Skellingthorpe is a suburban Character Area with mostly residential buildings although there are shops, churches and a school around Boultham Park Road roundabout and along Skellingthorpe Road.
The southern boundary of the Character Area is formed by the rear plot boundaries of 155 to 169 Rookery Lane, 2 to 56 Harris Road, 61 Moorland Avenue, the southern plot boundary of 72 Moorland Avenue, rear plot boundaries of 48 to 72 Moorland Avenue, the rear plot boundaries of 19 to 34 Roydon Grove, and the rear plot boundaries of 55 to 113 Skellingthorpe Road. The western boundary is formed by the railway line, the rear plot boundary of the allotment gardens and Tritton Road. The northern boundary is formed by the rear plot boundary of the open ground to the north of Usher County Junior School, the rear plot boundary of 51 St. Helens Avenue and Paddock House, the rear plot boundaries of 2 to 42 St. Helens Avenue and 16 to 58 Skellingthorpe Road. The eastern boundary is formed by Rookery Lane, the rear plot boundaries of 162 to 232 Rookery Lane, 277 to 283 Boultham Park Road and Boultham Park Road.
The large blocks with very limited pedestrian permeability contribute to the predominantly suburban character with all buildings with gardens facing out on to the street and set back by an average of over 5m. There is a low sense of enclosure along Moorland Avenue with its wide carriageway, verge and footpath and deeper setbacks although there is a fairly continuous building line. Elsewhere in the Character Area there is a stronger sense of enclosure for a suburb from the narrower streets and relatively continuous building lines. Public/private boundaries are mainly low hedges, walls and fences in varying designs although in some places the buildings façades themselves form the boundary. There are mainly active frontages except along Tritton Road where there are no building frontages. St. Peter and St. Paul Church and Holy Cross Church are landmark buildings with distinctive architectural styles and a larger building scale than the rest of the Character Area. St. Peter and St. Paul terminates views along Rookery Lane and, to some extent, Moorland Avenue. The bell tower of Holy Cross Church also stands out in the skyline.
Most of the buildings in Skellingthorpe are two-storey single-fronted semi-detached houses in red brick. Roofs are hipped with a fairly steep pitch and tall brick chimneys in the centre. Many houses have bay windows at ground-floor level, some of which have the same style of wooden cornices as those on houses of the Late Victorian/Edwardian Period elsewhere in Lincoln. Some houses have gabled dormers with windows below eaves. The Arts and Crafts style and Garden City movement influence on houses with hipped roofs with deep eaves, tall chimneys and bay windows can also be seen in the neighbouring Moorland Character Area. There are some detached houses which are very similar in style although they tend to have a double front and harled first floor with exposed brickwork detailing. There is a three-storey apartment block at the junction of Moorland Avenue and Rookery Lane in red brick with a plain façade, gabled roof with varying pitch, brown concrete tiles, no chimney and flush eaves with white bargeboards. There are also several small-scale commercial buildings around Boultham Park Road roundabout. These are mostly in the same architectural style as the semi-detached housing in the Character Area but with modern shop fronts at ground-floor level and no setback from the footway. The one exception is the Co-op building, which has horizontal wooden and vertical concrete panels on the façade, large expanses of blank wall, a curved slate roof and large industrial-style extraction chimneys.
Figure 3 Three-storey apartment block at the junction of Moorland Avenue and Rookery Lane which is the tallest residential development in the Character Area. It is constructed in red brick with a plain façade, gabled roof with varying pitch, brown concrete tiles
The three churches in the Character Area are of varying architectural styles. Holy Cross Church has a large steeply pitched gabled roof and bell tower to the south west. There are three dormer windows and detailing on the red-brick façade is picked out in yellow brick. It has large, stone mullioned windows with a semi-circular head in the east and west facades. Moorland Park Methodist Church is a yellow brick building with large vertical windows immediately below the overhanging eaves and some other windows of varying sizes at ground-floor level. There is a horizontal band of light yellow render along the middle of the façade and red tile sills. The roof is gabled with a shallow pitch and brown concrete tiles. St. Peter and St. Paul Church is of brown brick with white concrete panels. Its angled walls face in various directions while the entrance has a large porch with stone panels, varied window size and shape and a large statue above the door. There are large vertical stained-glass windows on all walls with projecting concrete mullions.
Figure 4 St. Peter and St. Paul Church which is constructed in brown brick with white concrete panels. Its angled walls face in various directions and there are large vertical stained-glass windows on all walls with projecting concrete mullions
The housing density is relatively low and there is a suburban grain with a plot width of around 7-9 metres, sometimes double plots of around 15m, and a residential building width of 5-6m on average.
The topography of the Character Area is flat with relatively straight streets in a geometric pattern. Most houses have large gardens, some of them with mature trees. Some front gardens have been covered with tarmac or gravel to allow car parking. There are grass verges along some streets. Both schools have large playing fields to the rear; however, these spaces are not publicly accessible. There is pedestrian access to Boultham Park from the Character Area. Part of the main vehicle traffic network in south Lincoln runs through the Character Area with one trunk road (Tritton Road) as well as four main roads (Skellingthorpe Road, Rookery Lane, Moorland Avenue and Boultham Park Road) which meet at a roundabout. The remainder of the Character Area consists of residential streets and cul-de-sacs. Footways are of tarmac or concrete flags while carriageways are tarmac with concrete kerbs. There are a lot of telegraph poles with wires fanning across the streets. There is heavy traffic along the main roads and a lot of pedestrian activity along the main roads and around the schools. The level crossing on Skellingthorpe Road affects the flow of traffic, and the heavy traffic and lack of crossing places can restrict pedestrian movement, particularly at Boultham Park Road roundabout.
Taken together the vitality and road links focusing on Boultham Park Road roundabout, mix of shops and churches, especially of a larger scale around the roundabout, and the nearby Boultham Park, partially create a feeling of a neighbourhood centre although there is no public square or urban public space.