Description

LEICESTER

718/0/10199 AYLESTONE ROAD
29-SEP-04 201-247
Former Gas Workers' Cottages and Manag
er's House.

II
Terrace of houses. Former gas worker's cottages, and manager's house. 1879 by Shenton and Baker for Leicester Corporation Gas Undertaking. They formed part of the Aylestone Road Gas Works. Red brick with blue brick dressings. Gables clad in white brick with applied timber framing. Upper storey of manager's house white brick with applied timber frame, tile hung cheeks to windows. All with tile roofs. Two and half storeys. Roughly symmetrical, set round central single window gabled bay, flanked by two-window gabled bays. Alternating paired bays of two storeys with dormers, and broad, two-window gabled bays. Framed to north by gabled, single window bay. To south, terrace terminates in half-hipped roof descending to lower manager's house, at corner. Tall brick stacks with moulded brick caps, set behind gables and between dormers. Terminal stack to south. Each house a door and single window. Nos. 203 to 245 of two lights, No 201 of three lights. Each window beneath segmental brick arch. Most have small paned timber casements. Similar first floor window set above ground floor window, except to No.201 which is central. A few retain original windows of small paned fixed upper lights with larger lights to sash below. Tall doorways, each under segmental brick arch, most retain small paned overlight and door of four flush panels. Each house has shared passageway to rear. Continuous blue brick storey band, with flush band below, and above window. Gables on moulded brackets above dentil cornice, the larger gables having double bargeboards. No.223 has single, flush horizontal sliding sash. No. 201 has two-light small-paned gable window on moulded feet. Remaining gables have similar pairs of casement windows. Originally pivoted casements, most are now side or top hung, or fixed lights. Between, each house has single half-hipped full dormer, most retaining horizontal sliding sash. North return of No. 201 has gabled dormer with surviving pivoted window.

No.247, former manager's house. Two bays to Aylestone Road. Forward gabled bay to left, red brick ground floor, white brick upper floor, with applied timber decoration, gablet set forward with separate barge boards. Canted bay window with timber casements, under deep pitched tiled canopy on timber brackets. Three-light timber mullion and transome casement to first floor. Right bay, in red brick, has three-light timber mullion and transome ground floor window under segmental arch. Doorway under segmental arch to right. First floor similar two-light window. Stack, set back to right. South return. Ground floor in red brick, upper floor in white brick with red brick stack bay beyond. Tall rear stack. Ground floor, pair of windows, one flat arched, possibly altered, and possible former doorway under segmental arch. Steep-pitched tiled canopy with deep bargeboards over first floor window. Above, two-light full dormer with pivoted window, under half-hipped tile roof and with tile hung cheeks.

Each house fronted by brick parapet wall with stone coping.

The health and welfare of the workforce was of prime concern to the Gas Company and later Leicester Corporation. Leisure facilities, including a mess room baths and toilets were provided. Entertainment during the winter months included lectures, readings and concerts. In 1886 an ambulance class was set up. The company also provided five allotments in Aylestone Road.

Commitment to the buildings and the site as a whole has continued, exemplified by the gas museum, set up in 1977.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670555

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
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)