Back In Leicester Again Part 2 — Granby Street
Whenever I’m back in Leicester it seems at some point there will be a walk done along at least part of Granby Street. Especially if I have travelled by train. Coming out of the station and heading for the city centre it is the obvious route. I must have traipsed up and down it countless times when I lived in the city as well. And most of the time it is when you are going somewhere, you have eyes down concentrating on getting to where you want to be.
But with no rush, there was plenty of scope to look up and around. And there are lots of wonderful buildings to see if you can get above the modern glass fronted homogenous shops that occupy the ground level space. In a vast array of styles.
Now that they have done away with the underpass you approach Granby Street from the station and have the upper guardians of it pronouncing ‘look at us’. On either corner are Grade II listed buildings. In totally different styles.
To the left is the YMCA building, with its intricate carvings and decorative work typical of the Victorian era.
And there is an information board to it before you even step foot onto Granby Street.
To the right is Blunts Shoes, an Art Deco masterpiece of simple lines and curves.
A contrast between red brick and Portland stone. One that is continued along the length of Granby Street, with many grand red brick Victorian buildings, interspersed with many Art Deco buildings, the former being the expansion of the town through its industrial boom in the Victorian era, and the latter coming from the flurry of building post World War I and after City status was granted in 1919.
Since I got back from this trip, I took time to look up the listed buildings of the city, and found that there are eight statutory listed buildings along Granby Street. I also looked at the City’s locally listed buildings list and was surprised that there were none on Granby Street, only to find that as a whole Granby Street is a conservation area, which made sense.
Anyway, back to wandering along and looking at buildings. I’m not sure anywhere needs a gold tooth emporium, but the building it is in is Unicoat House.
Some of the buildings are more modern, but that’s not to say they don’t make an effort. Kayal is an example, with their advertising for the next last supper.
The Barley Mow has been painted many different ways over the years, but it still survives.
Which is more than can be said for what is left of Thomas Cook’s temperance hotel, which now looks more than tired.
It isn’t listed, but does have an information board to it.
The Samaritans might want to take pity on the upper part of the building they are in as well.
And talking of not surviving, the wonderful former Maples department store building is being renovated to be flats. It looks as if it was another inter war Art Deco build, but is from the 1950s. I remember it more from being the Last Plantagenet.
Opposite is Balmoral House. And again it never ceases to amaze how the ground level can be so unsympathetic to the rest of the building they sit in.
Another huge Art Deco slab is what I always remember being Poundstretcher, but is now a City Council customer service building.
It can be surprising to see some of the details carved on the outside of buildings. I’m not sure I was expecting to find some fearsome warrior heads when I looked up here.
On the corner of Chatham Street is another big red brick Victorian build.
Which goes somewhat ignored as it sits next to the aptly named Grand Hotel, another of the Grade II listed buildings. We would sometimes be brought here to go into the lounge bar in the basement. My dad worn jeans on one visit and was refused admittance. His retort was ‘I’ve been in better places than this in jeans.’ My mum was livid as she’s told him before leaving the house not to wear jeans as he wouldn’t get in.
The information board I thought it should have on my last visit was there all the time, just hidden by the roadworks taking place.
On the other corner of Granby Street’s junction with Belvoir Street is another Grade II listed building, which is overrun with Belgian chips below it.
All four corners at this junction have large buildings on, as the two to the Rutland Street side have what is now Tesco’s (and was a bar back in the nineties),
And the less showy Art Deco building on the final corner.
Next to Tesco’s is another of the Grade II listed buildings, the Victoria Tea Rooms, built in 1887 and named as a nod to Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee of that year.
Opposite is another block with various horrible commercial units on the ground level, but is another fine Art Deco building when looking up.
Then there is the marvellous Turkey Café. Another Grade II listed building with its unique style.
It has an information board to it.
And so much detailing.
Opposite it on the corner of Bishop Street is the only Grade II* listed building on Granby Street, the Leicestershire Banking Company building, which was Midland Bank when I used it before it became HSBC, and is now the ISKCON Hindu temple.
Which has its own information board.
The lower end of Granby Street has enough room to fit in one last Grade II listed building, the NatWest Bank building on the corner of Horsefair Street.
And I found the conservation area extends enough to claim the Imperial Building on the corner of Gallowtree Gate and Halford Street.
What is often a five-minute head down walk, was this time a half an hour stop-start stroll along to take in all the magnificent buildings to be seen along Granby Street.
All the other pieces relating to my 2024 Leicester trip are in this library.
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