Leicester
 |
Leicester city centre, looking towards the Clock Tower |
Leicester (
pronounced ) is the largest city in the English
East Midlands. It is the
traditional county town of
Leicestershire, and, since 1997, has been a self-governing
unitary authority. It 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.
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.
Leicester is one of the oldest cities in England, having been founded by the
Romans.
The city is next to the
M1 motorway, and is on the
Midland Main Line from
London to
Sheffield,
Nottingham and
Leeds. High-speed trains operated by
Midland Mainline can reach London in just over an hour. It is also served by rail lines to
Birmingham via
Nuneaton, and to
Peterborough.
Major industries in Leicester today include food processing, hosiery, footwear, knitwear, engineering, electronics, printing and plastics.
 |
The clock tower |
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.
The city centre is home to
the Haymarket and
the Shires 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.
It is set to become a major city with many developments on the horizon implemented by the
Leicester Regeneration Company including the £51 million
Leicester Performing Arts Centre designed by
Rafael Viñoly.
Click here for more information on
Leicester City Centre.
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 only
Jain Temple in the Western world 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 Asian 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 southeast of the city centre, and Leicester plays host to the second-largest
Caribbean Carnival in the UK after
Notting Hill. The city is set to become the first major urban area in the UK with a non-white ethnic majority population, by the time of the next census in 2011.
According to
Geoffrey of Monmouth, the mythical king of the Britons
King Leir founded the city of Kaerleir (Leicester). 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.
Roman
Leicester is one of the oldest cities in
England, with a history going back nearly 2000 years. The
Roman city of
Ratae Coritanorum was founded in AD 50 as a military settlement upon the
Fosse Way Roman road. The city was named after the
Corieltauvi, the
Celtic tribe that dwelt in the area before the Romans arrived.
Ratae Coritanorum grew into an important trading and military centre 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.
Christian martyrdoms?
According to the
Venerable Bede, Roman Leicester may have been the site of several early Christian
Martyrdoms in Britain, at the same time as that of
St. Alban the first English martyr, who was killed in the Roman city of
Verulamium (beside modern-day
St Albans. He writes::Passi sunt ea tempestate Aaron et Iulius
Legionum urbis ciues, aliique utriusque sexus diuersis in locis perplures, qui diuersis cruciatibus torti, et inaudita membrorum discerptione lacerati, animas ad supernae ciuitatis gaudia perfecto agone miserunt.
"At the same time suffered Aaron and Julius, inhabitants of the city of the legions, and many others of both sexes, in other places; who, having been tormented on the rack till their members were dislocated, and having endured various other unheard-of cruelties, yielded their souls, after the conflict was over, to the joys of the city above." -
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Book One, Chapter Seven St Bede the Venerable.
This 'city of the legions' may be identified with
Chester,
Caerleon, or Leicester.
Saxon and Viking
The Roman town was largely abandoned when the Romans left Britain in the 5th century, but was later re-settled by
Saxons. In the 9th century, 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 was not to become a bishopric again until the twentieth 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 tenth century it was recorded as
Ligeraceaster = "the town of the Ligor people". The
Domesday book later recorded it as
Ledecestre.
Medieval
Leicester had become 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 eleventh 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, according to local tradition, he is not actually buried there. He was originally buried in the
Greyfriars Church in Leicester, but his corpse was exhumed under orders from
Henry VII and cast into the
River Soar.
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.
Tudor
On
4 November 1530,
Thomas Cardinal Wolsey was arrested on charges of treason and taken from
York Palace. On his way south to face dubious justice at the
Tower of London, he fell ill. The group escorting him were 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.
18th century
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 twentieth 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 nineteenth 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 WWII
In the decades after
World War II, Leicester gained a large population of immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, and from
Kenya and
Uganda in the early 1970s. These immigrant groups make up around 40% of Leicester's population, making Leicester one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the
United Kingdom. Among the more recent arrivals are a group of Dutch citizens of Somali origin, apparently drawn by its free and easy atmosphere and by the number of mosques. In the UK, Leicester today is widely regarded as a model of inter-communal tolerance; however, for a short period in the 1970s, the neo-fascist
National Front recorded high votes in the city. Leicester is expected by 2011 to become the first major city in
Britain in which the ethnic minority population will form a majority.
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 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.
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.
| 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 |
includes hunting and forestry
includes energy and construction
includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
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.
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 byelection candidate and former Council leader
Sir Peter Soulsby won Leicester South back for the party, and Vaz and Hewitt retained their seats.
Leicester is home to two universities, the
University of Leicester (
Royal Charter 1957) and
De Montfort University (founded in 1992 from
Leicester Polytechnic).
|
University of Leicester seen from Victoria Park - Left to right: the Department of Engineering, the Attenborough tower, the Charles Wilson building. |
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 has had a troubled history since its formation in 1997 as part of the local government reorganisation - a 1999
Ofsted inspection found "few strengths and many weaknesses", and although there has been some improvement since then the LEA's capacity to sustain improvement of education is still judged to be "not secure" (
2004 Performance Assessment). While many state schools provide a good standard of education, there have been long-running problems with several of the large community colleges, in particular New College. Current plans to improve the city's education system include the opening of City Academies part-sponsored by the
Church of England and a local Christian businessman (a new school on the Saffron estate, and a replacement for New College), a £260 million "Building Schools for the Future" project using the
Private Finance Initiative, the granting of state school status to the Leicester Islamic Academy, and the reorganisation of the city's special schools. All of these measures are controversial. Following an overspend of £3.5 million by the department of Lifelong Learning, Steven Andrews (Director of Education and Lifelong Learning) left the council in June 2005 - the terms of his leaving included a reduced severance payment in return for the suppression of an auditors' report into the overspend. John Crookes, the head of the Lifelong Learning department, left the council at the same time.
