Everything about Leicester totally explained
Leicester is the largest
city and
unitary authority area in the
East Midlands of
England, and is the traditional
county town of
Leicestershire.
Leicester lies on the
River Soar and at the edge of the
English National Forest. In 2004, the population of the city proper was estimated at 285,100, with 441,213 living in the
urban area. It is currently, by population, the 10th largest city in England and the 13th largest in the UK.
The urban area extends beyond the boundaries of the
city proper to include the satellite towns of
Oadby,
Wigston,
Braunstone Town,
Birstall,
Glenfield,
Blaby,
Thurmaston,
Syston and
Leicester Forest East. A number of these towns are in fact closely integrated suburbs of the city itself, especially Glenfield and Braunstone. For areas within the city, see
Areas of Leicester. In terms of population within the city limits it's the largest in the East Midlands.
General
The city is close to the
M1 motorway, and is on the
Midland Main Line from
London St Pancras International to
Sheffield,
Nottingham and
Leeds. High-speed trains operated by
East Midlands Trains can reach London in just over an hour. It is also served by rail lines to
Birmingham via
Nuneaton, and to
Cambridge via
Peterborough.
Major industries in Leicester today include food processing, hosiery, knitwear, engineering, electronics, printing and plastics.
The
city centre is mainly
Victorian with some later developments, which have usually been integrated in smoothly. The heart of the city centre is the Clock Tower, which is at the intersection of five routes into the city - High Street, Churchgate, Belgrave Gate, Humberstone Gate, and Gallowtree Gate. Today, the latter two are pedestrianised, and vehicles are restricted on the others, with the High Street currently being pedestrianised.
Leicester City Centre is home to
The Haymarket and
The Shires (soon to be renamed
Highcross Leicester
) shopping centres, both of which face the Clock Tower.
Leicester Market, Europe's largest covered market, is nearby.
The historic core of the city lies slightly to the west, and monuments here include the Castle, the
Anglican cathedral of
St Martin, the medieval churches of
St Mary de Castro and
St. Nicholas, the
Guildhall and the
Jewry Wall.
There are a number of major developments on the horizon implemented by the
Leicester Regeneration Company including the £60 million
Curve Theatre, Leicester designed by
Rafael Viñoly.
In 1990, Leicester was designated the
UK's first
Environment City, and won the European Sustainable City Award in 1996.
Leicester has a large
ethnic minority population, mainly from the
Indian subcontinent. There are many
Hindu mandirs,
Sikh gurdwaras and
Muslim mosques around the city, mostly converted from existing buildings. The
Jain Temple in Leicester is near the city centre (
The Jain Centre). The area around Belgrave Road is known as the
Golden Mile, and contains many Indian restaurants, jewellery shops, and other shops catering to the large Indian community in the neighbourhood. Many people travel to the area specifically for the restaurants, which serve authentic
Indian cuisine. The annual
Diwali celebrations are also held here and at the nearby
Abbey Park, and are the biggest outside of
India.
There are also many of Afro-Caribbean descent (mainly from
Antigua & Barbuda,
Montserrat and
Jamaica), the community being centred around
Highfields to the south-east of the city centre, and Leicester plays host to the second largest
Caribbean Carnival in the UK after
Notting Hill.
History
According to
Geoffrey of Monmouth, a mythical king of the Britons
King Leir founded the city of Kaerleir ('Leir's
chester' – for example fortified town). Even today the name of the city in the
Welsh language is Caerlŷr. He was supposedly buried by
Queen Cordelia in a chamber beneath the
River Soar near the city dedicated to the Roman god
Janus, and every year people celebrated his feast-day near Leir's tomb.
William Shakespeare's
King Lear is loosely based on this story and there's a statue of Lear in
Watermead Country Park.
Roman
Leicester is one of the oldest cities in
England, with a history going back 2000 years. The city of Leicester was first known as
Ratae Coritanorum and was inhabited by the
Corieltauvi tribe. The Corieltauvi were a
Celtic tribe and Leicester was the capital of a territory of what is now known as the East Midlands.
The
Roman city of
Ratae Corieltauvorum was founded around AD
50 as a military settlement upon the
Fosse Way Roman road. After the military departure,
Ratae Corieltauvorum grew into an important trading and one of the largest towns in
Roman Britain. The remains of the
baths of Roman Leicester can be seen at the
Jewry Wall and other Roman artefacts are displayed in the Jewry Wall Museum adjacent to the site.
