engineering

Leicester Secular Hall

Leicester Secular Hall is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Leicester Secular Hall rather than just read about it. In short: Leicester Secular Hall is a Grade II listed building in Leicester, England. It was built in 1881 for the city's Secular Society.

Key takeaways

Leicester Secular Hall belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Leicester Secular Hall to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Leicester Secular Hall from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Leicester Secular Hall is a Grade II listed building in Leicester, England. It was built in 1881 for the city's Secular Society. The Leicester Secular Hall Co. Ltd was formed for its construction. The lead shareholder was Josiah Gimson, an engineer and councillor. Ownership of the Hall subsequently passed to the Leicester Rationalist Trust. The building is located in the centre of Leicester at 73 and 75 Humberstone Gate. It was designed by W Larner Sugden of Leek, Staffordshire. The frontage contains five busts depicting, in chronological order, Socrates, Jesus, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, and Robert Owen.

History It was claimed by F.J. Gould that the building of the hall was proposed in 1872 after George Holyoake (who coined the word "secularism") was refused the use of a public room for a lecture. However, Ned Newitt argues there is no evidence to support this claim; secularist had also meet regularly in public halls in Leicester since 1868 without issue. Instead, Newitt suggest the inspiration came from articles Holyoake published in 1871 where he laid out plans for a series of Secular Halls across the country. Leicester secularists liked the idea and thought it would attract public interest. The hall was opened on Sunday 6 March 1881. Josiah Gimson, Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant gave speeches. Edward Aveling,George Bernard Shaw and William Morris are among the many radical thinkers who have spoken there.

Architecture The Secular Hall was designed by William Larner Sugden (1850-1901). Sugden was a Secularist and was chosen by Josiah Gimson. Sugden had worked for his father, also an architect, in Leek where he had encountered the ideas of William Morris (Morris was studying textile dyeing in Leek during the 1870s). Sugden's designs are described as 'Free Flemish Renaissance' in the Historic England listing. Non-Gothic styles, like Queen Anne, had been used for Leicester civic buildings in this period to distinguish them from the buildings of the established Anglican Church.

Current plans The ground floor was partially refurbished and accessible toilets installed in 2013 funded by the members of Leicester Secular Society and Biffa. There are ambitious plans, with assistance from Heritage Lottery Fund grants, to fully refurbish the building to meet modern standards, including disabled access to the upper floors.

References

External links Media related to Leicester Secular Hall at Wikimedia Commons Leicester Secular Society

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Leicester Secular Hall

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Leicester Secular Hall claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Leicester Secular Hall before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Leicester Secular Hall ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Leicester Secular Hall

In research: Leicester Secular Hall appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Leicester Secular Hall in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Leicester Secular Hall is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1881 establishments in England, Buildings and structures completed in 1881, Buildings and structures in Leicester, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Leicester Secular Hall outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Leicester Secular Hall in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Leicester Secular Hall means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Leicester Secular Hall out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Leicester Secular Hall in simple terms?

Leicester Secular Hall is a Grade II listed building in Leicester, England. It was built in 1881 for the city's Secular Society.

Why does Leicester Secular Hall matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Leicester Secular Hall?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Leicester Secular Hall.