SQUARE TOWER AT SO 9933 0279

The Square Tower in Cirencester, built in the early to mid-18th century, was designed as a landscape feature and has undergone some 20th-century alterations. It is constructed from coursed limestone rubble and features a stone slate hipped roof with a parapet at the rear, while the other roofs are not visible behind the parapet. The central stack is cleverly disguised as a merlon of the embattled parapet.

This mock medieval-style building consists of a three-storey square tower, a two-storey range to the left, and a single-storey range at the rear. The front elevation has a three-window arrangement, including a pair of lancet windows with leaded lights on the first floor to the left, and a similar lancet window in the tower to the right. The second floor of the tower features an oculus with intersecting glazing bars. On the ground floor, there is a pair of similar lancets and a single lancet to the left and center, along with a 20th-century two-light timber window in what is likely a blocked former doorway in the center of the tower.

The right side of the building has a 20th-century three-light timber window on the first floor of the tower, a pair of lancets similar to the front on the ground floor of the tower, a similar single lancet, and a 20th-century three-light window in the single-storey rear range. The left side features two pairs of similar lancets on both the first and ground floors, and a plank door set in a pointed opening in the single-storey range at the rear. The rear elevation includes four 20th-century single- and three-light windows, as well as a plank door, all with concrete lintels in the single-storey range, and a single lancet on the first floor of the two-storey range. The embattled parapet extends around all sides of the building, which is designed to provide a picturesque appearance from any angle. The interior has not been inspected but is noted to have a largely 20th-century appearance.