Description

HART LANE
1.
5123 Hart Lane Water Tower
TL 12 SW 7/3
II

2.
1901. Luton grey bricks with red brick dressings and terra cotta decoration,
Stone slates. Octagonal plan, 4 storeys. Conical roof, deep projecting eaves,
surmounted by finial. Smaller, similar, demi-tower on west face, reaching
up to fourth floor housing staircase: two square headed casement windows in
line under one with cambered head. Roof of main tower has 4 gables near
apex and 4 gabled dormers set lower down in roof. Decorative terracotta frieze
below eaves. Top stage has square recessed panels filled alternately with
six-light casement windows with glazing barn, flanked by pilasters and surmounted
with keystone, and similar blank arcades. Two moulded bands beneath run around
the tower, containing on all except the west face a recessed rectangular panel
with guilloche decoration in terracotta. The lower three floors, apart from
the west face, are contained within three storey recesses with cambered heads
with series of terracotta mouldings including one with foliated decoration.
In each recess is a second storey round headed window with glazing bars, with
keystone and dripmould above, moulded band and apron below. In alternate
recesses there is also a first storey square headed window with glazing bars,
with drip mould above and moulded band and apron below.
The tower was erected following the drought of 1898 which left Stopsley without
water (W Austin, Luton and Its Hamlet, 1928, II p 213).

Listing NGR: TL1005422080

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26493474

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)