Saxon and Viking
Knowledge of the town in the 5th century is very patchy. Certainly there's some continuation of occupation of the town, though on a much reduced scale in the 5th and 6th centuries. Leicester was chosen as the centre of a
bishopric (and therefore a city) in 679/80 which survived until the 9th century, when Leicester was captured by the Danes (
Vikings) and became one of the
five boroughs (fortified towns) of
Danelaw, although this position was short lived. The Saxon
Bishop of Leicester fled to Dorchester-on-Thames and Leicester wasn't to become a bishopric again until the 20th century.
It is believed the name "Leicester" is derived from the words
castra (camp) of the
Ligore, meaning dwellers on the 'River Legro' (an early name for the
River Soar). In the early 10th century it was recorded as
Ligeraceaster = "the town of the Ligor people". The
Domesday Book later recorded it as
Ledecestre.
Medieval
Leicester became a town of considerable importance by
Medieval times. It was mentioned in the
Domesday Book as 'civitas' (city), but Leicester lost its
city status in the 11th century owing to power struggles between the Church and the aristocracy. It was eventually re-made a city in 1919, and the Church of St Martin became
Leicester Cathedral in 1927. The tomb of
King Richard III is located in the central nave of the church although he isn't actually buried there. He was originally buried in the
Greyfriars Church in Leicester, but there's a legend that his corpse was exhumed under orders from
Henry VII and cast into the
River Soar, although there's no evidence for this and some historians believe that his tomb and bones were destroyed with the dissolution of the church.
Leicester played a significant role in the history of England, when, in 1265,
Simon de Montfort forced King
Henry III to hold the first
Parliament of England at the now-ruined
Leicester Castle. This wasn't the only time parliament was held in Leicester, see
Parliament of Bats.
Lady Jane Grey, (
1536/7 —
12 February 1554), a great-granddaughter of
Henry VII of England, reigned as uncrowned
Queen Regnant of the
Kingdom of England for nine days in July 1553, and for that reason is called "The Nine Days Queen" was born at
Bradgate Park near Leicester.
Tudor
On
4 November 1530,
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was arrested on charges of treason and taken from
York Place. On his way south to face dubious justice at the
Tower of London, he fell ill. The group escorting him was concerned enough to stop at Leicester. There, Wolsey's condition quickly worsened and he died on
29 November 1530 and was buried at
Leicester Abbey, now
Abbey Park.
Civil War
Leicester was a Parliamentarian stronghold during the
English Civil War.
In 1645,
Prince Rupert decided to attack the city to draw the
New Model Army away from the Royalist headquarters of Oxford.
Royalist guns were set up on Raw Dykes and after an unsatisfactory response to a demand for surrender, the Newarke was stormed and the city was sacked on 30 May. Although hundreds of people were killed by Rupert's cavalry, reports of the severity of the sacking were exaggerated by the Parliamentary press in London.
18th and 19th centuries
With the construction of the
Grand Union Canal in the 1790s linking Leicester to
London and
Birmingham, Leicester began rapid
industrialisation. The main industries being
hosiery,
footwear and, especially in the 20th century,
engineering. All are, however, in decline now.
By 1832,
railways had arrived in Leicester with the opening of the
Leicester and Swannington Railway, which provided a supply of
coal to the town from nearby collieries. By 1840 the
Midland Counties Railway had linked Leicester to the national railway network, which further boosted industrial growth. By the 1860s, Leicester had gained a direct rail link to
London (
St Pancras) with the completion of the
Midland Main Line. The
Great Central Railway arrived in 1900, providing an alternative route to London. However, this closed in 1966.
The borough expanded throughout the 19th century, most notably in 1892 annexing
Belgrave,
Aylestone,
Knighton and
North Evington. The city obtained its current boundaries in 1935, with the annexation of the remainder of
Evington,
Humberstone,
Beaumont Leys, along with part of
Braunstone. It became a
county borough when these were established in 1889, but, as with all county boroughs, was abolished by the
Local Government Act 1972 in 1974, becoming an ordinary
district of Leicestershire. It regained its unitary status in 1997.
