The Secular Hall
THE SECULAR HALL, 73 AND 75, HUMBERSTONE GATE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1074752
- Date first listed:
- 08-Jun-1990
- List Entry Name:
- The Secular Hall
- Statutory Address:
- THE SECULAR HALL, 73 AND 75, HUMBERSTONE GATE
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-06-27
- Reference:
- IOE01/12692/12
- Rights:
- © Mr Peter M Small. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1074752
- Date first listed:
- 08-Jun-1990
- List Entry Name:
- The Secular Hall
- Statutory Address 1:
- THE SECULAR HALL, 73 AND 75, HUMBERSTONE GATE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- THE SECULAR HALL, 73 AND 75, HUMBERSTONE GATE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- City of Leicester (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SK 59052 04642
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 06/12/2012
SK 5904
8/263
HUMBERSTONE GATE
Nos 73 and 75
(The Secular Hall)
II
Hall belonging to the Leicester Secular Society. 1881, designed by Larner Sugden. Brick with terracotta, stone faced to ground floor; tiled roofs.
Plan:central hall block (2 storeys with large basement), with attendant's apartment ranged around small courtyard; entrance range with ancillary rooms and offices. Free Flemish Renaissance style. 3 storeys. Lively show front to Humberstone Gate: tower to right, regular 3-bay range to left under large interrupted gable; tall central round-headed window rising through all upper floors with varied pilasters and corbelled canopy with terracotta sunbursts to soffit, and a frieze over lower lights bearing the symbols of Libertas, Justicia and Veritas. Side bays with corbelled canted oriels set within projecting pedimented surrounds to 1st floor, and small square windows to 2nd floor, also in projecting surrounds, with frieze of swags. Recessed porch under wide 4-centred arch, flanked by large 2-light windows with original glazing bars; and carriage entrance under segmental arch to left, each ground-floor element divided by pilasters with terracotta busts in pedimented niches representing Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Robert Owen, Jesus and Socrates. Tower with 2 and 3-light square-headed windows to all floors above ground level; tiled pyramidal spire. Large and dramatic external stack to right return with panelled shafts. Interior: many small rooms with simple contemporary details. Upper hall is the most elaborate room, 8 bays, false hammerbeam roof, balconies at both ends, and a dado (now largely obscured but probably surviving throughout) made up of panels of decorative tiles. A committee of experts at the Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society confirmed in October 2012 that the tiles are Dutch imports and may have been donated by William Morris. A newspaper report in the Leicester Croncicle and Leicestershire Mercury from 1881 refers to Marks and the Durlacher brothers as the suppliers of the tiles. This firm was one of the first to import Dutch tiles to Britain.
Historical interest: this is the first Secular Society hall in the world and one of the few surviving in its original state outside London. Secular societies were established as free-thinking rationalist bodies to provide working people with a positive alternative system to the Christian churches. Many famous figures addressed meetings here including Kropotkin, Joseph Mccabe, George Bernard Shaw and William Morris whose 'Art and Socialism' lecture was given here for the first time.
Sources: Leicester Chronicle and Leicestershire Mercury, Saturday, 5 March 1881
Listing NGR: SK5905204642
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 188855
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 15-Jun-2026 at 11:26:54.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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