) and, wonder
of wonders, a bathroom, sometimes literally so, without a washbasin.

They were the finest houses for the rather better off occupier that had yet been seen
and are still, deservedly, in great demand. They were full of varied, interesting, and
perfectly executed detail, with stained glass, Minton tiled floors to the front hall and
vestibule, and mass-produced stone name plaques like 'Rosedene', 'Forest View',
'Strathspey' or 'Clandon'. They appealed to those who could not aspire to the enormous
detached residences rising in Stoneygate, Birstall, Kirby Fields, and Oadby, and around
the commuter railway stations such as Syston, Narborough, Blaby,
Countesthorpe, Thurnby, Desford, and Great Glen.

Examples of these superior houses can be seen in Fosse Road South in Westcotes, Mere
Road in Spinney Hill, Aylestone Road in Aylestone Park, Queens Road in Clarendon Park,
St. James' Road, Victoria Park, Uppingham Road, West Humberstone and elsewhere.

By about 1900 the rate of house building was slowing, although there was still quite a
lot to come, and a big change in appearance now occurred with the introduction of two
new features - small-paned oriel windows on shaped brackets, to the front bedroom,
and roughcast, instead of facing brick, to the upper half of the front elevation. This led in
some cases to the abandonment of the decorative oversailing courses at the eaves,
which had been standard for decades, in favour of a timber fascia board and an eaves
soffit, sometimes of matchboarding and sometimes of roughcast swept to a curve, to cap
the upstairs oriel, which projected less than the earlier two-storey bays with their
leaded tops.

Another feature commonly seen from this period was the setting of window frames
forward of the wall face, with moulded fillets down the jambs and a small leadcovered

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moulded cornice over the window head. Small paned windows, and casements rather
than vertical sliding sashes, generally became more and more common, foreshadowing
their predominance during the 1920s and 30s.

The facing bricks also began to change, from the almost universal hard smooth
‘Leicester Tapped’ to a sandfaced brick of softer texture and slightly more orange
colour, often bullnosed (rounded) at the jambs of entrance doorways, producing a most
attractive effect. In fact the preference for a smooth brick, partly due to the smoke filled
atmosphere of 19th century industrial cities, ended altogether soon afterwards, and the
1920s and 30s saw textured facing bricks - sandfaced or wire cuts - sweep the board.

These changes, and also the occasional use of terracotta chimney cappings instead of
blue brick oversails, caused the final terraced streets (or 'roads' as they were now more
likely to be called) to have a quite different look.

Good examples can be seen in the St. Mary's Fields area, (East of Narborough Road
beyond the railway bridge), and in Humberstone Park and Evington Valley.

In the years just before World War I the production of terraced houses was nearing its
end, and the war really brought the era to a close. After the war came a reaction. The
returning heroes had to have the most modem houses that could be achieved and the
terraced house was regarded as out of date and sub-standard.

The day had dawned for the semi-detached house, and during the next twenty years it
swamped the country, becoming the absolute standard. Millions were built in boring
repetitive layouts with a very limited range of designs. Space, air and light were the
catchwords, and over-wide roads with impractical grass verges, impossible to maintain
in good condition, 70 feet between facing houses, 12 to the acre, and other dogmatic
planning requirements were rigidly enforced.

In recent years there has been a reaction and a recognition of this prodigal waste of
what is now called ‘greenfield’ building land. Developers are now encouraged, not to say
required, to save land by using cul-de-sacs with much lighter roadwork, to introduce
varied layouts including short blocks of houses and three, or even four, storey designs,
which has led to a vast improvement in appearance, although fullblown terraces still
seem precluded by longstanding prejudice. Only time will tell whether this sensible and
potentially attractive approach will return.

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Home Sweet Home

HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVED

We have been looking at the basic housing unit of the 19th century - the ordinary 2-
storey terraced house - from its plain and humble beginnings in the 1820s to its peak in
numbers and elaboration in the 1880s and 90s, and its sudden end in 1914, but there
was at the same time a demand from the wealthier section of the growing population,
particularly the successful manufacturers, for a larger and better type of house.

Because Leicester had such a wide variety of successful industries, and because so many
were medium sized family businesses, there was always a good number of well off
residents who wanted to build or buy expensive homes within reasonably easy reach of
their works but away from the smoke and grime of industry.

These tended to be either on the south-east side of the town in Stoneygate, centred on
London Road, or in the large and small developments which arose near almost every
railway station within 10 miles radius. On all the nine radiating lines which were then in
use, Victorian and Edwardian villas can be found not far from the sites of the old
stations, often swamped by later developments, but originally backing onto open
countryside.

They vary from substantial suburbs such as Kirby Fields, by Kirby Muxloe station, to one
or two isolated houses as at Ingarsby and near the old station at Great Glen. They are
also at Syston, Sileby, Barrow-on-Soar, Blaby, Desford, Narborough, Croft, Rearsby,
Countesthorpe, Broughton Astley, Kibworth and Thurnby. One of the largest groups - all
Edwardian or later because the station did not open until 1899 - is at Rothley and along
Station Road, Cropston. The houses along Swithland Lane and the Ridgeway at Rothley
must be amongst the finest around the city.

The south-east segment began with the lower New Walk area, gradually spreading up
the rising ground to what was the racecourse (now Victoria Park), and beyond to
Stoneygate, finally culminating in the magnificent houses built along the broad tree
lined avenues of the Knighton Grange and Oadby sections of the Powys-Keck estate.

The finest are possibly those fronting Glebe Road, Knighton Grange Road and Manor
Road - several miles of the finest materials and craftsmanship that money could buy.
Here are the two-inch handmade bricks, the stone dressings, oak timbering, elaborate
lead work, enormous sweeping tile roofs, coach houses and gardener's lodges, and
splendid gates and fences enclosing long gravelled driveways, from the finest period of
middle class domestic architecture that England has seen, and is most unlikely to see
again. The modem architect, designing by computer, cannot have the deep
understanding of building construction and architectural detail needed to produce such
masterpieces. That knowledge was frittered away within two generations and is
probably lost for good.

As licensed premises were not permitted on the Powys-Keck lands, even today there is
no pub between the 'Cradock' at Knighton and the 'Cedars' at old Evington village. In
two areas close to Stoneygate, South Knighton and Francis Street, terraced houses were
allowed, presumably to house the chauffeurs, gardeners, cooks, and maids needed
nearby. After the 1914-18 war the cost of labour and materials had risen, and domestic

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labour was much harder to obtain. A good many more high quality houses were built in
the area, but were generally smaller. The hundred years of great wealth for the few and
low pay for the many were finally over.