Post World War II
In the decades since
World War II, Leicester has experienced large scale immigration from across the world. Immigrant groups today make up around 40% of Leicester's population, making Leicester one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the
United Kingdom. Many Polish servicemen were prevented from returning to their homeland after the war by the communist regime, and they established a small community in Leicester. Economic migrants from Ireland continued to arrive throughout the post war period. Immigrants from the Indian sub-continent began to arrive in the 1960s, their numbers boosted by
Indians arriving from
Kenya and
Uganda in the early 1970s. In the 1990s a group of Dutch citizens of
Somali origin, settled in the city, apparently drawn by its free and easy atmosphere and by the number of mosques. Since the 2004
enlargement of the European Union a significant number of eastern European migrants have settled in the city. While some wards in the north-east of the city are more than 70% Asian, wards in the west and south are all over 70% white. The
Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) had estimated that by 2011 Leicester would have approximately a 50% ethnic minority population, making it the first city in Britain not to have a white British majority. This prediction was based on the growth of the ethnic minority populations between 1991 (Census 1991 28% ethnic minority) and 2001 (Census 2001 - 36% ethnic minority). However Professor Ludi Simpson at the University of Manchester School of Social Sciences said in September 2007 that the CRE had "made unsubstantiated claims and ignored government statistics" and that Leicester would become a plural city by approximately 2019. The
Leicester Multicultural Advisory Group was a forum set up in 2001 by the editor of the
Leicester Mercury to coordinate community relations, with members representing the council, police, schools, community and faith groups, and the media.
Coat of arms
The Corporation of Leicester's
coat of arms was first granted to the city at the Heraldic Visitation of 1619, and is based on the arms of the first
Earl of Leicester, Robert Beaumont. The field is a white
cinquefoil on a red background, and this emblem is used by the City Council.
After Leicester became a city again in 1919, the city council applied to add to the arms, permission for which was granted in 1929, when the supporting lions, from the Lancastrian Earls of Leicester, were added.
The motto "Semper Eadem" was the motto of Queen Elizabeth I, who granted a royal charter to the city. It means "always the same". The crest on top of the arms is a white or silver legless
wyvern with red and white wounds showing, on a wreath of red and white. The supporting lions are wearing coronets in the form of collars, with the white cinquefoil hanging from them.
Demography
| Leicester compared |
| UK Census 2001 |
Leicester |
East Midlands |
England |
| Total population |
279,921 |
4,172,174 |
49,138,831 |
| Foreign born |
23.0% |
6.0% |
9.2% |
| White |
63.9% |
93.5% |
90.9% |
| Asian |
29.9% |
4.0% |
4.6% |
| Black |
3.1% |
0.9% |
2.3% |
| Christian |
44.7% |
72.0% |
71.7% |
| Hindu |
14.7% |
1.6% |
1.1% |
| Muslim |
11.0% |
1.7% |
3.1% |
The
United Kingdom Census 2001 showed a total resident population for Leicester of 279,921, a 0.5% decrease from the 1991 census. Approximately 62,000 were aged under 16, 199,000 were aged 16–74, and 19,000 aged 75 and over.
The population density is and for every 100 females, there were 92.9 males. Of those aged 16–74 in Leicester, 38.5% had no
academic qualifications, significantly higher than 28.9% in all of England. 23.0% of Leicester’s residents were born outside of the United Kingdom, higher than the English average of 9.2%.
In terms of
districts by ethnic diversity, the City of Leicester is ranked 11th in England. In 2001, 60.5% of residents identified themselves as
white British, 29.9% Asian or
Asian British, 3.1% black or
black British, 2.3% mixed race and 0.8% Chinese or other ethnic group.
Population change
Economy
Engineering
Engineering is an important part of the economy of Leicester. Companies include Jones & Shipman (machine tools and control systems), Richards Engineering (foundry equipment), Transmon Engineering (materials handling equipment) and Trelleborg (suspension components for rail, marine, and industrial applications). Local commitment to nurturing the upcoming cadre of British engineers includes apprenticeship schemes with local companies, and academic-industrial connections with the engineering departments at
Leicester University,
De Montfort University, and
Loughborough University.
Food and drink
Henry Walker was a successful pork butcher who moved from Mansfield to Leicester in the 1880s to take over an established business in the high street. The business prospered, moving to Cheapside in 1912, and later established a sausage factory in Cobden Street. After World War Two meat rationing saw Walker & Sons factory output drop dramatically. The company looked at alternatives to make better use of its premises and workforce and began to manufacture
potato crisps. The first Walkers production line was in the empty upper storey of Walker's Oxford Street factory in Leicester. In the early days the potatoes were sliced up by hand and cooked in an ordinary fish and chip fryer. In 1971 the
Walkers crisps business was sold to Standard Brands, an American firm, who sold on the company to
Frito-Lay.
