Places · East Midlands · Leicester
Façade & building consultants in Leicester.
A Roman town and a great hosiery city, Leicester's red-brick factories are being turned into homes and workspace, while student towers and new hotels rise in the centre. McKay Turner Consulting provides façade condition surveys, defect and water ingress investigations, external wall fire risk appraisals, design reviews and expert witness work across Leicester.
LEICESTER 52.64° N, 1.13° W
A short history
From Roman Ratae to the hosiery capital
Leicester has been a town for nearly 2,000 years. Its knitting and footwear factories made it one of the richest cities in Europe in the 1930s.
- c. AD 50
Ratae
The Romans found Ratae Corieltauvorum. The Jewry Wall still stands.
- 1485
Richard III
The king is buried at Greyfriars after his death at Bosworth.
- 1785
New Walk
A Georgian promenade is laid out, lined with terraces and villas.
- 1865
Corah Works
N. Corah & Sons builds its St Margaret's Works, one of the great hosiery factories.
- 1919
City status
Leicester is granted city status.
- 1963
Engineering Building
Stirling and Gowan's red-brick and glass building opens at the university.
- 2012
The king in the car park
Archaeologists find Richard III's remains under a council car park.
- 2026
Station funding
Funding is agreed to restore the station and open a new entrance.
Architecture
What makes Leicester's buildings distinctive
Leicester is a red-brick city, with terracotta, stone dressings and Swithland slate. Its huge Victorian factories are now being converted, and new towers add glass and cladding.
Key styles
Roman & medieval
The Jewry Wall, the timber-framed Guildhall and medieval churches.
Georgian
Terraces and villas along New Walk.
Industrial
Huge red-brick hosiery, boot and shoe factories with rows of large windows.
Victorian civic
Terracotta and brick civic and commercial buildings, such as the Clock Tower area.
Post-war
The Engineering Building, office towers and concrete car parks.
Contemporary
Curve theatre, student towers and new hotels in glass and cladding.
Leicester's material palette
Did you know?
Richard III's remains were found in 2012 and reburied in Leicester Cathedral in 2015.
New Walk, laid out in 1785, is still a traffic-free path from the centre to the south of the city.
Leicester's hosiery factories were built with long rows of large windows to light the knitting machines.
Typical building types
What Leicester is built of today
Leicester's centre is ringed by Victorian terraces and former factories, with two universities driving demand for student homes.
Student towers
Purpose-built blocks for two universities.
Where: City centre, Western Boulevard
Factory conversions
Former hosiery and shoe factories turned into flats and workspace.
Where: St Margaret's, Cultural Quarter
Victorian terraces
Red-brick terraces and corner shops.
Where: Highfields, Clarendon Park, West End
Offices
From Victorian banks to post-war towers.
Where: City centre, New Walk
Hotels
City-centre hotels, old and new.
Where: Vaughan Way, Granby Street
Retail & leisure
Shopping centre and leisure buildings.
Where: Highcross, Haymarket
Education & healthcare
University and hospital buildings.
Where: University Road, Leicester Royal Infirmary
Heritage
Roman, medieval and Victorian listed buildings.
Where: Jewry Wall, Guildhall, Clock Tower
Current construction trends
Where Leicester is building now
Factory conversions, new hotels and a restored station are leading Leicester's regeneration.
Corah Works
Galliford Try Investments will build homes on the former hosiery works, keeping the 1865 façade and chimneys.
Vaughan Way hotels
Morgan Sindall is building a 10-storey Novotel and a six-storey aparthotel, with the cladding now going on.
Leicester station
Restoration of the Grade II listed station front and a new entrance on Station Street.
Canopy, King Street
Five heritage factory buildings converted into creative workspace, winning a regional award in 2026.
Stocking Farm
Clegg Construction will build 50 council family homes and 22 supported-living flats.
Cladding Safety Scheme
Government funding for unsafe cladding on residential buildings over 11m in England. Every application starts with a PAS 9980 fire risk appraisal of the external walls.
How we help in Leicester
Every era of building has its own risks
We match our inspections and advice to the age and construction of your building.
Medieval and Georgianto c.1840
Weathered stone and brick, failed pointing and decayed timber.
Victorian factories and terracesc.1850–1939
Spalling brick and terracotta, corroded steel windows and leaking roofs.
Post-war buildingsc.1950–1980
Spalling concrete, failed panel joints and old glazing.
Student towers and apartmentsc.2000–today
Combustible cladding or insulation, missing cavity barriers and leaking junctions.
New build and conversionstoday
Design gaps where new walls meet old ones, and workmanship.
Residential building, Nottingham: 106 openings and water testing across eight envelope systems to trace every leak path in a large residential building.
Read the Nottingham water ingress case study →FAQs
Façade services in Leicester
Do you work in Leicester?
Yes. We work across the UK from our base in the North West, including in Leicester. A Director-level consultant leads every instruction from the first conversation to the final report.
Can you assess the external walls of residential buildings in Leicester?
Yes. Our intrusive investigations confirm how the cladding, insulation and cavity barriers are actually built. We then assess the fire risk using PAS 9980, which is also the starting point for Cladding Safety Scheme applications.
Can you help with a factory conversion?
Yes. We review the design of new façades on old buildings, survey the existing brick, terracotta and windows, and check the work on site as it goes in.
Which other services do you offer in Leicester?
Façade condition surveys, defect and leak investigations, thermographic surveys, technical due diligence, façade design reviews and expert witness work in façade disputes.
Work with us
Own or manage a building in Leicester?
We provide façade condition surveys, defect and water ingress investigations, external wall fire risk appraisals, design reviews and expert witness work in Leicester and across the East Midlands.
Photographs: Dan Roizer and Matt Kirk on Unsplash.