Introduction
With the conclusion of this year’s Tour de France– it got us thinking about bikes, and how Nottingham is so famously tied to bikes because, of course, we are the home to the famous Raleigh Bicycles.
So, in this edition of Famous Nottingham Buildings, we’re looking at the Raleigh Flagship Main Offices – also known as the Howitt Building.
History
The architect behind the building
The architect behind the building is Thomas Cecil Howitt, OBE, who was a British provincial architect of the 20th Century, born in Hucknall.
Howitt is mainly remembered for designing prominent public buildings, such as the Council House and Processional Way in Nottingham, Baskerville House in Birmingham, Newport Civic Centre, and several Odeon cinemas.
Howitt’s chief architectural legacies are however, in Nottingham. He was Housing Architect for the City Council, designing municipal housing estates which are often considered to be among the finest in terms of planning in the country.
Raleigh’s importance
The man credited with founding Raleigh in 1888, Frank Bowden, is said to have taken up the ‘new pastime’ of cycling to improve his health. The modern bicycle made a massive difference to the day-to-day lives of ordinary people who could travel further with their own transport for the first time.
The Howitt Building – Listed Bulding
The Howitt building, situated on Lenton Boulevard in Nottingham serves as a reflection to the city’s manufacturing past – at its height, Raleigh employed well over 8000 people who were making 2 million bikes a year.
The building became England’s 400,000th listed building, when it was awarded grade II protection back in 2018 due to it being a “carefully-executed and well-preserved example of an inter-war office building, with high quality external and internal detailing, and also for its historic interest, as the flagship main offices for the Raleigh Cycle Company, built at the height of its commercial success as the world’s leading manufacturer of bicycles in the early-mid 20th century”.
Not forgetting, its importance from the late 20th century onwards to Nottingham’s African Caribbean community, originally in respect of a landmark challenge to the company’s then selective employment policy, and now, as a cultural and social support centre, and by whom the former Raleigh company concert hall has been transformed into a successful performance venue.
Exterior
The exterior is a red-brick structure, with ashlar limestone dressings and detailing, and a plain-tile roof covering. The building has a linear, symmetrical plan with central entrance portico and flanking office ranges.
Interior
The interior of the building has undergone some alterations in the style and size of the various office areas.
The office areas were planned as, and remain, largely functional spaces, now complete with partitioning, inserted ceilings and modern office furnishings.
The main entrance hall, the board room and the upper-floor ballroom are the principal areas of interest which, in terms of the quality of design and materials, continue to represent the importance of the building as flagship premises of what had become the world’s leading manufacturer of bicycles in the inter-war and post-war periods.
The open hall area forms the approach to a double-return staircase, the central landing of which stands below a tall margin-light window with coloured glass to the margin glazing and the Raleigh company motif to its centre.
The Board Room, on the ground floor, is one of two rooms which retain fully-panelled interiors. The Board Room includes panelled double doors with original door furniture together with a marble chimneypiece with overmantle.
Now
The building, which Raleigh has since left, is now known as the Lenton Business Centre and houses the Marcus Garvey Centre and the Marcus Garvey Ballroom – both named after the celebrated Jamaican journalist.
