Swingate Water Tower including paired flight of steps and balustrading

A water tower constructed in the later 1940s and commissioned in 1950, designed by Ritchie and Partners for the Corporation of Nottingham Water Department, built in a neo-classical style. The tower is constructed from textured reinforced concrete on a steel frame, with artificial stone detailing. The plan is square, with the water tank measuring 30 feet by 30 feet.

The tower sits on a plinth set into the bank of the reservoir, with a cyma recta moulding that narrows to the tower's body. A wide, central entrance doorway, flanked by windows, is set into the plinth, featuring a plain moulded surround. Above the door, the moulding rises to form a canopy on brackets, which also serves as a cill to the window above. A relief of the arms of the City of Nottingham is incorporated into this upward extension of the plinth. The access tower rises with straight sides, a curtain wall surrounding the internal steel structure. Narrow, tall windows with metal-framed, multi-paned glazing are set into each side, their heads articulated with classically-inspired, applied reconstituted stone swags with drops. Above the windows, the water tank is corbelled out on all sides, the junction marked by a cornice of reconstituted stone with dentil motifs, with further detailing cast into the concrete at the top of the tank. The sides rise as a parapet above the covered tank. An access staircase rises within a square box, terminating above the tank’s surface.

The interior of the shaft is empty, containing only an access staircase and the internal steel structure.

Flanking the tower are paired flights of steps rising through the height of the reservoir bank. These steps have moulded treads with noses and are enclosed by solid balustrades. The inner balustrade follows the foot of the tower and ends in broad, circular piers with narrower caps. The outer balustrades follow the steps before scrolling inwards to clasp and define a forecourt, then scrolling outwards to terminate in larger piers matching those of the inner balustrade.