Former Leofric Hotel, St Michael's, Coventry

Summary

A student hall of residence, built as an hotel in 1953-1955 to the designs of WS Hattrell and Partners.

Description

A student hall of residence, built as an hotel in 1953-1955 to the designs of WS Hattrell and Partners.
MATERIALS: reinforced concrete frame with brick partition walls. The exterior is of red Blockley City mixture brick laid in English bond with Westmorland slate, Blue Horton stone, reconstituted Clipsham stone and Travertine stone dressings.

PLAN: the building varies in height; the hotel block extends to five storeys with a semi-basement level, revealed on the west side, and plant rooms on the roof. The attached ballroom block, to the north, has three storeys. Retail units occupy parts of the ground floor of the hotel along its south side (facing Broadgate House) and its east side facing onto Broadgate and including the covered arcade Cross Cheaping, which follows the line of a medieval street. The ground floor and first floor of the hotel were originally planned as reception rooms with the lobby and dining rooms at ground floor level and further reception rooms above, including a lounge at first floor level whose glass doors led out onto the deep balcony overlooking Broadgate. The first floor reception rooms have now been converted to bedrooms. The plan form is an uneven H-shaped, with bedrooms arranged along the cross stroke and left hand down stroke and staircases, lifts and service rooms in the right hand down stroke.

EXTERIOR: the building faces east, overlooking Broadgate, and south over the approach to Upper Precinct. Both of these facades follow the overall pattern established by Broadgate House, immediately to the south, and the style and materials stipulated by the city architect, Donald Gibson, which continues across the buildings of the precinct .

Both principal fronts have deep colonnades with square and octagonal columns of Blue Horton stone. These colonnades run beneath the upper floors on the south front and at either end of the east, Broadgate, frontage, but at the centre of the east front their roof forms a balcony terrace for the hotel’s first floor and the roof of the colonnade is lit by glass portholes arranged in a grid pattern. Shop fronts are largely of plate glass with fascia boards and, in all but one case, are divided by pilasters of square section, clad in Blue Horton stone to match the colonnade.

The south front is symmetrical and has brick walling above the five bays of the colonnade. The first floor has a long horizontal window of 18 lights which projects forward from the wall and has a copper-clad roof. The individual lights have been converted to grilles or colourwashed. Above this are three floors with square window openings which have projecting stone surrounds. There is an overhang to the top of the wall parapet which continues around the building.

The east front overlooking Broadgate has a colonnade of eight bays of which five at the centre support the first floor balcony. To the left, three bays with brick walling project over the colonnade and the windows are arranged unevenly, with a pair at left. As before the top of the wall has an overhang. A single bay at far right matches this projection and both have paired windows to their sides overlooking the balcony. The five, recessed, central bays break this pattern and have travertine-clad walling divided into bays by uprights which are clad in Westmorland slate. Each bay has two windows to each floor.

At far right and projecting to the east are a further two bays which connect the hotel building to the side of the former Owen and Owen department store (now Primark). These bays have balconies on their south sides. Beneath this is the entrance to the arcade, Cross Cheaping, which includes shops to its west side, placed beneath the hotel. The stepped profile of the service tower rises up behind this right side of the front. It originally bore lettering which read 'HOTEL / LEOFRIC'.

The west side of the building is connected to the northern range of buildings in the Upper Precinct, which effectively cuts this front into two portions. The southern end overlooks the Upper Precinct and has four bays of which the two at right are paired. At ground floor level are now large service openings, but which were formerly the entrance to the hotel at this upper level. To the north of the Upper Precinct link is the rear entrance to the hotel at street level. This has a canopy supported by a single pillar at far right, to left of which are service doors to the basement and five square windows. At first floor level there is a long projecting window with copper-clad roof, similar to that on the south side, except that this has vertical timber cladding to its lower body. The centre of this feature has been altered by the addition of solid walling and a large ventilation flue. Above this at left is a roof terrace with an iron handrail. At right is a further floor with a run of twelve square windows with renewed fenestration.

The north end of the ballroom wing has a projecting portal of two-storey height with a stone surround. This incorporates a first-floor window with balustrade. At ground floor level the entrance is approached by a flight of steps and there is a projecting canopy. The steps have been curtailed at right to incorporate a wheelchair lift. At either side are plate glass windows. To the far left of this front is the northern entrance to Cross Cheaping, which is single-storied and has a panelled fascia and decorative iron balustrade. The shops on the west side are arranged up a gradual gradient. The majority appear to have been reconfigured.