BETWEEN THE WARS

What happened to all those thousands of small houses, when no more were being built?
The vast majority had been built as a rental investment - 'as safe as houses' as the saying
went - and for the first 15 years after the 1914-18 war there was little change. The later
ones (from the 1880s and 90s) were 30 to 40 years old - not long in the life of a well
built property - and remained pretty well as they had been built, many still with their
original gas lighting and their green and cream paint or brown simulated graining. In
the 1920s most were wired for electricity and in the 30s they may have had a new deep
white 'Belfast' sink and draining board and perhaps a kitchen cupboard or two, but in
general, when the second war began, they were much the same, but now 50 to 60 years
old.

With the earlier ones it was a different story altogether. By the 1930s they were
approaching a hundred years old - a hundred years of wind, rain, frost, settlement,
rising damp, and general wear and tear. As low rental returns prevented landlords from
carrying out even basic repairs, slates which had slipped due to rusting nails stayed
where they were whilst the rain dripped in, cracked or broken panes remained cracked
or broken, peeling paint was left to peel and rot the woodwork, privy doors hung on one
hinge, cracked w.c. pans were not replaced. Unpointed brickwork caused further frost
damage, and tiled floors lifted as the clay swelled underneath.

In short, they had become 'slums' - a term not heard so much today, but very much on
the mind of Government at the time, and it was a nationwide problem. Never before had
so many dwellings been built at the same time - never before had so many reached the
end of their lives at the same time.

Action was needed, and action was taken. Local Authorities were empowered by Slum
Clearance Acts to purchase unfit properties compulsorily and to demolish them but,
before the bulldozers could get going, every single property had to be inspected and a
report made of its defects - recitals of bulging walls and broken drains, rising damp and
insanitary toilets. Owners had to be identified, notices served, objections heard,
valuations prepared, legal procedures pursued.

As the valuations were based on site value only, unfit properties being regarded as
without value even though landlords had been unable to keep them in order, they were
minimal. There is not a lot of value in a plot too small to build on, in a neighbourhood
where one could not build anyway because it is due for comprehensive redevelopment.

Eventually, the legal procedures were completed, the bulldozers got to work, and by
1939 hundreds of the earliest cottages were no more. Some of their sites were used for
new streets, (Charles Street, Abbey Street, Burley's Way, Lee Circle) and for St.
Margaret's bus station (the first version -not the present one), some for industrial sites,

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and some for pleasantly designed new houses, e.g. opposite St. Mark's church in
Belgrave Gate.

All this activity came to a halt during the subsequent war years, and any preregulation
dwellings which remained in 1939 were given a further lease of life.

The better houses, set back from the street, had normally had decorative cast iron gates
and railings set on dwarf walls. These were soon seen as a handy source of iron for the
war effort and thousands upon thousands were tom off and the walls capped with mean
concrete flush copings, many of which remain today. It has been suggested recently that
the railings were not all used for the intended purpose but, whether that is so or not,
their removal was a disaster for the appearance of our Victorian streets.

After the cessation of building for six wartime years, the housing shortage was so severe
that any dwelling, however defective, was regarded as better than none. In fact it was
not until the mid-fifties that clearance was resumed, and thereafter it continued for the
next twenty years or so. This time it was on the grand scale, and caused the biggest
upheaval that Leicester had ever seen.

Beginning with the narrow Dickensian streets of St. Matthew's, the area laid waste
reached northward, into St. Mark's, (as far as Dorset Street and Brandon Street)
together with the older parts of Highfields (as far as Bemers Street), Belgrave, Spinney
Hill, West Humberstone, St.Leonard's, St.Andrew's, West End, and even to one or two
streets in Aylestone Park. Thousands of residents had to move to the new
neighbourhoods being built further out, including Stocking Farm, Mowmacre Hill,
Braunstone Frith, Thurnby Lodge, Nether Hall, and Eyres Monsell. The new houses were
obviously infinitely better equipped, but they were laid out on boring windswept roads
a long way from central amenities and places of work, and a lot of family and social ties
were broken in the process.

The clearance areas were designated Comprehensive Development Areas (CDAs) and
lived up to their name, very little being left standing except a few licensed premises,
some of the schools, and some of the places of worship, standing isolated above the bare
ground, visible for the first time since it disappeared under bricks and mortar some 100
years earlier.

The procedure became familiar. First the press notices would appear, defining the next
area to be dealt with. A pause of some months, and then the houses began to empty; one
or two at first, but rapidly increasing until entire streets would stand silent, their doors
and windows boarded up with their own floorboards, 'GAS OFF' daubed on their walls,
broken slates and glass crunching underfoot, and abandoned furniture and belongings
in the back yards and entryways. The lead from roof valleys, chimney flashings, bay tops
and water pipes would be removed immediately before it could be stolen.

Then the demolition gangs arrived. After any saleable roof slates, timber, and doors
were set aside, the bulldozers pushed in the front and rear walls, the chimney breasts
and party walls fell like a row of dominoes, the rubble was carted off for hardcore under
new roads and buildings and, in a few short weeks, all that was left of a mature
neighbourhood would be trees and shrubs from the old back yards, the patched and

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uneven granite sett paving of the old streets and the lamp standards, and even these
were often replaced by temporary wooden poles.

Views, which had been limited to one street, suddenly extended to a quarter of a mile,
and the unsightly backs and sides of the remaining buildings became prominent
features.

With the houses went the factories, workshops, warehouses, chapels, schools, pubs, and
shops, some of which would be listed buildings today but which were totally
unappreciated at the time. Not only unappreciated, but really loathed by zealous
planners and councillors who could not wait to get on with building the brave new
world of the 1960s and 70s - a world which has itself become even more cordially
loathed, in fact some of it has already been demolished, only 30 years after it was built,
an incredible waste of taxpayers' money.

In the whole of the St. Matthew's clearance area, practically all that were left were St.
Matthew's church itself, Taylor Street school, a chapel in Curzon Street, one or two
factories (including Wyvem Pen Co. and Curzonia knitwear), and the rebuilt Talbot Inn
in Denman Street and Durham Ox in Birstall Street. Even the church has since gone, as
have the pen factory, the chapel, and the school, which will leave only the two 1930s
rebuilt pubs and the Curzonia works to show that the teeming streets of the old St.
Matthew's ever existed.

Another great loss was Charnwood Street in Spinney Hill, a remarkable, cosy, local
shopping centre, full of character and interest and much loved and appreciated. There
were nearly 100 shops, lining both sides of the street, from the usual butcher's, grocer's
and baker's to quaint second-hand and antique shops, clothing, hardware and many
others. If it had been retained within the new layout and smartened up it would today
be almost a tourist attraction like Belgrave Road but, like so much else, it was
demolished without a qualm and the most excruciatingly boring and downright ugly
housing has taken its place.

AFTER THE CLEARANCES

As it was seldom possible to begin rebuilding immediately, the cleared sites in some
cases stood for months or years, sprouting rosebay willow herb and gathering litter and
discarded domestic rubbish. Itinerants moved in and embankments had to be thrown
up to keep others off.

