Language Laboratory and Adjacent Gate Piers is a Grade II listed building in the County Durham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 10 March 1988. Educational.

Language Laboratory and Adjacent Gate Piers

WRENN ID
lunar-zinc-thunder
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
County Durham
Constituency
City of Durham MP: Mary Kelly Foy (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
10 March 1988
Type
Educational
Address
Language Laboratory and Adjacent Gate Piers, Elvet Hill Road, City of Durham, DH1 3TJ
OS grid reference
NZ 270 412
Coordinates
54.76509, -1.58093
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The building is a former coach house, saddle room, byre, hay-loft, and hen house of Elvet Hill House, now serving as a language laboratory. It was constructed in 1868 for the Fogg-Elliott family. The structure is made of coursed squared sandstone, featuring an ashlar plinth, quoins, and dressings, topped with a Welsh slate roof that has stone gable copings. It is designed in an L-shape and consists of one storey with four bays, along with a lower one-storey two-bay extension. The building has chamfered surrounds to four top-hung casements that include glazing bars. The steeply-pitched roof displays a fishscale pattern and has sloped gable coping on moulded kneelers. The right return gable features pigeon holes and shelves set in a two-centred arch beneath a drip mould. At the rear, there is a cantilevered external stone stair leading to the loft. A small right extension includes two top-hung casements in chamfered surrounds flanking a blind cross-slit. Adjacent to the two-bay section are two tall square sandstone gate piers with plinths and coved coping, along with a similar pier at the right end of the building.

Local climate

Language Laboratory and Adjacent Gate Piers receives an average of 790 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 58% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 96% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 41 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 79% of listed buildings. Of these, 24 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • No related consent applications matched
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. School of Oriental Studies (Elvet Hill) Grade II 116 m
  2. Bow Cottage Grade II 169 m
  3. Observatory Grade II 484 m
  4. Prebends Gate Lodge Grade II 494 m
  5. Counts House Grade II 609 m
  6. Prebends Cottage Grade II 612 m
  7. Ice House North of Count's House Grade II 629 m
  8. Mount Oswald (City Golf Club Clubhouse) Grade II 636 m
  9. Wall Behind Nos. 12 and 12a Grade I 641 m
  10. Prebends Bridge Grade I 653 m