Office Block, Vauxhall Motors is a Grade II listed building in the Luton local planning authority area, England. First listed on 26 July 1989. Office block.
Office Block, Vauxhall Motors
- WRENN ID
- floating-floor-vale
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Luton
- Constituency
- Luton South and South Bedfordshire MP: Rachel Hopkins (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 26 July 1989
- Type
- Office block
- Address
- Office Block, Vauxhall Motors, Kimpton Road
- OS grid reference
- TL 106 206
- Coordinates
- 51.87353, -0.39375
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The office block for Vauxhall Motors, designed by H.B. Cresswell in 1907, is a notable example of William and Mary style architecture. It is constructed from plum brick with red brick raised quoins and dressings, featuring a flat roof and brick stacks with stone cornicing. The building is two storeys high and has a nine-window range, with a three-bay centre flanked by slightly projecting three-bay outer wings.
The entrance features panelled double doors set in a keyed square-headed stone architrave, with the Vauxhall emblem displayed in the tympanum of a broken segmental pediment. The ground floor has 18-pane sash windows set in square-headed red brick architraves, while the first floor features 15-pane sash windows in similar keyed architraves. The central windows have rusticated jambs and raised red brick aprons, with a keyed stone architrave above the central first-floor window. A moulded red brick cornice runs beneath the stone-coped parapet.
Inside, the building boasts octagonal lantern lights and a large two-storey central hall, which includes a fine double-flight staircase with turned balusters leading to a gallery with a matching balustrade. There are panelled and glazed partitions that separate the hall from the surrounding offices. The first floor features a well-appointed boardroom in the style of around 1700, complete with panelled doors, carved swags, bolection panelling, and a decorative plaster ceiling.
The blocks attached to the left and right of the building are not of special architectural or historic interest.
Local climate
Office Block, Vauxhall Motors sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 80% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 77% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 37 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 70% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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