Eventually the Contractors arrived and roads took shape, followed by the next great
rebuilding, at St. Matthew's a first phase mainly of pleasant 4-storey blocks of flats with
tiled roofs. The later second phase was of unpleasant flat roofed blocks, including two
24-storey tower blocks, since demolished, surrounded by rows of extremely ugly
garages fronting Dysart Way. The most ghastly of all was the St. Peter's scheme of flats,
built of large precast units by the Council's own Direct Labour Department, which was
an utter disaster. Work came to a halt and private developers had to be invited in, to
pull down the recently completed work and complete the neighbourhood to their own
designs, which were reasonably attractive.

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The little old terrace houses, even the worst of them, lasted far longer, and those built
after about 1875 are still going strong today, provided that they get a little loving care.

Improvement grants have ensured that the vast majority now have bathrooms, indoor
toilets, a hot water system, and a reasonably modern kitchen. Their structure has been
checked over, thick roof insulation installed, and they stand ready to face the elements
for another 100 years

GILDING THE LILY

Unfortunately, also during the last 30 years, well-meaning but misguided changes to the
exteriors have also taken place, on an enormous scale, encouraged by the amazing
growth of the D.I.Y. business and by the insistence of councils on new windows as a
condition of grant approval.

The result has been the architectural ruination of perhaps 85% of the houses described
in this study. Now, instead of dignified terraces composed of regularly repeated units,
the aim seems to be no two alike, resulting in a restless jumble of unrelated and
inappropriate features.

Well-proportioned windows of seasoned timber have been torn out by the thousand
and burnt or taken to tip, to be replaced by flimsy modern versions completely out of
character, often bodged up to fit the old openings.

Robust panelled doors with comfortable knobs and solid cast iron letterplates have
been replaced by poorly made, ill-proportioned mock 'Tudor' or 'Georgian' rainforest
hardwood doors imported from the third world, unpleasant to the touch and doomed to
rapid deterioration in the British climate. The new hardware is often hard to clean and
painful to operate, and the so-called 'knockers' will hardly raise a tap.

Particularly when facing the sun, their varnish soon peels and the unprotected rough
surface gathers gritty dirt. The wood bleaches, the joints open, and within a few years
they become an eyesore which has to be painted as were the originals.

Another version is the fully glazed aluminium door, without an iota of character, fitted
with extruded handles which cannot be pulled or pushed without discomfort.

From one end of the country to the other, the fascinating variety and fine workmanship
of original doors and windows has been sacrificed to an utterly boring range of three or
four mass-produced patterns, and in many streets not one untouched window survives.
One particular stock type, an opening transom light above a large fixed pane, is not only
ugly but impossible to escape through in case of fire.

Not particularly well off householders have been persuaded, or required, to spend
millions of pounds on spoiling the character of their homes, millions that could have
gone towards better insulation, secondary glazing, and better kitchens and bathrooms
which would have enhanced their value.

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Slate roofs, which have maintained their crisp appearance for a century, have been
replaced by gaudy concrete tiles, many of which grow lichen and fade to a soggy grey
after a few years, and which have to be married to adjacent slates by various crude
methods likely to give trouble. Some owners have even tried to revert to the 17th
century by sticking imitation lead cames onto their 19th century glazing! This might be
the ultimate in misguided 'improvement', were it not for the practice of ruining
excellent brickwork by hiding it with paint or roughcast or by sticking onto it pathetic
imitation ‘stone’ tiles which sometimes stop halfway over an arch or name plaque. It is
hard to see how this could fool anyone, as it is rather unlikely that one house in a brick
terrace would be of stone, even if it were of convincing appearance!

So they stand today, more than a century after being built, transformed from their solid,
handsome, original character to a crazy hotchpotch of unrelated eyesores, the new
windows set to the wall face and losing protection, their softwood cills rotting, the
‘stone’ tiles losing their adhesion, the painted brickwork and the roughcast needing
endless maintenance (which it does not get).

Happily, in the last few years, taste has swung back to preserving original features.
Discriminating owners are cleaning and pointing their brickwork, restoring their slated
roofs, and investing in a really good paint job, rather than trying to gild the lily.

As it is hard to see, for reasons of cost and availability alone, anything comparable to the
best Victorian work being produced again, the remaining unspoilt examples will surely
receive wider and wider recognition as being from the finest period of building
craftsmanship, which will be reflected in their market value, ensuring that they will be
there to give pleasure for many years to come.

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3. DRAWINGS OF TYPICAL DEVELOPMENTS, HOUSE PLANS AND ELEVATIONS

KEY TO NOTATION

A Ashpit
B Bedroom
BA Bathroom
BB Blindback
BTB Back to back
C Cupboard
CE Covered entryway
CY Common Yard
D Dining Room
E Entryway
F Fuel storage
GF Ground Floor
GL Gas Lamp
H Hallway
K Kitchen
L Larder
LK Living Kitchen
LR Living Room
LT Lean-to
M Meter cupboard
P Parlour
PY Private yard or garden
S Store
SC Scullery
V Vestibule
W Wardrobe cupboard
WS Workshop
1F First floor
2F Second Floor
0 Earth or water closet

Notes: Blindback - Having a blank rear wall, or a rear door only, sometimes with
a small landing or under stair window.

Back to back - Built directly against another house or building, with no


possibility of door or window.

On some first floor plans bed positions are shown, to give some idea of how they
could be arranged, but large families would have been much more crowded.

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A. PLANS BEFORE BUILDING REGULATION (1814 - c.1860)


(All St. Matthew's) Scale 1/96 (1 inch = 8 feet)

6-16 Lewin Street and 2-8 Lewin Cottages 28

17-23 Lewin Street 29

55-57 Brook Street 30

Hextall House and Cottages, Carley Street 31

9-17 Goodacre Street and 41-49 Carley Street 32

42-48 Providence Place 33

47-55 Providence Place 34

1-16 Willow Cottages, Taylor Street 35

83-87 ½ Wharf Street and 2 Metcalf Street 36

78-80 Wheat Street 37

120-130 Wheat Street 38

29 and 29 ½ Willow Bridge Street 39

4-10 Chester Street and 1-5 Brown's Yard 40

96 Stanley Street, 176 Taylor Street, and 1-7 Spinner St. 41

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29
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Photograph showing 55-57 Brook Street the houses


behind have already been demolished

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B. PLANS AFTER BUILDING REGULATION ( c.1860-1914)

Scale 1/96 (1 inch = 8 feet)

