55 and 57, London Road, Leicester

This building, comprising showrooms and shops with flats above (now commercial premises), was constructed in 1935 by Percy Herbert Grundy of Bedingfield & Grundy, Architects, of Leicester. It is located on London Road.

The building is of Moderne style and is L-shaped, with a side range facing Nelson Street. It is predominantly red brick, with some grey brick in alternating header courses, laid in English bond. Concrete and stone dressings are present, many now painted, and there is an ashlar parapet. The roof is not visible. The building is three storeys high, decreasing to two along the side elevation. It is six bays wide to London Road.

The ground floor features a central pair of original shopfronts flanked by recessed entrances and single shops in the outer bays. The shopfronts have black stall risers with central grilles, plate glass windows with simple metal frames, and triple horizontal lights to the upper parts, angled down to recessed doorways. Deep fascias, now covered with signage, run above, and there is a stripped dentil cornice. Solid panelled doors lead to stairwells for the former flats, set within fluted pilasters with square capitals. A recessed curvilinear panel is above the doors and balconies, with metal fretwork grilles.

The first floor has tripartite windows with four horizontal metal Crittall lights and an opening panel with chevron glazing in the upper sections, a single blind light with chevron glazing in the centre, and a continuous plat band above the windows. A tall four-over-four light window is present to the right stairwell, and a continuous window spans the first and upper floors to the left, featuring a central decorative blind panel and a canted head.

On the upper floor, windows are recessed to the plane of the stairwells, set within deep quadrant surrounds that support the parapet. The windows have tripartite glazing with five horizontal lights, and single windows extend beyond the surrounds. Abstract finials are positioned centrally and at the ends.

The projecting ashlar parapet has pierced open panels with grilles to the left and on the Nelson Street return. A “look-out” breaks the horizontal emphasis; this is a projecting bay window with a projecting roof, flanked by brick and stone stacks that rise through the parapet line.

The side elevation facing Nelson Street includes a double-height oriel window with a decorative, coloured glass central panel, and a garage entrance to the right with an overlight in the lower section.

The interior was not inspected, but it is understood to contain plain staircases with flat steel balustrade.

The building is a well-preserved example of an interwar commercial building with flats, designed by a significant local architect and forms a group with the Berkeley Burke Building (formerly Goddard's polish factory) by the same architect on Nelson Street.