Gas Works Gatehouse With Clocktower

This is a gas works gatehouse with a clock tower, built in 1879 by Shenton and Baker for the Leicester Corporation Gas Undertaking, with a rear extension added in 1898. The buildings were originally part of the Aylestone Road Gas Works. The gatehouse and clock tower are constructed of red brick with moulded brick and stone dressings, slate roofs, and the clock tower features fishscale slate roofing.

The gatehouse is largely single-storey with a symmetrical two-bay arrangement facing Aylestone Road, originally four bays. It has pairs of sash windows set in chamfered stone architraves; the upper sashes have small panes, and the lower sashes are plain. A stone cill band runs along the front, above recessed brick panels. Decorative moulded brick bands are visible as rosettes above the windows, and a continuous moulded brick band features as a frieze. A brick dentil cornice runs along the roofline. The gables have moulded stone cornices and kneelers, plain stone copings, and a circular opening in each gable. The rebuilt south gable incorporates small window openings where a single original window once stood. The north gable remains unaltered. A tall, narrow ridge stack has recessed brick panels and moulded brick bands and caps.

The clock tower, which has an entrance facing north, is set forward. The entrance is framed by a simply moulded stone architrave set between flush stone bands with small-panelled doors and an overlight. A moulded brick band of rosettes adorns the frieze. Above the entrance is a blind moulded lunette with a glazed oculus, and moulded brick rosettes fill the spandrels. The tower itself is of red brick, with pilasters at the corners and sunk panels above. Moulded brick bands delineate the storeys. The lower stages have small, vertical openings in recessed stone surrounds. The clock face is set in a moulded brick and stone surround, visually supported by a corbel table below. The roof is a distinctive ogival shape of fishscale slates, topped by a weathervane.

The rear extension, dated 1898, is asymmetrical with five bays. The second bay features a pediment with a moulded rosette band to the frieze, while the remaining bays have a simpler frieze with a single rosette in each bay, all topped by a dentil cornice. It has an engineering brick base and four timber windows, some with small panes, each set within a segmental brick arch with a stone keystone and cill. The bay under the pediment has an ornate window opening. The northern bay has replacement glazed-panelled windows. A slate roof culminates in a fleche topped by a weathervane.

In front of the gatehouse, a low curved parapet wall, which has been reconstructed following reductions to the gatehouse's size, retains a pair of cast iron lampstands with four-sided glazed gas lanterns.