Pumping House And Well House At Swithland Reservior Water Works

The building comprises a pumping house and former well house, constructed in 1896 as part of the Swithland Reservoir Water Works, designed by Hawkesley of London. It is built of red brick with elaborate stone dressings, including bands, a frieze, a dentilled cornice, a parapet, and stone-coped gables. The roof is slate, with cast-iron ridge flashing and a ridge stack to the rear. The design is in the Renaissance style, incorporating a main range of tall one-storey construction with a stone-banded basement, and a lower boiler house range to the rear.

The central gabled projection features a doorway approached by a parapetted flight of 13 stone steps. The elaborate stone door surround has banded half columns and pilasters, volutes, a curved pediment with a fanlight, and a three-light window below, alongside a side light on either side of a two-leaved door and overlight, all set beneath a segmental arch. The date "A.D. 1896" is inscribed above the entrance. Flanking the central projection are an eight-over-eight sash window in the basement and a tall stone mullioned window above. The mullioned window is of two lights with toplights and a fanlight in the arch, with half-round columns forming the mullions. Similar windows are located on each end, with eight-over-eight sashes in the basement (two blank), and a three-light window in the gable. A stone tablet bearing the Leicester City crest is positioned between the main windows on the left end. The rear range features windows of two or three lights with double or triple rounded arch heads within the stone lintel band. The left side rear gable has a row of five similar open arches.

Extending from the left side is the square base of a truncated chimney, and from the right side extends a walled yard with large Vanbrughian corner piers containing small outhouses capped with pyramid roofs. Flights of parapetted stone steps on both sides of the rear range lead to a higher level at the rear. This rear range also has a series of four arches, two of which have been altered into one, and covered with glazed tiles, providing access to large bins for coal delivery. Close to the rear is a small square, one-storey and basement former well house, also similarly Vanbrughian, with a pyramid roof and finial, and a stone parapet. It has two six-over-six top-opening windows to the front and left side, and a flat-topped covered entrance at basement level on the right side, along with two basement one-light windows and a flight of steps to the rear. The complex is located in a park-like setting with mature trees and shrubs. It has group value with other associated structures at the Swithland Reservoir Water Works.