Walkers crisps currently makes 10 million bags of crisps per day at two factories in
Beaumont Leys, and is the UK's largest grocery brand. Meanwhile the sausage and pie business was bought out by Samworth Brothers in 1986. Production outgrew the Cobden Street site and sausages and pork pies are now manufactured at a meat processing factory and bakery in
Beaumont Leys, coincidentally situated near the separately owned crisp factories. Sold under the Walkers name and under UK retailers own brands such as Tesco's Finest, over three million hot and cold pies are made each week. Henry Walker's butcher shop at 4-6 Cheapside is still in business, selling Walkers sausages and pork pies, and is currently trading under the ownership of Scottish company Fife Fine Foods which bought up the Walkers butchers stores chain from Dewhursts in 2006.
Some 15 major Indian food manufacturers are based in Leicester including Mayur Foods, Cofresh Snack Foods Ltd, Farsan, Apni Roti, and Spice n Tice. The 'Mithai' Indian sweet market is catered for by award winning Indian restaurants - for instance the vegetable samosas approved by the Vegetarian Society sold at The Sharmilee on Belgrave Road. In May 2007 Leicester was voted 'Curry Capital of Britain 2007' by
Menu Magazine after a campaign led by restaurateur Kaycee Patel of Ek Maya restaurant.
Leicester Market is the largest outdoor covered marketplace in Europe and among the products on sale are fruit and vegetables sold by enthusiastic market stallholders who shout out their prices, and fresh fish and meat in the Indoor Market.
Everards is the largest Leicester brewery.
Blackfriars bakery produces cakes and flapjacks.
A safe pubs and clubs scheme
Leicester Best Bar None has accredited 50 venues in the city that meet public safety and crime prevention standards.
Leicester City Council publishes food safety reports about food establishments in Leicester under their
SmileSafe scheme.
Clothing
Leicester and Leicestershire have had a traditional industry of
knitwear,
hosiery and
footwear; in the latter it equalled Northamptonshire's idiosyncratic footwear history. The
sheep on the county's coat of arms is recognition of this. The local manufacturing industry only survived through protection of the
Multi Fibre Arrangement, which came to an end in 2004. However the creative side lives on as
De Montfort University has, in the form of its Fashion and Contour Design course, a leading design department for female underwear. It also has the only UK University courses in Footwear Design, with the likes of
Nike visiting the university to employ students. The head office for
Next (clothing) is based in nearby
Enderby. The headquarters of
Freeman Hardy Willis - owned by the British Shoe Corporation (before 1996) used to be in Leicester, and those of Shoefayre (based in
South Wigston and owned by the
Co-op) and Stead and Simpson (based in
Syston, Charnwood) are still in Leicestershire.
Shoe Zone (originally known as Benson Shoe) is based on Humberstone Road in the city of Leicester, and took over the Oliver Group in 2000, which included Timpson's former retail division and was actually based just inside the City of Leicester on the
Braunstone Frith industrial estate - next to the old plant of the British Shoe Corporation.
Financial and business services
Financial and business service companies with operations in Leicestershire include
Alliance & Leicester,
Royal Bank of Scotland,
State Bank of India,
HSBC, and
PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Companies that have their head office based in the area include
Next (clothing) Mattel UK, and British Gas Business.
Invest Leicestershire provides information to businesses looking to relocate to the city or county, or to established local companies wanting to develop.
Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce is another good source for business advice.
Creative industries
Leicester Creative Business Depot was established to house creative and arts businesses, and puts on exhibitions. Businesses in Leicester include
Haley Sharpe Design,
Checkland Kindleysides, printers
Printmate in Kirby Flirth,
Taylor Bloxham Ltd in Beaumont Leys, sister company
C & R Printing Services in Enderby and
Channel 2020.
Healthcare
In the public sector,
University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust is one of the larger employers in the city, with over 12,000 employees working for the Trust.
Leicester City Primary Care Trust employs over 1,000 full and part time staff providing healthcare services in the city.
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust employs 3,000 staff providing mental health and learning disability services in the city and county.
In the private sector are Nuffield Hospital Leicester and Bupa Hospital Leicester.
Statistics
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Leicester at current basic prices
published (pp.240-253) by
Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| Year |
Regional Gross Value Added |
Agriculture |
Industry |
Services |
| 1995 |
3,561 |
1 |
1,256 |
2,304 |
| 2000 |
4,513 |
- |
1,425 |
3,088 |
| 2003 |
5,087 |
1 |
1,289 |
3,797 |
Business awards
The Leicestershire Business Awards has categories including Investing in Leicestershire, Contribution to the Community, and Entrepreneur of the Year.
