Hunter Lodge

Hunter Lodge is a row of houses built in 1897, now serving as a local authority hostel. Designed by Arthur Wakerley for the Wycliffe Society for the Blind, the building is constructed of red brick with a slate roof, featuring brick ridge and end stacks. The pentice roof is adorned with plain and fishscale tiles, and the design reflects a simplified Queen Anne style, complete with Dutch gables on the wings.

Originally, this was a row of six houses, with projecting wings at each end and a recessed center that includes a long pentice with canted bays. The structure is two storeys high with an attic in the wings, presenting a six-window range at the first floor, featuring 8/2 sash windows and paired 6/1 sashes in the wings. The center showcases four canted bays, each fitted with 4/1, 8/2, and 4/1 sashes. Flanking the bays are part-glazed panelled doors with overlights. The wings feature a 6/1 paired sash on the ground floor and an 8/2 sash in the attic. All windows, except those in the bays, are topped with gauged brick flat arches with keyblocks; the ground floor windows in the wings have basket arches.

Prominently displayed at the center of the front is a plaque made of cut and moulded brick with a curved pediment, inscribed with: "Erected by the Wycliffe Society for helping the blind on site presented during his mayoralty by Alderman Arthur Wakerley 1897-8."

The row was converted into a hostel between 1967 and 1970, but the front remains unaltered. It is part of a significant group of buildings constructed for the blind by the Society, which began with this row and continued with Wycliffe Hall (now the Sam Cooper Day Centre), followed by 65-75 Gedding Road, and later the Workshops and Lodge built by the Leicestershire and Rutland Institution for the Blind. This development reflects the ideals of the Society as articulated in Edwin Crew's 1912 book, "City of the Blind at Leicester."