Victorian pumping station overlooking Bradgate Park up for sale

A Victorian pumping station with splendid views overlooking Bradgate Park is up for sale – and is being touted as a truly “magnificent” family home.

Cropston Reservoir’s former pumping station is on the market – as a wedding venue or stunning private residence.

Built for the Leicester Waterworks Company in 1870, the imposing yet charming red brick building was stripped of its engines and boilers in the 1950s.

It has since been sensitively converted and is currently home to The Pumping Station – a popular restaurant, wedding venue and conference centre in the bucolic setting of Charnwood Forest.

The freehold, Grade II-listed property – which is being marketed by Roy Green Estate Agents, of Anstey – is so unique that it has been given a ‘price on application’ tag.

READ MORE: We try Sunday lunch at former Victorian pumping station in Leicestershire

On the Rightmove website, however, it is listed alongside some of the county’s most luxurious properties, some of which have an asking price in the region of £3 million.

Its listing struggles to desribe just how remarkable the building, and the location it sits in, really is.

The property boasts stunning views across Cropston Reservoir and Bradgate Park (Image: Rightmove)

“Located in the heart of Charnwood Forest and amongst some of Leicestershire’s most sought after residences is a Freehold Grade II Listed former pumping station dating back to the 1870s which is now an established bar, restaurant, wedding and function venue,” writes Rightmove.

“Offering considerable potential to convert to a substantial family home, subject to the usual consents, adjacent to Cropston Reservoir and Bradgate Park.”

The listing adds: “The Pumping Station is the perfect venue for the wedding of dreams, party of a lifetime, gourmet dining – or, if you don’t wish to continue with it as a hospitality business, it is the most stunning and unusual property to come on the market in Leicestershire for some time and would make a truly magnificent private home.

The pumping station owner’s living room is the “ultimate entertainment area for the whole family”. (Image: Rightmove)

The former pumping station currently has four bedrooms for guests and sits withing almost eight-acres of gardens and grounds, with extensive parking and secluded, private views overlooking Cropston Reservoir and Bradgate Park.

A further five-acres of land is also available by “separate negotiation” for a variety of uses, subject to planning permission.

The villages of Cropston and Anstey are located nearby, with Leicester not far away and other towns and cities easily accessible either by rail or the A46, A6, A50, M1 and M69, which are all close by.

The property has been sensitively renovated over the years and retains many of the original features form the working pumping station (Image: Rightmove)

“The Pumping Station is a property of not only incredible architectural heritage but enormous scope and potential to develop either into the home of your dreams or to grow the existing restaurant, weddings and events business that the property lends itself so perfectly to,” adds Rightmove.

It is currently split into the owners house and the restaurant and bar area, with a separate ceremony room.

Entry to the main living accommodation is under an impressive sandstone archway with stunning original carved wooden doors.

“As you step into the building it is impossible not to be wowed,” adds Rightmove. “The open plan kitchen living area has a beautiful apex wooden beamed ceiling which is over five metres high, with stunning columns giving a lovely separation between the kitchen and living area.

“This area is just perfect for entertaining, and relaxed family weekends.”

It continues: “The kitchen and dining area has so much space for cooking and kicking back it would be hard to leave, but it also has the added bonus of a fabulous Italian feature staircase leading up to a mezzanine home office area with multiple plug points meaning you don’t have to leave even to go to work if you don’t wish to.”

The historic venue is currently used for weddings, gourmet dining and conferences (Image: Rightmove)

They open onto a large living area with all the mod cons complemented by a fitted woodburner that is hailed as “the ultimate entertainment area for the whole family”.

A downstairs cloakroom features Victorian subway tiles, cistern and vanity unit, with an oak doorway leading to a spiral staircase taking you to the bedrooms – including a master bedroom with a vaulted 7.5 meter high wooden ceiling and large stone window features.

It is complete with “four large fitted, floor to ceiling modern sliding wardrobes, 2 cast iron radiators and all the original feature of the old pump fittings”.

A spiral staircase leads all the way to the top of the old pumping station chimney and a platform with “one of the best views in the whole of the county over Bradgate Park and the surrounding Charnwood area”.

The commercial kitchen is fitted has all the fixtures and fittings of a modern restaurant, with swing doors opening onto the main bar area.

It is a ‘long bar’ using a tree form the grounds as a countertop.

The original flow counter from its days as a functioning pumping station is on display in a seating area on the lower level and through the bar area there is a ‘Gin room’ next to a courtyard area “ideal for small private functions”.

The top level of the commercial side of the property has a seating area for over 90 wedding breakfast guests and other celebrations.

The separate ceremony room can seat 66 people.

For more details visit the Rightmove website by clicking here.

Alternatively, contact Roy Green Estate Agents, 13 & 15 The Nook, Anstey, Leicester LE7 7AZ. Tel. 0116 235 3009.

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