A Manufacturing Town
Portland and Hawthorn Buildings
Creating a skilled workforce for Leicester
The original purpose of the Hawthorn Building is shown on its entrance doors opposite Trinity House. The four panels by Percy Brown depicting art and design tool and equipment indicate the building was once the Leicester Municipal Technical and Art School, established in 1897. The school arose from a desire to raise the standard of industrial and commercial design in important manufacturing towns.
A good technical education
Generations of Leicester people attended classes here as part of their apprenticeship. In 1929 the School became Leicester College of Arts and Crafts and Leicester College of Technology. The College of Art taught architecture, crafts, printing, design and art whilst the College of Technology offered footwear and textile manufacture, sciences, office management and a variety of food trades. The emphasis was on vocational skills and employability.
The Portland Shoe Company
Now part of De Montfort University, the Portland Building was originally built in 1888 for Portland Shoes, which began life as T. Roberts & Sons. It was one of the many boot and shoe factories across the city until the 1970s. A fire gutted the building in 1908 and it was rebuilt in 1909 to its
present form. The University (then Leicester Polytechnic) bought it in 1991.
It is fitting that a Victorian technical and art school an a former shoe factory are still used today by a University that trains the shoe and fashion designers of the future.
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