Wimbledon House

This is a late 19th-century clothiers warehouse, built around 1870 in Leicester. It was designed by William Jackson of Leicester for Hart & Levy, tailors and wholesale clothiers. The building is constructed of orange brick with ashlar dressings, standing three stories high with a deep basement. It occupies a corner site with elevations facing both Wimbledon Street and Southampton Street, and features a curved entrance linking the two streets.

The corner entrance is reached by two steps and features double panel doors, originally with a blocked fanlight, set within a round-headed opening. The stone surround is highly decorated, incorporating a Greek Key band, a moulded impost band, an arch, and spandrels adorned with carved foliate panels. Above this is another band and a carved panel with wreathed decoration, followed by a tripartite sash window within a moulded ashlar surround and elaborate carved cresting. A small sash window is situated above.

The elevations to Wimbledon Street (six windows) and Southampton Street (seven windows) are similar in style. Both facades have a deep ashlar plinth and deeply recessed basement windows with metal frames and iron bars. The ground floor windows are sash types, set within moulded ashlar surrounds with cornices and carved cresting, all linked by an ashlar cill band. The first-floor windows are similar but slightly smaller, lacking the carved cresting. The second floor has much smaller sash windows. The building is finished with a dentilled ashlar eaves cornice and an ashlar balustraded parapet.

A stone entrance archway, located beyond the Wimbledon Street facade, historically provided cart access to the rear yard. This gateway has a moulded ashlar arch with a curved console keystone and carved patera in the spandrels. The arch is topped with a carved entablature featuring a foliate frieze and a plain parapet with a small central section of cresting. The original painted wooden double gates have ‘linen fold’ lower panels (one panel has been replaced with a 20th-century door) and ornate iron grilles in the upper panels.

Wimbledon House represents an impressive and exceptionally well-preserved example of a late Victorian clothiers and tailors warehouse.