24-32 Farnham Street & 1-4 Chamwood Cottages, Spinney Hill 43

221 Humberstone Road, Spinney Hill 44

39 Gopsall Street, Highfields 45

8 Twycross Street, Highfields 46

1 Flora Street, West End 47

48 Belgrave Avenue, Belgrave 48

38 Danvers Road, St. Mary's Fields 49

38 Eastleigh Road, Westcotes 50

13 Oban Street, Newfoundpool 51

15 Epsom Road, Belgrave 52

110 Queens Road, Clarendon Park 53

24 Westleigh Road, Westcotes 54

2 Stretton Road, Dane Hills 55

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14

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46
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C. ELEVATIONS OF TYPICAL HOUSE TYPES


Scales: 1/96 (1 inch = 8 feet) or 1/48 (1 inch = 4 feet)

4 Houses, Southgate Street, St. Martin's 57

17-23 Lewin Street, St. Matthew's 59

119-123 Bedford Street, St. Matthew's 60

22-24 Fuller Street, Frog Island 62

4 houses, Sparkenhoe Street, Highfields 63

120-124 Wheat Street, St. Matthew's 65

15 Gosling Street, St.Andrew's 67

46-56 Brook Street, St. Matthew's 68

41 Laxton Street, St. Andrew's 71

40, 40a, 40b Upper Kent Street, Highfields 72

15-17 Havelock Street(rear), St. Andrew's 74

57-63 New Bridge Street, St. Andrew's 75

14 Militia Houses, The Newarke 77

2a & 2b St.Andrew's Cottages, St. Andrew's 79

232-234 Syston Street, St. Matthew's 81

236-240 Syston Street, St. Matthew's 83

34-36 Joseph Street, St. Andrew's 84

24-32 Farnham Street, Spinney Hill 86

78-80 Evington Street, Highfields 87

63-65 Conduit Street South, Highfields 88

72-82 Melbourne Road, Highfields 90

126 Howard Road, Clarendon Park 92

24 Kingston Road, Evington Valley 93

Glossop St. and Osrnaston Rd., Evington Valley 95

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Southgate Street, a little south of Peacock Lane


1820s. Dem 1930s.

A block of four 3-storey houses on the east side of Southgate Street, dating probably from the 1820s. Demolished 1930s for bus
garage. The houses are combined into a symmetrical elevation of 7 bays - the centre three having a pediment. All have a cornice
and parapet, and are faced with stucco - a popular material during the Regency period; before it was realised that industrial
smoke would make frequent and expensive maintenance necessary. The door openings are round - headed and half brick inset,
as are several windows – a feature very typical of the time.

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Cutting from the Leicester Mercury showing the four houses on Southgate Street drawn above

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17-23 Lewin Street, St. Matthews

These are the four cottages shown in plan on p.30 demolished in 1954. The open entryway to the
rear was to the left of No.23.

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119-123 Bedford Street, St. Matthew's


1820s. Dem. 1960s.

A short terrace of simple, but handsome,


cottages, each with a frontage of 11 ft.
and all the same hand, still showing a late
Georgian influence. The upper windows
have sliding 'Yorkshire' opening lights
and are kept at one level, whilst the lower
windows are stepped to the street
gradient.

Wooden box gutters, with downpipe


discharging onto the footway. 1 course
blue slope brick cills. Flush door panels
with bead-and-butt joints. Brick
segmental arches to windows, half- round
to doors. Mortar flaunching to stacks - no
leadwork as yet.

No. 119 (right) abutted a factory.

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119-123 Bedford Street, St. Matthew's

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22-24 Fuller Street, Frog Island


1840s. Dem.1965.
Part of a terrace originally of seventeen 2 bedroom houses,
with common yards backing onto canal side industrial
premises, access to which was by a covered entryway
between two of the houses. The street was only 20ft. wide
and was paved with inferior granite setts.

The door and window heads all have brick segmental


arches, carefully kept to a common level, a method adhered
to throughout the century to achieve a restful appearance
along the street. The spandrel above the door, later usually a
fanlight, was here of half brick, carried on the transom.
Windows, set to the wall face, have stuccoed brick-on-edge
cills, and are still glazed in correctly proportioned small
panes.

The facing brickwork was in Flemish bond, with a


decorative pattern of grey-white headers above ground
floor cill level, although a few had been accidentally omitted.
These grey-white bricks were used in Leicester quite often
at the time - see some of the larger houses in New Walk -
and were probably intended to give these humble homes a
bit of class! The eaves gutters were cast iron (ogee profile)
fixed to a wooden fascia, unlike the over sailing eaves
courses, so typical of Leicester, which came later.

Fuller Street was down in the most flood-prone part of the


town, amongst dyeworks and other canalside activities, and
the other side of the street had cottages of only two rooms,
but the Georgian tradition of simple good proportions in a
rhythmic pattern was still evident even there.

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Sparkenhoe Street, Highfields.


1840 approx. Dem.1966.

A block of four 3-storey stuccoed houses at the corner of Upper Conduit Street. Handed in two pairs. Entrance doors with classical
pilasters and entablatures, and windows emphasised by moulded hoods on a pair of console brackets. Second floor windows have
moulded stucco architraves, and cills with two corbels. Blind recesses at the centre party wall to maintain the window rhythm. These
attractive houses were destroyed with the smaller houses behind them, solely to clear an entire block - such was the lack of regard for
19th century survivals at the time.

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120-124 Wheat Street, St.Matthew's


1850s. Dem.1955.

Street elevation of the houses shown in plan on p.39. The windows had the small panes and brick segmental arches characteristic of
the 1850s and 60s, and the spandrels over the doors in this example were stuccoed. The houses were still not always handed, as
became standard later. The chimney stack of no.120 had been raised to avoid downdraught when a 3-storey industrial building
arrived next door.

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120-124 Wheat Street, St.Matthew's


1850s. Dem.1955.

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Havelock Cottage, 15 Gosling Street, St.Andrew's.


c.1860s. Dem.1966.

An odd variation in a street otherwise of standard pattern houses, Havelock Cottage stood at the corner of Asylum Street (now The
Gateway) opposite what is now the Student Union building. It had an incised stone name plaque, recording the Crimean war hero,
General Havelock, and several interesting features, including a wooden cornice, a classical door surround, and octagonal chimney pots.

The sash windows had the large panes of the later years, but were still set to the outer wall face - unusual by that date. The lintels were
now of cast stone, with the raked ends and simple raised panel almost standard during the 1870s.

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46-56 Brook Street, St. Matthew's


1830s and 1860s. Dem. 1955.

An interesting comparison between two 19th century decades.

The first block of Brook Street, to Lead Street, was built in the 1830s, but its extension
to Christow Street, not until the 1860s. Nos. 52 and 54, shown below, were the last of
the first stage, and were on the edge of Leicester, which explains the large vent pipe
fixed to no. 54 - presumably the then sewer head. No 56 joined them some 35 years
later. Brook Street had originally been 24 ft. wide, but the extension had to meet new
regulations and be 30 ft. This, and the next piece of land being offset, made the new
centre line well off the old, causing the building lines to rake and the first seven of the
new houses to be out of square, although this was not unusual at the time, when
everyone was trying to squeeze in that last extra house (see p.31).