Recent Leicestershire winners of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise are listed on the Lord Lieutenant's
website.
Politics
On
April 1,
1997,
Leicester City Council became a
unitary authority, local government up until then having been a two-tier system with the city and county councils being responsible for different aspects of local government services (a system which is still in place in the rest of Leicestershire).
Leicestershire County Council retained its headquarters at County Hall in
Glenfield, just outside the city boundary but within the urban area. The administrative offices of Leicester City Council are in the centre of the city at the New Walk Centre and other office buildings near Welford Place. Some services (particularly the police and the ambulance service) still cover the whole of the city and county, but for the most part the two councils are independent.
After a long period of Labour administration (since 1979), the city council from May 2003 was run by a
Liberal Democrat/
Conservative coalition under
Roger Blackmore, which collapsed in November 2004. The minority Labour group ran the city until May 2005, under Ross Willmott, when the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives formed a new coalition, again under the leadership of Roger Blackmore.
In the local government elections of May 3rd 2007, Leicester’s Labour Party once again took control of the council in what can be described as a landslide victory. Gaining 18 new councillors, Labour polled on the day 38 councillors, creating a governing majority of +20. Significantly however, the Green Party gained its first councillors in the Castle Ward, after losing on the drawing of lots in 2003. The Conservative Party saw a decrease in their representation, whilst the Liberal Democrat Party was the major loser, dropping from 25 councillors in 2003 to only 6 in 2007.
Leicester is divided into three Parliamentary constituencies.
Leicester East and
Leicester West are represented by
Keith Vaz and
Patricia Hewitt respectively - both members of the
Labour Party. The third seat,
Leicester South, became vacant in May 2004 on the death of Labour politician
Jim Marshall. A
by-election was held on
July 15, and was won by
Parmjit Singh Gill of the
Liberal Democrats, with a 21% swing. This by-election saw almost 4,000 votes go to a
Respect Party candidate, who opposed the Iraq war. However, in the
2005 general election, Labour's unsuccessful by-election candidate and former Council Leader
Sir Peter Soulsby won Leicester South back for the party, and Vaz and Hewitt retained their seats.
Transport
Railway
The rail network is of growing importance in Leicester, and with the start of
Eurostar international services from
London St Pancras International in November 2007 giving Leicester almost direct links to the continent, this growth is sure to continue.
East Midlands Trains are the InterCity operator running 'fast' and 'semi-fast' services to and from
London to northern England, and provide local services throughout the
East Midlands, regional services to the
West Midlands and
East Anglia are provided by
Cross Country.
Rail routes run north–south through Leicester along the route known as the
Midland Main Line, going south to
Bedford,
Luton and
London; and north to
Lincoln,
Sheffield,
Leeds and
York.
Junctions north and south of the station link the east–west cross country route, going east to
Cambridge and
Stansted Airport; and west to
Nuneaton and
Birmingham.
Leicester is 99 miles from London on the Midland Main Line, the fastest trains taking 1 hour and 11 minutes. Journeys to
Sheffield take around 1 hour, Leeds and York are approximately a 2 hour journey. Birmingham and Peterborough are around 1 hour away.
Passengers using the railway station can include a
PlusBus ticket with their train ticket which gives unlimited bus travel in a designated area.
Network Rail has plans afoot to re-develop the station incorporating the city council's plans for the surrounding area.
Great Central Railway
Leicester was also on a competing line from London to the North, built by the Great Central Railway in the late 1890s. Closed as a through route in the late 1960s, a section from the recently opened Leicester North station to Loughborough is now a heritage steam railway.
Motorways
Leicester is close to the heart of the
M1 motorway at Junction 21, this section considered to be the busiest part in the country.
The
M69 motorway also starts near Leicester, and runs to the
M6 Motorway and is contiguous with Coventry's eastern bypass.
Airport
East Midlands Airport is near
Castle Donington which is in North West
Leicestershire. Served by low-cost international
airlines, makes the city easily accessible from other parts of the world providing daily services to many principal European destinations such as
Paris,
Frankfurt,
Berlin, and
Amsterdam, internal flights to
Edinburgh and
Belfast and limited services to trans-continental destinations such as
Barbados,
Mexico,
Sanford and
Florida.
Leicester's other local airport is
Leicester Airport at
Stoughton, Leicestershire, which is more for the benefit of enthusiasts than a transport hub.
