Summary
An early-C19 house and shop with late-C19 extensions and alterations. Altered in the late-C20.
History
The historic core of Hinckley centres around The Borough and its connecting streets, with St Mary’s Church to the south east. A settlement existed in Hinckley during Roman times, but the origins of today's town are a Saxon village called Hinca's Leah. In the C12 a priory and a Norman motte-and-bailey castle were built in the village, and by the C13 it had grown into a small market town, centred around The Borough, with Stockwell Head and Castle Street stretching to the east and Coventry Street or Duck Paddle Street (now Regent Street) to the south west. In 1640 the first stocking frame was brought to Hinckley, marking the beginning of the stocking weaving industry which was to dominate the town for over two hundred years. Hinckley prospered on the success of this industry, and many of the surviving buildings of the historic core date to the rebuilding and modernising of the town centre carried out in the C17 and C18. The arrival of the South Leicestershire Railway in 1862 allowed the stocking industry to expand with steam-powered frames and large factories, and the corresponding prosperity allowed the town to expand significantly beyond its historic core. The wider town is now characterised by the C19 houses and civic architecture erected during this time of expansion.
The 1782 map of Hinckley shows the site of 2 Castle Street densely developed, and it has probably been built up since the early days of the settlement. The earliest phase of the extant building is likely to date to the early C19 - an archaeological analysis of the building summarised in the Historic Environment Record concludes that the building was created in two different phases, with the left hand two bays facing The Borough dating to the early C19, and the remaining Castle Street block being added later in the C19. The roof, which covers both buildings, and the principal shopfront of The Borough and Castle Street, date to the later extension and remodelling. This analysis is supported by the different number of storeys in the two parts of the building, and the differences to the eaves and fenestration, as well as evidence in the rear wings of earlier rooflines.
The extant shopfront of number 2 had modern windows added to it in 1975 and was subsequently altered in 1988. The upper windows were also repaired and reinstated in 1988. The extant shopfront of number 2A, to the east on Castle Street, dates to 1997. In 2006, the second and third floors of 1A The Borough (the left two bays facing The Borough) were converted into flats.
Details
An early-C19 house and shop with late-C19 extensions and alterations. Altered in the late-C20.
MATERIALS: red brick with stone and stucco details. Pitched slate roof with brick chimney stacks to centre of both roof slopes.
PLAN: roughly rectangular on plan with a curved corner between The Borough and Castle Street containing the principal entrance.
EXTERIOR: The Borough (west) elevation has at ground-floor level, a stucco shopfront with three principal bays and one curved corner bay stretches the width of this façade. The bays are separated by channelled stucco panels fronted with pairs of pilasters with simple moulded capitals. Above is a plat band with a moulded cornice capped with lead. To the left, a round-headed entrance door with a prominent keystone and blind panel above, all in stucco, leads to the apartments of 1 and 1A The Borough. The curved corner bay contains the entrance to 2 Castle Street, and is topped with angled stucco headers with a central double keystone. Above ground-floor level, the left two bays are different in character, and likely to be the oldest elements of the building. These bays are of four storeys, and at first and second-floor levels have two-over-two flat-arched windows with stucco lintels with slightly eroded keystone details with moulded caps. At second-floor level the windows are very small, just one pane high, and have no lintels. This bay is capped with a slim moulded cornice with signs of deterioration. The right bay and curved corner are three storeys high, with far taller first-floor windows than the adjacent left-hand bays. The windows and window recesses have stucco lintels with angled headers and dropped keystones at first-floor level, and similar lintels and keystones with moulded caps at second-floor level. The curved corner windows at first and second floor are blind, in a slightly recessed panel. The first-floor window is a nine-over-nine sash, and at second floor it is a two-over two sash. At the top of this bay is a prominent cornice capped with lead, repeating the cornice above the shopfront. This cornice is recessed on its curved corner.
On the south elevation, at ground-floor level the stucco curved corner described under the west elevation continues, as does the pattern of channelled stucco panels fronted with pairs of pilasters, with plat band and cornice above. There is only one slim bay of this stucco shopfront on this elevation, filled with a modern window as on the west, and the stucco ornament ends at the shopfront of 2A on the right, which is fronted with a 1997 shopfront in imitation historic style. 2A’s shopfront has large plate glass windows, with timber panels to the bottom, and a matching plate glass door with timber panels, to the left of centre. Above the windows is a plastic signboard the width of the shop, with signs of mouldings above it which could be C19. At first and second-floor level, there are two bays plus the curved bay on the left. As on The Borough elevation, the windows have stucco lintels with angled headers and dropped keystones at first-floor level, and similar lintels and keystones with moulded caps at secondfloor level. The left-hand first-floor window is a nine-over-nine sash as on the west elevation, the right-hand window is six-over-six. At second-floor level, both windows are two-over two sashes. The ornamental cornice which caps the west elevation is not visible on the south elevation, being apparently either replaced or boxed-in with what appear to be timber boards.
