Arthur Wakerley was born in 1862 and came to Leicester from Melton Mowbray at the age of about 23. Twelve years later he was the Mayor of Leicester and an Alderman, and was celebrated as an architect, businessman, and politician.
In the 1920s he was the Chair of Leicester's first Housing and Town Planning Committee, as well as being a Weslyan local preacher, and President of the Temperance Union. He also made several attempts to enter Parliament as a Liberal candidate for the Melton Mowbray Division.
Wakerley made a great impact on Leicester and the full story of his life is told in the book 'Arthur Wakerley' by Jean Farquhar. As well as this, photographs and discussion of some of his buildings can be found in 'The Quality of Leicester' published by Leicester City Council, and the impact of his design for council housing is put into context in 'Leicester in the 20th Century' edited by Nash and Reeder.
This Trail is based on 'A Town Trail - In Search Of An Architect', part of a series of town trails published by Leicester City Council around 1975. It concentrates on Wakerley's development of the industrial suburb of North Evington.
The Wakerley Trail - Part One
In the years around 1900, Arthur Wakerley perceived a need for good quality working class housing in Leicester, and to this end bought land comprising mainly brick pits and mud in the Spinney Hill/North Evington area.
He set about creating a self-contained suburb which would provide everything its population required to work, rest and play. There was a market hall, surgery, shops, and a police and fire station. Wakerley charged low prices for sites to encourage factories to the area, and by 1914 there were 28 factories employing over 5,000 people in 31 different trades.
Picture 1: the bandstand
The Wakerley Trail starts off at the centrepiece of Wakerley's scheme, the Market Place, North Evington (1890). Unfortunately, the market was never a success; having become run down its market license was withdrawn in 1947, and it was only in 1982 that it was redeveloped as an open area with bandstand (1).
Picture 2: the fire and police station
There was also a fire station and police station (now just a police station) on the square (2).
Picture 3: Dutch style gable on the Market Hall
The third photo shows the Dutch-style gable on the Market Hall (3), which originally contained a coffee room, a surgery, and a barber's shop, and is now a Madressa (a Muslim school). Nearby, though not pictured, is the original home of the Anchor Boot and Shoe Factory whose co-operative housing venture built the Humberstone Garden Suburb, and a former works canteen which houses the Jam-e-Mosque.
Picture 4: Halstead Street
In Halstead Street are the first houses and the first factory (1888) to be built in the area (4). Note that the houses and the factories are mixed in the same street, a deliberate feature of Wakerley's plans, although by the time St Saviours Road was developed the factories were on one side of the road and the houses on the other (see the next part of the Trail).
Picture 5: Wood Hill
At the end of Halstead Street are steps which lead up to Wood Hill. Turning up Wood Hill (5), the entrance enables a horse and cart to reach factories or workshops behind the houses, a common feature of the area.
Picture 6: Prospect Hill
Picture 7: Wood Hill
Prospect Hill (6) (both Wood Hill and Prospect Hill were built by Wakerley) leads to the top of a ridge which overlooks the Evington Valley from Granby Avenue (7) to one side, and Leicester and the Charnwood Forest from Hartingdon Street to the other.
Here, the Imperial Hotel (9) was built by Wakerley as a Temperance Hotel - he was a president of the Temperance Union - and is a prominent local landmark.
Picture 9: The Imperial Hotel
For all this, the area never had a focal point which worked. The lack of licensed premises or a meeting hall, and from 1904 a tram route to Leicester Market, all played a part in the community failing to develop an identity as Wakerley may have wished. That the area is as pleasant as it is now is down to the Council's restoration and conservation work of the 1980s.
Picture 10: Evington Brook, Spiney Hill Park
The Trail moves down through Spinney Hill Park, through which runs the Evington Brook (10), and crosses East Park Road to Gwendolen Road, one of several streets named after members of Wakerley's family (Dorothy, Constance, and Margaret are further along).
The Wakerley Trail - Part Two
Picture 1. Society for the Blind.
Margaret Road is a cul-de-sac off Gwendolen Road which leads to the Royal Leicestershire Rutland and Wycliffe Society for the Blind (1). Here, on Gwendolen Road, there are cottages built by the Wycliffe Society for the Blind on land donated by Wakerley (2).
Picture 2. Cottages for the blind.
On Gedding Road (named after Wakerley's home in Suffolk) can be found the entrance to a 1930 extension to the Wycliffe Hall and six houses for blind workers (not pictured).
Picture 5. Affordable council housing on Gedding Road.
However, as if all this wasn't enough, Arthur Wakerley may be best known for his design for affordable council housing which met the needs of the post-WW1 housing shortage (5).
Costing £299 compared to figures of £433 or more for other designs, these semi-detached houses could be made cheaper as they share a chimney stack, roof ridge, water and gas pipe, have unfaced stock bricks, and Bangor slates for roofing. Examples of these houses can be found in many parts of Leicester as well as cities such as Glasgow and Belfast. The houses pictured are on Gedding Road.
Picture 6. St Saviours Road
Moving along Gedding Road and into St Saviours Road, we see to the left the spire of St Saviours Church (6), and opposite/right some of the factories which provided work for the local population.
Picture 7. Corona Machine Cool Works.
Pictured are the Corona Machine Tool Works (7), Smith Faire's (8) and Wildt Mellor Bromley (9).
Picture 8. Smith Faire's.
Here, the factories are not mixed in with the houses as they had been on Halstead Street.
Picture 9. Wildt Mellor Factory.
Returning to Gwendolen Road via Gwendolen Road Gardens (10), the 1975 Town Trail heads off towards the General Hospital (Wakerley sold 63 acres to the Leicester Board of Guardians for the erection of a Poor Law Infirmary, now the Leicester General Hospital).
Picture 10. Gwendolen Road Gardens.
This part of the trail ends at Crown Hills, where Wakerley built a home and lived from 1914 until his death in 1931 (11).
Picture 11. Crown Hills
All pictures courtesy and copyright of Colin Hyde.
This trail is part of a larger trail that explores the architecture of Arthur Wakerley in Leicester, it can be found on the East Midland Oral History Archive. www.le.ac.uk/emoha/leicester/wakerley.html
To explore more local history trails and find out more about the architecture of Leicester vist the Sound and Vision website, an off-shoot of the East Midland Oral History Archive.