INTERIOR: the lobby houses the lowest flight of a staircase which rise up through all of the floors. It has steps of grey fossil marble to the first flight, with terrazzo surfaces to the upper flights. The balustrade is of stainless steel tubing with a mahogany handrail. The former grill room was at ground floor level and its terraced floor plan is still evident, although altered.

Bedrooms are small but have en suite bathrooms. All sanitary ware and furnishings appear to have been changed.

The ballroom has been converted to a climbing wall centre, but retains its plan. The original sprung dance floor and vaulted ceiling are in situ and the bar and large central skylight have undergone some alteration. The bandstand is now encased and has lost its canopy. The balcony front is also encased with the loss of the original handrail, and the original open staircase that led up to the balcony has been replaced.

History

The city of Coventry became a centre for engineering at the start of the C20, particularly cycle and motor car manufacture. Many of the most notable English car makers had their base in the city. This rapid influx to the centre of a medieval city with a pattern of narrow streets caused problems and the city engineer, Ernest Ford built a southern bypass and laid out Corporation Street and Trinity Street near the centre in the 1930s. Plans for rebuilding the area around the cathedral to form a civic centre were revealed in an exhibition, ‘Coventry of Tomorrow’ of 1939-1940, but the major air raid of 14 November 1940 destroyed large areas of the commercial centre of the city and led to a more comprehensive assessment and plan for the city’s future requirements. The city architect, Donald Gibson, who was appointed in 1939, outlined a new, zoned plan in 1941 which included a large shopping centre to the west, built around a central axis which was aligned on the tower of the old cathedral.

The size of what was planned initially caused some concern to the city’s Chamber of Commerce and to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, which would authorise loans for compulsory purchase of land and development. The city plan was refined during the 1940s and a version, which was close to what was eventually built, was shown in the exhibition, ‘Coventry of the Future’ in 1945. This drew large crowds and general admiration which, in turn, prompted the Ministry to authorise grants to purchase and develop 274 acres in June 1947. The final plan was approved in 1949, but by this time work had already started on site; the Levelling Stone was placed on Victory Day in 1946 and Broadgate landscaped in the following year. On 22 May 1948 Princess Elizabeth opened Broadgate Square and laid the foundation stone of Broadgate House, the first building of the new city centre.

The Leofric Hotel block was built in 1953-1955 and designed by WS Hattrell and Partners, who were also responsible for the design of the north and south link blocks of the Upper Precinct. It was purposely designed to closely follow the outline of Broadgate House on the southern side of the square.

The hotel was sold in 2008 and became part of the Travelodge chain. It is now (October 2017) student accommodation and called 'Mercia Lodge'. The former ballroom was converted to a climbing wall centre and opened to the public in April 2017.

Reasons for Listing

The former Leofric Hotel, Broadgate, Coventry is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the building is successful in being multi-faceted at this sensitive site in the middle of Coventry. Its eastern face forms one part of the large-scale, formal frontage to Broadgate and its southern side is half of the eastern entrance to the Precinct development. It is also a feature of the Upper Precinct, West Orchards, Ironmonger Row and Cross Cheaping, to each of which it provides an appropriately scaled and detailed frontage;
* the great majority of the external appearance and details survive in their original form. Notwithstanding the loss of original interior decoration, which is to be expected of a structure of this type and date, the building also retains a good proportion of its original plan form and some interesting fittings.

Historic interest:

* the building is a key component in Donald Gibson’s plan for the post-war regeneration of Coventry. In following closely, but not slavishly, the style set by Broadgate House it confirmed the pattern for subsequent construction in this historically important, large-scale development;
* the Upper and Lower Precinct developments in Coventry were amongst the first city-centre precinct developments in England and inspired a series of successors across the country;
* as a clear assertion of the spirit of the vibrant and re-born city of Coventry after the damage which it suffered in the Second World War.

Group value:

* for its clear and deliberate association with Broadgate House (Grade II), to which it forms a compositional pair, and to the Lady Godiva Statue, Broadgate (Grade II*) and the NatWest Bank, Broadgate (Grade II);
* for its contribution to the post-war, Upper Precinct buildings in Coventry.

External Links

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.