On the way out of Coalville along Ashby Road, I spotted this and had to find a parking space in order to photograph it.

It is an Art Deco bus depot built in 1925.

Central portion. Deco lettering:-

Left portion. Banding below roofline. Red decoration on white detail. Rule of three in windows. Pity their eyes have been poked out.:-

Right portion. Banding continued. Rule of three in lower windows:-

Former Coalville Bus Depot sign. It reads, “The Birmingham and MIDLAND Motor Omnibus Co Ltd.”:-

The former Rex Cinema is a stunning Art Deco building – in that blocky institutional style favoured by government buildings and dictators – in Coalville, Leicestershire. After ceasing to be a cinema it became a Dunelm Mill but that too has shut.

Frontage:-

This view shows how closely located is the Rex to the Palace Cinema – also Deco:-

In Coalville I found no fewer than four Art Deco style buildings. Two of them were glorious.

This one (to the left of the photo) however, barely makes the definition. It could be seen from the square containing the Clocktower War Memorial. It’s deco only in the stepped roofline and rule of three in (filled-in) windows:-

For wider views of Coalville’s War Memorial see previous post.

Dedication. “This tower was erected by the inhabitants of the district in memory of the men who went from the Coalville urban area.”:-

Great War name plaques:-

F Adams – R Freeman

C T Gadsby – S W Palmer

H Parish – W Young

On the way back up from Rye we stopped for a night at a hotel in Leicestershire near Ashby-de-la-Zouche as the name is so delightful we felt it was place we had to visit.

Between the hotel and Ashby, however, we passed through the town of Coalville, of which I confess before planning the trip I had never heard.

It’s well worth a visit though – not as far as shops are concerned but for some of the architecture and its War Memorial.

This takes the unusual form of a clock tower* which dominates the town centre. It was erected in 1925:-

Clock tower with mining memorial in foreground. (As its name suggests Coalville has a mining heritage):-

Close-up of tower from below:-

*The only other clock tower I can remember seeing which also acted as a War Memorial is in the Dutch (or Friesian) town of Surhuisterveen. That commemorates the Second World War though and so will post-date Coalville’s.