Buses and coaches
St. Margaret's Bus Station is the main interchange for coach services in Leicester, while local bus services are split between St. Margaret's and the Haymarket Bus Station. Leicester currently has one permanent
Park and Ride site at
Meynells Gorse with busses operating at least every fifteen minutes, a site is also under construction at Enderby, there's a weekend operation from County Hall, Glenfield.
Passengers using the railway station can include a
PlusBus ticket with their train ticket which gives unlimited bus travel in a designated area.
- National Express operate long distance services.
- Stagecoach Group operate a mixture of mid to long distance bus and coach services including Megabus.
- Skylink buses operate hourly during the day and two hourly at night to East Midlands Airport.
- First Group are the parent company of First Leicester who operate mainly high frequency local bus routes.
- Arriva Group are the parent company of Arriva Midlands who operate a mixture of local and rural bus services throughout Leicestershire.
- Centrebus operate budget local services mainly between local authority estates.
- A number of coach operators run excursions from the station including Woods Coaches.
National Cycle Network
Many of the country's
National Cycle Network pass through Leicestershire. In Leicester City Centre you'll find the
Leicester Bike Park. The city is also home to Cyclemagic, the UK's leading community cycling organisation with probably the widest range of bikes and pedal powered machines in the world.
Education
Leicester is home to two universities, the
University of Leicester, which attained its
Royal Charter in
1957, and the
De Montfort University, which opened in
1969 as
Leicester Polytechnic and adopted its current name in 1992.
It is also home to the
National Space Centre, due in part to the University of Leicester being one of the few universities in the UK to specialise in space sciences.
Leicester City
Local Education Authority initially had a troubled history when formed in 1997 as part of the local government reorganisation - a 1999
Ofsted inspection found "few strengths and many weaknesses", although there has been considerable improvement since then. While many state schools provide a good standard of education, there have been problems with one or two of the large community colleges, in particular New College. However, recent changes of leadership at New College have seen a turnaround in the school's prospects.
Current plans to improve the city's education system include the opening of
The Samworth Enterprise Academy a
city academy whose catchment area will draw in children from the Saffron and Eyres Monsell estates, co-sponsored by the
Church of England and David Samworth, chairman of Samworth Brothers. State school status has been granted to the Leicester Islamic Academy. The city's special schools are currently undergoing reorganisation.
Under the "Building Schools for the Future" project, Leicester City Council has contracted with developers Miller Consortium for £315 million to rebuild Beaumont Leys School, Judgemeadow Community College in Evington, and Soar Valley College in Rushey Mead, and to refurbish Fullhurst Community College in Braunstone.
Leicester City Council underwent a major reorganisation of children's services in 2006, creating a new Children & Young People's Services department.
Education Links
Schools in Leicester & the Wider Area
The Arts
The city hosts an annual Pride Parade (Leicester Pride), a Caribbean Carnival (the largest in the UK outside London), the largest Diwali celebrations outside of India and the largest comedy festival in the UK Leicester Comedy Festival.
Arts venues in the city include:
The Phoenix Arts Centre. Former name "Phoenix Theatre".
The De Montfort Hall.
The Little Theatre.
The City Gallery (one of the regions leading contemporary art galleries)
The Peepul Centre
The Haymarket Theatre : (Now closed, the Leicester Theatre Trust await relocation to the new Curve venue).
Curve : New purpose designed performing arts centre, designed by Rafael Vinoly, Scheduled to open in Autumn 2008.
Music
While Leicester has often been neglected as a centre for popular music it has had a vibrant history that has thrown up a large number of notable, as well as forgettable, artists. Current venues for music include
The Charlotte: live music venue
The Musician: live music venue
Firebug : live music venue
The Shed : live music venue
1960s
Leicester's main small venue for pop and rock was the Il Rondo on Silver Street. The roll call of bands
who played at the Il Rondo runs like a Who's Who of early/mid sixties pop and rock. The Yardbirds and The Animals played there before passing into rock history along with less well remembered groups like the Graham Bond Organisation. The Beatles also came to De Montfort Hall.
Colin Hyde (East Midlands Oral History Archive) carried out a range of interviews about growing up in Leicester in the
1950s and 1960s and begun to map where all of the venues of the day were. He identified a number of clubs, pubs, and coffee bars like the
Chameleon, run by Pete Joseph, the El Casa, or the El Paso - cafes which stayed open after the pubs closed. Among others, people also remembered the Blue Beat club on Conduit Street, run by Alex Barrows who later started the House of Happiness on Campbell Street. Night clubs such as the Burlesque or the Night Owl became more popular as the 1960s progressed, and they opened up the opportunity to dance all night.
