Lynne About Loughborough: Delice

Showing posts with label Delice. Show all posts

Monday, 21 April 2025

R is for Roses

Without more ado, let’s admire the roses, which are a popular motif in Art Deco architecture.

If you’re new to Loughborough, you might be familiar with the Loughborough Arms pub on Baxter Gate, with its seemingly old and appropriate name. You might also have noticed the stained-glass windows to the ground floor, and admired the depiction of roses and crowns. You might also have noticed that the building is dated 1924, so built during the period when Art Deco was popular.

This building replaced an earlier one, which was also a pub, but which was then called the Rose and Crown. There are some features on the new building which chime with the Art Deco style, for example, the beaten metal between the first and second floor, the cream-coloured faience tiles, and even the stained glass. However, the roof is tiled in Swithland slate, which isn’t common in buildings of this age, and the building almost has an Art Nouveau feel to it.

And what of the rose motifs? Well, on this particular building they are not related to the style of architecture, but more to the pub’s original name. The name Rose and Crown is reasonably common for a pub, and relates to the coming together of the House of York and the House of Lancaster, following the Wars of the Roses, when Henry Tudor married Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the families. By 1927, the pub was being run by Mrs Jones, and the name was changed to the Loughborough Hotel, but I’m not sure when it reverted to the Rose and Crown (which it had done by 1978).

And now to roses that really are motifs associated with some of Loughborough’s Art Deco buildings. Firstly, the empty shop next to the Loughborough Arms, which was most recently Baxters Tea Rooms, previously a café called Delice, and prior to that a Caribbean restaurant, an IT education space, and a gentleman’s outfitters. I’ve spotted twelve English roses adorning the front of this building – on the string course below the first-floor windows, above the first-floor windows, and just below the second-floor windows.

The beautiful former offices of the Echo Press building on Swan Street also showcases roses. These are on the first-floor string course, and in all I counted 16 of these! They are slightly different from those on the former café on Baxter Gate.

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). R is for Roses. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/04/r-is-for-roses.html [Accessed 21 April 2025]

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Sunday, 8 February 2015

Walking China and Loughborough: Burton Street, Beeches Road and Baxtergate

Changes around town

Huge apologies if you were expecting to land here and find an incredibly interesting post about a needle-making family in Loughborough. This week has been really busy for me so I haven't had enough time to bring my research together into a readable blogpost, and I would like to do the topic justice, so please accept today's offering.

The Charnwood Roots Project has had quite a big call on my time this week, with a training session and some research. Two children came home from uni to celebrate a birthday, and I went to a lovely concert that the youngest was playing in. All this means that time to bring the needle-makers post together was in short supply. However, I did manage to sneak out for a pre-Sunday dinner walk, partly because at work, we're measuring our steps and aiming to walk the equivalent of the Great Wall of China, so I need to do lots of walking to contribute my share, but also, it was a chance to see what's going on in our lovely town at the moment. And there certainly is a lot!

I started my walk on Burton Street: Ok, so the Grammar School buildings never change, but they are so photogenic, aren't they:

Grammar School buildings

From here I walked the path leading from Burton Street to Shelthorpe where I walked under the arch showing the award won by the estate when it was built in the 1930s:

At the bottom of Shelthorpe Road I turned and walked up Leicester Road, and crossed into Beeches Road. Up on the bridge I had a great view of the GCR railway track and the signals:

Bridge number 334!

The signals

Several interesting specimens in hiding around here too:

Of course, just beyond the bridge is the former Ladybird place, now a wallpaper factory, Anstey Wallpaper Company, making wallpapers for the likes of Sanderson etc..

Ladybird House

Walking along Windmill Road I then turned into Great Central Road and noticed the allotments next to the GCR, but the station itself was a little more appealing for a blogger with camera:

The restored canopy

The post box, installed in the reign of George V (1910-1936)

Looking through the canopy

Walking down Great Central Road, and across New King Street took me into Moira Street, then left into Trinity Street, left into Rutland Street, left into Moor Lane, right into Cobden Street and then left into School Street. Here I looked down what's left of Pinfold Jetty into Coronation Way (I think that's what it's called):

Pinfold Jetty

At the end of School Street I found myself looking across Coronation Way into the site of the old hospital:

School Street showing the pile driver

Looking back down Pinfold Gate, I could see the new flats on the site where the Cherry Tree pub used to be:

Cherry Tree flats

Back on Coronation Way, I took a better look at the development on the hospital site:

Better view of the pile driver!

Numbers 55 & 53 Baxtergate in the background

Noting an interesting signpost on the corner, showing that we have a "Heritage Quarter":

Mention of our Heritage Quarter!

I then noticed that the tiles inside what used to be Cottons (I think) had been removed from the wall (see my blogpost on ghost signs in Loughborough for what this are used to look like less than a year ago):