Former Towers Hospital

Former Towers Hospital, Gipsy Lane, Leicester

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1376811
Date first listed:
14-Nov-1997
List Entry Name:
Former Towers Hospital
Statutory Address:
Former Towers Hospital, Gipsy Lane, Leicester
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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1376811
Date first listed:
14-Nov-1997
List Entry Name:
Former Towers Hospital
Statutory Address 1:
Former Towers Hospital, Gipsy Lane, Leicester

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
Former Towers Hospital, Gipsy Lane, Leicester

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:
SK6160106163

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 16/07/2018

SK 60 NW
718/15/10052

LEICESTER
GIPSY LANE (South west side)
Former Towers Hospital

(Formerly listed as Towers Hospital, Blocks 29, 30, 36, 37, 38, 39, 49 and 41)

GV
II

Former psychiatric hospital. 1869-70, by EL Stephens, Borough Surveyor, as the Leicester Borough Asylum. Built by Osborne Bros. Institutional alterations and additions 1960s and 1970s.

Red brick with ashlar dressings to main fronts and blue brick dressings to the remainder. Steep pitched plain tile roofs with decorative ridge tiles and shaped coped gables. Various side wall and ridge stacks.

Jacobean Revival style. Single unit, cruciform plan with cross wings. Central range has a projecting centre forming the medical superintendent's house and service rooms, linked by corridor to chapel and staff rooms at the rear. On either side, gallery wards, two storeys plus attics. Cross wings of similar wards have projecting end bays containing day rooms. On the outer side of each wing, a square staircase tower topped with an octagonal spire. Centrepiece, three storeys, three bays, has a projecting tower porch with machiolated eaves. Square leaded dome topped with a wind vane, and flanked by shaped gables each with a roundel. Steps up to a segment arched doorway with clustered columns and overlight. Renewed double doors. Above, a canted oriel window, two storeys, with cross-mullioned windows. Above again, two narrow lights. Side bays have canted cross-mullioned bay windows, two storeys, with balustrades. Above, cross mullioned windows under shaped gables.

Ward ranges, seven bays, have similar cross-mullioned windows. Slightly projecting centre, three bays, with shaped gables. Central square bay window, three storeys, late C20. Attic windows under half-hipped dormers. End bays have a canted two storey bay window, five lights. Above, a cross mullioned window under a shaped gable. Window to left is renewed. Returns have similar fenestration, with gabled and half-hipped dormers. Staircase towers, three storeys, have three-light pointed arched windows on the upper floor. Rear elevations have various pointed arched openings, and gabled and half-hipped bays and dormers. Central rear range, including chapel, is double depth, two storeys, five bays. Three prominent side wall stacks. Central doorway flanked by two windows. Above, five two-light pointed arched windows to the chapel, with shafts and hood moulds. Double gabled returns have two four-light pointed arched windows.

Interior: entrance corridor has an ashlar dogleg staircase, altered late C20. Chapel corridor has two moulded shouldered doorways with hood moulds and foliage roundels. Chapel has a simpler segmental pointed door. Interior has stained glass windows with sill band and hood moulds. Arch braced hammer beam roof on corbels. C19 wooden pulpit, other fittings renewed.

Listing NGR: SK6160106163

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
468940
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.

Ordnance survey map of Former Towers Hospital

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 14-Jun-2026 at 05:21:37.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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