A local beat band called The Foresights were signed to EMI. They were notable for all wearing glasses.
1970s
The seventies saw the emergence of the well known cabaret band showaddywaddy from the city.
1980s
The eighties saw the emergence of the infamous grebo band Gaye Bykers on Acid.
1990s
The early nineties were marked in the cities music scene by a period of muted reflection. The band Prolapse, was formed by a group of Leicester University and Polytechnic students in 1992. . The band rose in popularity, and quickly gained a record deal with cherry red records, recorded a number of John Peel sessions for Radio 1, and toured with Sonic Youth, Stereolab and Pulp. 1992 also saw the formation in Leicester of Cornershop, an anglo-Asian agit pop band, who became most famous for the 1997 Number 1 single, Brimful of Asha. Perfume & Delicatessen both also rose to critical acclaim),
Post-2000
Since 2000 the city has once more seen a notable upsurge in the success of the local music scene. Several Leicester musicians and/or acts have received considerable media attention in their fields since 2003-2004. Kasabian, followed by The Displacements, The Dirty Backbeats, The Dirty Backbeats, Kyte and Don's Mobile Barbers and Don's Mobile Barbers all rose from the city to national attention. Other local bands including Herra Hidro and The Legion have also recently been signed to local labels 'RobotNeedsHome Records' and 'ForTheSakeOfTheSong' Respectably. The Go! Team were first signed to local label Pickled Egg Records, and Leicester musicians feature in such bands as Fun Lovin' Criminals, The Happy Mondays, The Holloways, Envy & Other Sins, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw.
The development of the award-winning music festival Summer Sundae with connecting Summer Sundae Fringe festival (run by the local arts collective Pineapster) as well as other music festivals focused on blues and folk music may well provide the city with more of a focus for its local bands to break out nationally. 2006 saw the closure of The Attik, a venue that for over 20 years had played host to hundreds of bands.
Leicester also has a great Underground heavy music scene with bands such as Black Rive Project, Internal Conflict and hardcore punk act The Nags.
Leicester has a thriving underground grime scene with many unsigned artists writing and performing music
Sport
Sports teams include Leicester City F.C. (football), Leicester Tigers (rugby union), Leicester Riders (basketball), Leicester Coritanian A.C. (Athletics), and the Leicestershire County Cricket Club.
The city has also hosted British and World track cycling championships at its Saffron Lane velodrome.
Leicester racecourse is located to the south of the city in Oadby.
After a period of success for the football, cricket and rugby teams around the turn of the millennium, Leicester was for some time dubbed (by the local press and local inhabitants at least) the sporting capital of the UK, and a statue commemorating this period was erected in the town centre.
Leicester Tigers are one of the most successful rugby union teams in Britain. Leicester City have also enjoyed a fair degree of success. They have been Football League Cup winners three times, Football League Second Division (pre-1992) champions six times, FA Cup runners-up four times, and Division One playoff winners twice. They have also played in European competitions on several occasions, the most recent in the 2000-01 season.
Motorcycle speedway racing was staged in Leicester. In the pioneer days speedway was staged at a track known as Leicester Super situated in Melton Road and at 'The Stadium' in Blackbird Road. Post war the Leicester Hunters joined the National League Division Three in 1949 and operated at various levels until closure at the end of 1962. The sport was revived for a spell from 1968 before the sale and subsequent redevelopment of the site ended the Leicester Lions era. The history of Leicester's Speedways is well documented in three books by Allan Jones.
In 1989, the city hosted the British Special Olympics, and will do so again in 2009.
Leicester is also the 2008 European City of Sport.
Recent titles won by local teams
1996 County Cricket Championship
1997 Coca Cola League Cup, Pilkington Cup
1998 County Cricket Championship,
1999 Allied Dunbar Premiership
2000 Worthington League Cup, Allied Dunbar Premiership
2001 Allied Dunbar Premiership, Zurich Championship, Heineken Cup
2002 Zurich Premiership, Heineken Cup
2004 Twenty20 Cup
2006 Twenty20 Cup
2007 EDF Energy cup, Guinness Premiership
To celebrate the successes of 1997-98, the Leicester Mercury organised the placement of a statue portraying a cricketer, a footballer, and a rugby-player on Gallowtree Gate, not far from the Clock Tower at the heart of the city.