Elementary building regulations had also been introduced, e.g. requiring greater ceiling
heights and larger windows, and experience gained in the first wave of mass-produced
houses had led to changes in construction:
o Sheet glass was now available, eliminating the need for small panes.
o Cast stone lintols and cills needed less labour than brick arches and stuccoed
cills.
o Eaves of oversailing brick courses with cast iron ogee gutters avoided the
painting of wooden gutters and fascias.
o Better facing bricks could be afforded.
o The new railways had brought frost proof impermeable blue bricks from
Staffordshire, ideal for chimney cappings and damp courses
All these changes can be seen here.

The entryway to the left of the shop door led right through the block to the Talbot Inn in
the next street, Denman Street, and the oval plaque read 'Court A', where were three 2-
room cottages.

Incidentally, no.56 (White's General Stores) had been for thirty years the business of
Bill White, 'Leicester's Pearly King', who, with his family, had raised thousands of
pounds for charities. His plight in the face of redevelopment was documented in the
Leicester Mercury (extract on next page).

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Reproduced from Leicester Mercury Mr. Leicester supplement Monday, July 5, 2004

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46-56 Brook Street, St. Matthew's


1830s and 1860s. Dem. 1955.

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41 and 43, Laxton Street, St.Andrew's


c.1860. Dem. 1966.

Just a pair of 2-room cottages, each 10 ft. wide


and 15 ft deep, in an unimportant side street, but
well proportioned and with attractive details,
such as the paired eaves brackets and the
intriguing lintols, with central roundels and half-
round notches along their lower edges. The
central notch was even made larger than the
others to emphasise the centre line - hard to
imagine such attention to detail today.

Sadly, without an effective damp course, 100


years of rising damp had taken its toll and they
disappeared around 1966.

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40, 40a, and 40b Upper Kent Street, Highfields


c. 1870.

A real attempt at a superior appearance. Lots of stonework in the ground floor oriels,
door surrounds, party wall quoins, hoods, spandrels, and the eared architraves with
dummy keystones to the upper windows. Colonettes, with tiny capitals, between the
centre and side lights. Top rails of doors and sashes, and their lintols, are shouldered to
add interest, and the eaves is carried on regularly spaced shaped brackets, carefully
aligned with the structural components.

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Rear of 15-17 Havelock Street, St. Andrew's


Late 1850s. Dem. 1969.

An unusual example of a house and workshop built as one unit, presumably for the workshop user, behind the two houses fronting the street. The 2-
storey workshop was some 34 ft x 16 ft, and had small-paned cast iron windows, each with a 4-pane opening light. Access was by a narrow covered
entryway to the right of no.17. The 2-bedroomed house, which had a 12 ft yard behind it, still had small-paned windows, and a half brick spandrel over
the entrance door.

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57-63 New Bridge Street and 2 Raglan Street, St. Andrew's


1860s. Dem.1966.

On a plot with a frontage of 140 ft to Raglan Street and 60 ft to New Bridge Street were built 12 houses, including this remarkable block
of five. There was a hint of Gothic in the window heads, and much carefully worked out polychromatic brickwork patterning and quoins.
At each end were unmatched projecting gables, designed as shop fronts – the right-hand one with brick pilasters and a 3-centred arch,
the other quite different – all very odd! Although the group was not symmetrical, the designer went to the trouble of adding dummy
flues to no.59 to make the stacks appear so.

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57-63 New Bridge Street and 2 Raglan Street, St. Andrew's


1860s. Dem.1966.

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14 Militia Houses, Magazine Square,


The Newarke
1863. Dem. 1967

A remarkable terrace, which ran along the


entire south-west side of the parade ground
known as Magazine Square. The steeply pitched
roofs, eaves brackets, decorative ridge tiles,
carved stone plaques, prominent chimney
stacks, banded and patterned brickwork, and
relieving arches over paired doorways made a
fascinating facade, which was destroyed in
1967 to build the truly hideous James Went
building, which, mercifully, lasted only 37 years
before being demolished at enormous expense.

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14 Militia Houses, Magazine Square, The Newarke


1863. Dem. 1967

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2a & 2b St. Andrew's Cottages, St. Andrew's


1860s. Dem. 1969

Designed to appear as a single dwelling, this pair of cottages stood behind the south side
of Deacon Street adjacent to St. Andrew's vicarage. Very typical of their time, with
steeply pitched roofs, elaborately decorated bargeboards, pointed arches, and
polychrome brickwork. The design is so similar to the vicarage (still existing) that it
seems almost certain to have been the work of Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect of St.
Andrew's church.

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2a & 2b St. Andrew's Cottages, St. Andrew's


1860s. Dem. 1969

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232-234 Syston Street, St.Matthew's


1870s. Dem. 1966.

This pair of gable-fronted houses showed some interesting details in the diamond gable
motif and the quoining to window reveals and corners in a contrasting brick. They
seemed to be associated with the adjoining block of three, and had the appearance
almost of having been built for a church body or charity, but could have just been the
effort of an enterprising builder.

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232-234 Syston Street, St.Matthew's


1870s. Dem. 1966.

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236-240 Syston Street, St. Matthew's


1870s. Dem. 1966.

This group of three was quite unlike the standard houses along the rest of Syston Street.
Typical period details - steep roof pitch, decorative ridges and bargeboards, pointed
arches, blue brick band courses. The first floor paired sashes and the design of the
ground floor windows are unusual. Note the small brick corbels to the gable finials. The
2-storey bay windows appear to have been added later, perhaps in the 1880s.

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34-36 Joseph Street, St. Andrew's.


1870s. Dem. 1966.

At first glance not particularly unusual, but these houses were only one room deep and
built back-to-back with a 3-storey workshop, the cast iron casement windows and
second floor goods access door of which could be seen on the gable end. The ground
floors were raised 2 ft. to help achieve a cellar with a little light and ventilation.

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34-36 Joseph Street, St. Andrew's.


1870s. Dem. 1966.

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24-32 Farnham Street with 1-4 Charnwood Cottages at rear, Spinney Hill
1878. Dem.1971.

The lintols, with their blue brick relieving arches, still


show a vestige of the 'Gothic' craze of the 1860s.
Notice the chamfered reveals, boldly moulded door
panels, two course lintol corbels, and the charming
little quirks ending the lintol chamfers - typical of the
care for detail throughout the period.

The eaves is now formed of oversailing courses - in


this case three, with projecting headers to the second -
a foretaste of the ever more elaborate versions
devised as time went on. These particular houses were
faced overall with the grey-white brick used only as
headers elsewhere, making them stand out from their
neighbours.

