An iconic symbol of Leicester’s industrial past and radical working class traditions has been given listed-building status following a campaign to preserve it.

The former Boot and Shoe Operatives Union Building, in St James Street, off Humberstone Gate, has been designated as a Grade II-listed building.

It follows a campaign by the Leicester Group of the Victorian Society.

The 103-year-old building, designed by city architects Harrison Hattrell in the final year of Queen Victoria’s reign, survives largely intact.

Dr David Holmes researched the city’s boot and shoe industry as part of the Victorian Society’s application to conservation watchdog, English Heritage

He said: “The building was threatened with conversion to flats which would have destroyed its fine interior.

“We are particularly pleased because it is unique in Leicester as being the only major national trade union headquarters in the city.”

Dr Holmes added: “Reflecting Leicester’s strong radical working class traditions, it was built for both the national headquarters and the two local branches of the boot and shoe workers union.

“The union was at the time proud to proclaim that the work for the building was wholly undertaken by trade union labour and under the best trade union conditions.”

Features of the building, which was completed in 1902 and sits in the city’s St George’s Conservation Area, include an “imposing facade” of white Hollington stone with brick infill and a polished Aberdeen granite plinth.

Its interior includes maple parquet flooring, columns of polished Devonshire marble and Roman Ionic capitals and elaborate foliate plasterwork.

A feature noted by English Heritage is the survival of ‘strong rooms’, complete with iron-reinforced doors made by Gardiner Sons and Co.

Wrought-ironwork inside the rooms was fitted by Messrs Gimson Co, of Vulcan Road, Leicester.

GradeII-listed status means a building receives additional protection under planning law, with any alteration proposals heavily scrutinised.

It was granted to the Boot Shoe Union Building by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of English Heritage.

Tony Calladine, designation team leader for English Heritage, said: “The former Boot and Shoe Union and National Union Headquarters is a reminder of Leicester’s boot and shoe industry as well as its strong working class traditions.

“So much of the original fabric survives, including the iron work of local and nationally recognised company Gimsons Co.”

He added: “It gives us a clear picture of a purpose-built, early 20th century office, and a fascinating insight into Leicester’s industrial heritage.

“That’s why it fully merits listing at Grade II.”

Leicester’s Boot Shoe Union Building factfile:

* Gimson Co was the family firm associated with Ernest Gimson, one of the most influential designers of the English Arts and Crafts Movement.

* Leicester’s boot and shoe industry was nationally important, manufacturing more footwear than anywhere else in Britain.

* The Boot Shoe Operatives Union, founded in Stafford in 1874 with a membership of 4,000, moved to Leicester in 1876.

* By the time the building was constructed in 1902 the 8,000 of the national union’s 28,000 membership were in Leicester.

* The Leicester Trades Council also held their meetings in the 700-capacity hall, which became a central meeting place for all local trade unions.

* Ramsey MacDonald, the country’s first Labour Prime Minister and a Leicester MP, was among the famous politicians who spoke there.

* In 1971, the National Union of Boot Shoe Operatives merged with several other small unions – and was joined in 1991 by the National Union of Hosiery Knitwear Workers. By 2004 there was a merger with the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation to form the Community Union.

* With the decline in union membership the hall and offices were vacated. The Swaminarayam Mission acquired the building in 1978 only to vacate it recently.