Leicestershire County Cricket Club are the only team that have won the Twenty20 Cup twice.
Leicester City played the last Football League Cup Final at the Old Wembley Stadium beating Tranmere 2-1.
Leicester Tigers are the only side to have retained the Heineken Cup, and also hold the record for most English Championships won (7).
Areas
Aylestone
Beaumont Leys,Abbey Ward, Bede Island, Belgrave, Blackfriars, Braunstone Estate, Braunstone Frith
Charnwood, City Centre, Clarendon Park, Crown Hills
Dane Hills
Eyres Monsell, Evington, Evington Valley
Frog Island
Gilmorton Estate,Goodwood
Hamilton
Highfields
Horston Hill, Humberstone, Humberstone Garden City
Knighton
Mowmacre Hill
Nether Hall, New Humberstone, New Parks, Newfoundpool, North Evington, Northfields
Rowley Fields, Rushey Mead
Saffron Lane Estate, Southfields, South Knighton, South Wigston, Spinney Hills, St Peters, St Matthew's, Stoneygate
Thurnby Lodge
Westcotes, Wigston, West End, West Knighton, Western Park, Woodgate
Places of interest and landmarks
Architecture: Leicester University Engineering Building by James Stirling and James Gowan.
Tourist: Discover Leicester Tour is an open top tour bus linking many of the Leicestershire tourist sites in and around the city. See (External Link).
Parks: Abbey Park, Botanic Garden, Victoria Park, Gorse Hill City Farm, Castle Gardens, Grand Union Canal, River Soar, Watermead Country Park.
Industry: Abbey Pumping Station, National Space Centre, Great Central Railway.
Places of Worship: Shree Jalaram Prarthana Mandal (Hindu temple)(External Link),
Jain Centre (External Link),
Leicester Cathedral,
Masjid Umar (Mosque)(External Link) Guru Nanak Gurudwara (Sikh)
Historic Buildings: Town Hall, Leicester Guildhall, Belgrave Hall, Jewry Wall, Leicester Secular Hall, Leicester Abbey, Leicester Castle, St Mary de Castro,
Assembly Rooms, Newarke Magazine Gateway.
Shopping: Haymarket Centre, The Shires, Leicester Market, Golden Mile, Fosse Park, St Martin's Square, Silver Arcade .
Sport: Walkers Stadium – Leicester City FC,
Welford Road – Leicester Tigers RUFC,
Grace Road – Leicestershire County Cricket Club,
John Sanford Sports Centre, Saffron Lane sports centre - Leicester Coritanian Athletics Club.
Famous Leicesterians
A Leicesterian is somebody who comes from the city of Leicester, England. A list of famous people born in Leicester, educated there, or otherwise associated with the city can be found here. Notable people from Leicester.
Leicester firsts
First BBC local radio station. Launched on 8 November 1967 with the first local radio jingle.
First Space Shuttle Simulator outside USA which is at the National Space and Science Centre
First automatic multi-storey car park in Europe which included the largest supermarket in the UK at the time which was a Tesco
First Tesco outside of London
First European Environment City
First criminal conviction using Genetic Fingerprint as evidence
First place to have traffic wardens
First city in the UK to have traffic lights and is supposed to have more traffic lights than any other UK city
First Halfords store opened in the city on Halford Street
First Jongleurs club to be opened outside London, in 1997.
Twinning
Leicester is twinned with:
City flag
Leicester's city flag was designed by local graphic designer, Jamie Bott in April 2007 in accordance with BBC Radio Leicester.(External Link)
Local media
Leicester is home to the Leicester Mercury newspaper, and the MATV (Midlands Asian Television) cable channel which can also be viewed on normal analogue TV and is known as MATV Channel 6.
BBC Radio Leicester was the first BBC local radio station. Other
analogue FM radio stations are Leicester Sound, Takeover Radio and Hindu Sanskar Radio, which only broadcasts during Hindu religious festivals. BBC Asian Network and Sabras Radio broadcast on AM.
The local DAB multiplex has the following stations:
BBC Radio Leicester
Leicester Sound
Sabras Radio
Galaxy Digital
Highways Agency Traffic Radio
XFM
Classic Gold GEM
Heart 106
Asian Plus - also known as Hindu Sanskar Radio
Takeover Radio
The local Hospital Radio stations is Hospital Radio Fox.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Leicester'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://leicester.totallyexplained.com">Leicester Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