(See page 44 for plans)


The four Charnwood cottages had 4'6"
wide kitchens, unplastered, with shallow
cane glazed sinks on brick piers

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78-80 Evington Street, Highfields


c.1870. Dem.1967.

The end two of a terrace of seven-similar houses (68-80) where a real effort seemed to
have been made to achieve a non-standard appearance. The quoins and reveals in a
contrasting brick, the stepped segmental arches, exaggerated keystones, and the
recessed panels below the lower windows, are all unusual features. Even the 8-over-8
small panes were uncommon by this date.

Notice how the ground floor heads are kept level on a falling frontage by increasing the
transom light height, and the header corbels to the chimney cappings -care taken up
there where few would notice.

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63-65 Conduit Street, South Highfields


1870s. Dem.1968.

An extremely rare example of stone facing to Leicester houses - these two would look
more at home in Bradford - although there is another group in Grace Road, Aylestone
Park. The bay roofs are another odd feature - standard in London, but Leicester bays
were normally flat and leaded. The doors are also of an uncommon pattern.

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63-65 Conduit Street, South Highfields


1870s. Dem.1968.

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72-82 Melbourne Road, Highfields


Late 1870s. Dem. 1966.

A good example of the larger 3-storey houses built along the more important roads of
each neighbourhood. A continuous pent roof runs across all six bays and porches, which
are supported on tapered posts with moulded bands. Segmental arches with keystones
to the first floor, 3 course quoin stones to the corners and to the party wall between
each pair. Window spacing carefully arranged to line with eaves bracket centres – again
showing the attention to detail.

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72-82 Melbourne Road, Highfields


Late 1870s. Dem. 1966.

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126 Howard Road, Clarendon Park.


1880s. Existing.

One of the standard designs


of the 1880s and 90s. The
windows are now wider (4'9"
rather than the earlier 3' 6"),
and have three lights, divided
by mullions formed by the
sash weight boxes. The cast
stone lintols are 4 courses
deep in this case, but some
were five or even six courses
- see later. Blue brick banding
was very popular, and the
almost universal oversailing
eaves here takes the form of
hit-and-miss headers. The
decorative ridge tile was still going strong, and the stacks had lead flashings, rather than
mortar flaunching, which had to be renewed from time to time to stay weatherproof.

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24 Kingston Road, Evington Valley


1900. Existing.

The only unspoilt example of a small group of similar houses. A highly unusual design,
with almost every feature non-standard. The design of the eaves coursing, the
proportions of the three equal lights to the windows, the moulded cornice linking door
and window, the half-round entryway arch with tall keystone, the boarded door panels,
even the transom glazing bars and the perforations in the entryway spandrel, are
unique in the writer's experience. Notice also the half brick setback on the chimney
stack centreline. With only two windows and a door to work with, the architect has
produced a really interesting elevation.

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24 Kingston Road, Evington Valley


1900. Existing.

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Glossop Street & Osmaston Road, Evington Valley.


1900. Existing.

Another pleasing design, full of intriguing detail. The four or five decorative eaves
courses, standard for some 40 years, have become a three course band, surmounted by
a roughcast coving and a wood fascia. The upstairs windows are oriels, carried by
roughcast-on-lath corbels, swept to graceful curves.

There is a continuous cast stone band course with drip mould, shaped responds to the
'Venetian' arches, and delightfully elongated keystones. The upper sashes have central
glazing bars and the 5-panel doors have bold bolection mouldings.

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Glossop Street & Osmaston Road, Evington Valley.


1900. Existing.

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D. DETAILS OF TYPICAL 1830s 2-ROOM COTTAGE, SHOWING FURNISHING

Based on an example in Green Street, St. Margaret's, centre of the Irish immigration to
Leicester in the 1840s, the drawing shows how such cottages might have been furnished
by a fairly well off working class family. The poorest would, of course, have had almost
no furniture at all. There are a table, dresser, and two fireside chairs downstairs, and a
possible bed position for the children (one at each end was common) and a double and a
single bed and a chest of drawers upstairs.

The Living Kitchen, 11'3" x 10'8", has a coal fired cast iron cooking range, normally the
only source of heat in the dwelling. There could be a small cast iron register grate in the
bedroom, used mainly if someone were ill.

The range had an oven to one side and a boiler for water to the other, and a hook or
hooks for suspending a kettle.

The coal is shown stored under the stair, as was usual at the time, and the only facility
was a shallow cane-glazed sink by the rear door, which would not even have a cold tap,
water being fetched from a pump in the yard.

There was often no ceiling to the Ground Floor - the centre beam and the floor joists
being exposed. The front window has wooden shutters.

Upper floors of this period were often a mortar screed on a layer of rushes, plastered
underneath. In some cases patches of plaster fell away, exposing the rushes to
infestation by bugs and mice.

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TYPICAL 1830s 2-ROOM COTTAGE, SHOWING FURNISHING

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E. ORIGINAL 1870s DRAWING FOR A SHOP AND 3 HOUSES

This shows the original plan for a corner shop and three adjacent houses at 85-91 Great
Holme Street, West End, Leicester, an area laid out in the 1870s and subject to
occasional flooding from the River Soar until the huge flood prevention channel,
nowadays known as the 'Mile Straight', and associated works such as the Eastern and
Western Boulevards were carried out early in the nineteenth century.

By today's standards the drawing is not very well drawn, and the structural details are
very sparse indeed. Almost nothing is shown for the roof construction, for example.

On the other hand, the North sign and some of the lettering are unnecessarily elaborate.
Drain runs are shown, but no gullies or manholes, and the stairs appear to rise in the
opposite direction to what would normally be the case. The half brick walls between
dwellings, alongside the entryways, and for the rear projections can be clearly seen.

The reason for the lack of detail regarding what today would be essential for the
approval of even the most minor plan, is probably that this type of dwelling was so
standardised and well understood by the local builders, and also that the Building
Regulations were much less stringent than today.

There was a convention at the time for using a thicker line for one side of structural
items such as walls and partitions, which has been adopted in this example. It is
interesting to note that the front rooms were marked as 'House' and the middle rooms
as 'Parlor' (sic). The W.C.s are figured as only three feet long internally and one is a two-
seater.

The name of the 'architect' is given, but no address or date, and it should be
remembered that anyone could so call themselves until the Architects' Registration Act
of the 1930s.

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F. EXAMPLES OF WINDOW LINTOLS FROM THE 1870s AND 80s

Only a very few of the great variety which can be found. Note how all details are
designed to 'come courses' with the brickwork gauge of the time - 4 courses to 13" - to
minimise brick cutting.

1. The earliest pattern, with raking end bearings echoing the brick arches used in earlier
years. Quite plain, except for moulded edges to the raised centre panel.

2. A later version, with a dummy keystone dividing the centre panel. To the right, a
further version with the side panel also subdivided.

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3. A more elaborate type. A dummy 'Venetian' arch, with the keystone 'vermiculated' -
patterned with small polygonal segments - and a floral scroll (left) or three roundels
(right). Also to the right, an additional two course padstone.

4. The transitional version, with bearings now square to reduce brick cutting but the
raked ended panel still maintained.

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5. A few other variants (of many) from later in the period

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APPENDIX I – A LIST OF 172 ST. MATTHEWS DWELLINGS WITHOUT A STREET


FRONTAGE

Address Postal No. of Fronting properties


no. houses

Alma Cottages (1) 1-3 3 93-97 Upper Brunswick St.


Alma Cottages (2) 1-8 8 143-153 Upper Brunswick St.
Bradford Cottages 1-13 7 118-128 Curzon Street
Brown's Yard 1-5 5 4-10 Chester Street
Brunswick Cottages 1-4 4 103-9 Upper Brunswick St.
Brunswick Place 1-4 4 85-91 Upper Brunswick St.
Court A, Brook Street 2-4 2 52-54 Brook Street
Court A, Christow Street 1-3 3 41-43 ½ Christow Street
Court B, Denman Street 1-2 2 38-40 Denman Street
Delhi Cottages 1-4 4 80-86 Curzon Street
Ernest Cottages 1-6 6 209-213 Willow Street
Garibaldi Cottages 1-10 10 38-48 Curzon Street
Great Northern Cottages 1-6 6 127-131 Curzon Street
Hextall Cottages 1-9 6 34 ½ -36 ½ Carley Street
Lewin Cottages 2-8 4 10-12 Lewin Street
Major Cottages 1-3 3 226-228 Willow Street
Rose Cottages 1-3 3 34-40 Cobden Street
Spa Cottages 1-8 8 119-125 Curzon Street
Spinner Street Cottages 1-5 5 9 Spinner Street
Stanley Cottages 1-2 2 42-44 Stanley Street
Sunbeam Cottages 1-6 6 246-254 Willow Street
Syston Houses 1-4 4 65-71 Stanley Street
Victoria Cottages 1-3 3 61-63 Upper Brunswick St.
Weldene Cottages 2-6 3 Willow Street
Willow Cottages 1-16 16 6-16 Taylor Street
Willow Terrace 1-6 5 258-268 Willow Street

UNNAMED:
? 5 1-11 Chester Street
1-6 6 12-22 Chester Street.
73 ½ - 99 ½ 14 73-99 Curzon Street
2bk. & 4bk. 2 4-12 Denman Street.
1-2 2 85-87 Denman Street.
1-5 5 19-27 Liverpool Street.
78a-80a Upper Brunswick St. 2 78-82 Upp. Brunswick St.
? 4 77 -83 Willow Street

Total:
172

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APPENDIX II - SOME STREET NAMES

To list all the streets laid out around Leicester between 1814 and 1914 would be a
major task, but here are a few, which may be of interest:-

Jewellery Quarter (St. Leonard's) Crystal, Diamond, Emerald, Opal

Lake District (St. Andrew's) Buttermere, Coniston, Grasmere, Rydal,


Thirlmere, Ullswater, Windermere

Poets' Corner (Knighton Fields) Burns, Herrick, Keble, Kingsley, Lord Byron,
Macaulay, Pope, Scott, Shakespeare, Shelley,
Sheridan, Thackeray, Wordsworth

Crimean War (St. Andrew's) Brudenell, Cardigan, Havelock, Outram

Boer War (Belgrave) Buller, Macdonald, Roberts

Tribes (Westcotes) Briton, Celt, Gaul, Norman, Roman, Saxon

Martyrs (Westcotes) Cranmer, Latimer, Luther, Ridley, Tyndale

Nuts (St. Andrew's) Brazil, Chestnut, Filbert, Hazel,Walnut

German aristocracy (Highfields) Gotha, Hanover, Mecklenburg, Saxe-Coburg


(Now Gotham, Andover, Severn, Saxby)

Rivers (Highfields) Avon, Medway, Welland, Severn

Soar Meadows (West End) Great Holme, West Holme, Little Holme

Derbyshire (Highfields) Abney, Ashbourne, Ashover, Bakewell,


Baslow,Bonsall, Buxton, Chatsworth,
Chesterfield, Cromford, Dale, Darley,
Derwent, Dore, Dronfield, Duffield, Glossop,
Haddon, Hartington, King's Newton, Matlock,
Melbourne, Osmaston, Sawley, Wilne

Landowners

I. Harrison (Newfoundpool) Initial letters of: Ingle, Hawthorn, Alma,


Rowan, Ruby, Ivanhoe, Sylvan, Oban,
Newport

Orson Wright (South Wigston) Orange, W?, Railway, Irlam, Garden, Healey,
Timber

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APPENDIX III - 68 OCCUPANTS OF 1-16 WILLOW COTTAGES, TAYLOR STREET, ST.


MATTHEW'S (1901 Census returns)

Willow Cottages was two terraces, each of eight 4-room dwellings, set at right angles to
Taylor Street

Note: West terrace – odd nos. 1-15


East Terrace – even nos. 2-16

House Occupant Age Profession Other occupants


no. (Age)
1 Not recorded
3 Frederick … 57 Boot and Shoe Rivetter Daughter (18)
5 William Warner 20 Needle Maker Wife & daughter (5
mo.)
7 John Hubbard 42 Hawker Wife, son, & daughter
9 William Ellis 47 Shoe Finisher Wife & 2 sons
11 Thomas Deacon 32 Shoe Finisher Wife, 5 daughters &
son
13 Emily Crowson 50 Widow Boarder
15 Thomas Fowkes 32 Iron Foundry Labourer Wife, son, & daughter

2 William Stokes 66 Hay Trusser Wife, 3 sons &


daughter
4 Fanny Earl 48 Widow 2 sons 3 daughters
6 William Warner 33 Boot Machinist Wife, 2 sons, 2
daughters, & lodger
8 Ada Hydon 29 Widow, Laundress 2 sons & daughter
10 William Murdock 55 Coach Trimmer Wife
12 Thomas Winn 40 Slater's Labourer Wife, son & 2
daughters
14 James Richards 33 Shoe Trade Wife, 2 sons & lodger
16 Tom Sculthorpe 38 Shoe Finisher Wife, 4 sons &
daughter

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APPENDIX IV - GLOSSARY OF ARCHITECTURAL TERMS OCCURRING IN THE TEXT

Architrave Moulded margin to an opening.

Bead-and-butt Simple mould to edge flush panels.

Blind recess Blank wall recess (having no door or window).

Bolection mould Bold projecting mould to panel margins.

Brick nogging Non-structural infill (often herringbone) between structural


framing.

Cane glazed Brown salt glazed.

Casement Hinged opening part of window.

Chamfer Splayed angle.

Colonette Slim non-structural column.

Console bracket Moulded bracket supporting a door or window hood. Usually


stone, stucco, or wood.

Corbel Stone or brick projection to carry trusses, arches, statues etc.

Eared Architrave with projections from upper corners.

Entablature Headpiece of colonnade, or door or window surrounds etc.


(Combination of architrave, frieze, and cornice).

Flaunching Mortar band to waterproof between materials, e.g. between


slating and chimney stack, or for bedding chimney pots.

Flashing Lead or copper ditto

Flemish bond Alternate headers and stretchers.

Half brick Width of a header(see below)

Handed Alternately right and left.

Header Short face of a brick.

Mullion Vertical member between window lights.

Newel Post carrying stair handrail.

Ogee Double (reversed) curve.

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Oriel Bay window not carried down to ground level.

Party wall Separating individual properties.

Pent roof Long narrow lean-to.

Pilaster Slightly projecting dummy column.

Polychromatic Having more than one colour.

Purlin Lateral member supporting rafters.

Quirk Curved profile terminating a moulding.

Quoin Cornerstone or brick panel at angle of building.

Relieving arch Set above a stone lintol to transfer the load to the reveals.

Respond Stone or brickwork to receive the foot of an arch.

Reveal Side of opening, where door or window set back.

Sash Sliding opening part of a window.

Shouldered Top corners of opening or panel shaped as a human shoulder.

Spandrel Area enclosed by an arch or other feature.

Stretcher Long face of a brick.

String course Projecting band of stone, stucco, or brick.

Transom Horizontal member dividing window lights, or a door opening


from glazing above.

Venetian arch Having differing curvature between upper edge (extrados) and
lower (intrados).

Wattle and daub Mud or clay on withes or laths to fill between structural
timbers.

Wreath(ing) Unbroken sweep of handrail at changes of direction.


(Expensive and needing great skill - newels cheaper).

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APPENDIX V DEVELOPMENT OF TYPICAL NEIGHBOURHOODS c.1880-1915


MAP OF WEST END & WESTCOTES (1870s) Reproduced from the 1870 Ordnance Survey map with kind permission

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MAP OF WEST END & WESTCOTES (1915) Reproduced from the 1915 Ordnance Survey map with kind permission

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CHANGES SEEN IN THE WEST END & WESTCOTES (1870 - 1915)

The maps show that by 1915 there have been tremendous changes. The lines of the
canal, and one arm of the River Soar, have been entirely altered (for flood prevention) to
become a much wider straight channel with tree-lined boulevards either side, today
known as 'The Mile Straight'. The area of Swan's Mills has been completely changed,
only the line of Brudenell Street providing a point of reference.

The Great Central Railway has been built (opened 1899) with its goods yards and
carriage sheds laid out on what were water meadows. Numbers of factories and
thousands of terraced houses have been built in Westcotes and tramways laid along
Narborough Road, Hinckley Road, and Fosse Road Central.

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ST. MARY’S FIELDS (1870s) (1910s)

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ST. MARY’S FIELDS (AERIAL VIEW)

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ST. MATTHEWS BEFORE REDEVELOPMENT

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ST. MATTHEWS AFTER REDEVELOPMENT

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APPENDIX VI – BRIEF NOTES ON THE CLEARANCES

A few shots from the clearance period, to give some idea of what mass house demolition
looked like.

1.
69-91 Deacon Street (looking towards Havelock Street), St. Andrew's, 15th May 1966,
whilst still occupied

The round arched entry led to a common yard for 5 houses and the next one to a yard
for 4. Note the decorative eaves courses, square ended lintols all kept to a common level
by transome lights above the doors, attractive cast iron spandrel above the entry gate,
stone steps, bootscrapers, cellar windows and gratings, bracketed gaslight, rainwater
discharging to a grip (channel) across the footway - all characteristic features.

The entrance doors are 4-panelled, with a deep rail for the letterplate and bolection
mouldings to the upper panels. All windows still to their original pattern, making for a
restful, pleasant elevation. Pity about the rising damp marks - they were not good at
dampcoursing at that period!

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2.
The same length of street, looking uphill (16.2.69). The houses have gone, leaving most
of a factory including its chimney stack. The house beyond the factory shows clearly the
minimal piers carried up to carry the roof timbers, leaving roof spaces open to
neighbouring properties.

3.
The same view after clearance complete. The 7-storey new building was Gateway
House, a block of experimental 'flatted factories', now part of De Montfort University,
and the 3-storey building (far left) is where now stands the Students' Union.

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4.
The next parallel street to the North, Laxton Street. The demolition sites are fenced off
with chestnut paling.

5.
Leamington Street, West End. West side between West Holme Street and Dane Street.
Twenty-five houses of the hundreds swept away in the holocaust which struck this
neighbourhood in the 1960s. In the background is the distinctive conical roof of
Emmanuel Baptist church, designed by Shenton & Baker in 1871 and destroyed by
arson soon after it had been left isolated in the wasteland of rubble. The houses to the
right have the 1870s type of lintol, with raked ends and dummy keystones, and those to
the left the later pattern of square ended lintols over wider 3- light windows, in this case
also having half brick relieving arches.

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6.
36 Outram Street, St. Andrew's
16th February 1969

This illustration shows an almost sectional view of a house typical of those demolished
in the 1960s and 70s.

Clearly visible is the higher front eaves, with its four or five oversailing courses, making
a proper ceiling level tie between the roof slopes difficult. The incomplete party wall can
be seen, as can the two separate halfbrick leaves of the outer walls.

Notice the small bedroom fireplaces and the complete lack of any insulation in the roof
space.

The more expensive Staffordshire blue bricks were not yet in use for the chimney caps,
but even in these basic houses there was an attempt at decorative treatment in addition
to the oversailing courses vital to prevent damage to the brickwork by soaking followed
by freezing.

The surface fixed bedroom light switch can just be made out.

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7.
186-204 Argyle Street, St. Mark's
- during demolition in 1969.

North side seen from Gresham Street - last building to the right being on the corner of Catherine Street. 3-storey houses were not
standard, but there was a substantial group in this area. Their half brick party walls can be seen at stack level. This terrace included a
pair of shops, and even single shops, apparently arbitrarily introduced, were quite common, although the turnover potential must have
been very limited.

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8. Note explaining payment for properties bought under a compulsory purchase order
(provided by author – source unknown)

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9. Cutting from the Leicester Mercury 24th September 1955 highlighting the ruthless
nature with which the council used compulsory purchase orders to build roads and car
parks.

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10. A map showing the clearance areas up to 1974.

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