The city plays host to an annual
Pride parade (
Leicester Pride), a
Caribbean Carnival (the largest in the UK outside London), the largest Diwali celebrations outside of India, the largest comedy festival in the UK and the
Summer Sundae music festival.
Arts venues in the city include:
* The
Haymarket Theatre* The
Peepul Centre* The
Phoenix Arts Centre* The
De Montfort Hall.
* The
Little Theatre.
* The
City Gallery (one of the regions leading contemporary art galleries)
 |
The Sports Statue on Gallowtree Gate |
Sports teams include
Leicester City F.C. (football),
Leicester Tigers (rugby union),
Leicester Riders (basketball), 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. Leicester is now sometimes regarded (by its inhabitants at least) as the sporting capital of the UK.
Recent titles won by local teams
* 1996
County Cricket Championship* 1997
Coca Cola League Cup* 1998 County Cricket Championship,
Zurich Premiership* 1999 Allied Dunbar Premiership
* 2000
Worthington League Cup, Allied Dunbar Premiership
* 2001 Allied Dunbar Premiership, Zurich Championship,
Heineken Cup* 2002 Zurich Premiership, Heineken European Cup
* 2004
Twenty20 Cup* 2005 Zurich 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.
*
Aylestone*
Beaumont Leys,
Bede Island,
Belgrave,
Black Friars,
Braunstone Park,
Braunstone Frith*
Charnwood,
City Centre,
Clarendon Park,
Crown Hills*
Dane Hills*
Eyres Monsell,
Evington,
Evington Valley*
Frog Island*
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,
Spinney Hills,
St Matthew's,
Stoneygate*
Thurnby Lodge*
West End,
West Knighton,
Western Park,
Woodgate |
The inside of Leicester Cathedral |
Parks:
Leicester Botanic Gardens,
Abbey Park,
Victoria Park,
Gorse Hill City FarmIndustry:
Abbey Pumping Station,
National Space Centre,
Great Central RailwayPlaces of Worship:
Shree Jalaram Prarthana Mandal (Hindu temple)[
1],
Jain Centre [
2],
Leicester Cathedral, Masjid Umar (Mosque)[
3]
Historic Buildings:
Leicester Guildhall,
Belgrave Hall,
Jewry WallShopping:
Haymarket Centre,
The Shires,
Fosse Park (just outside the city).
Sport : Walkers Stadium - Leicester City FCWelford Road - Leicester Tigers RFCGrace Road - Leicester County Cricket Club
Famous people born in Leicester, educated there, or otherwise associated with the city include:
Academia
*
Graham Barnfield (sociologist)
*
Howard Jones (criminologist)
The arts and entertainment
*
Richard Armitage (actor)
*
David Attenborough (broadcaster)
*
Richard Attenborough (actor and director)
*
Graham Chapman (comedian,
Monty Python)
*
Roger Chapman (singer,
Family)
*
Thomas Cooper (poet)
*
Cornershop (band)
*
John Deacon (bassist,
Queen)
*
The Deep Freeze Mice (band)
*
Betty Driver (singer and actor)
*
Stephen Frears (film director)
*
Kevin Hewick (singer)
*
Engelbert Humperdinck (singer)
*
David Icke (sports reporter, conspiracy theorist)
*
ist (band)
*
Kasabian (band)
*
Tony Kaye (keyboard player,
Yes)
*
Dominic Keating (actor)
*
McKenzie Lee (pornography actor)
*
Jon Lord (organist,
Deep Purple)
*
Bill Maynard (actor)
*
Mark Morrison (singer)
*
Parminder Nagra (actor)
*
Kate O'Mara (actor)
*
Joe Orton (playwright)
*
Po! (band)
*
Prolapse (band)
*Phil Shaw (inventor of
extreme ironing)
*
Showaddywaddy (band)
*
C. P. Snow (author)
*
DJ SS (DJ and producer)
*
Una Stubbs (actor)
*
Sue Townsend (author)
*
John "Charlie" Whitney (guitarist,
Family)
*
Colin Wilson (author)
*
Alastair Yates (journalist, newsreader)
Business
*
Thomas Cook (travel agent)
*
Thomas White (merchant, philanthropist)
*
William Inman (shipping company owner)
*
William Wyggeston (merchant, philanthropist)
Politics
*
Alastair Campbell (journalist and political advisor)
*
Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (founder of the English parliament)
*
Lady Jane Grey ("Queen for nine days")
*
Greville Janner (MP, barrister)
Religion
*
William Carey (missionary and translator)
*
George Fox (founder of the
Religious Society of Friends)
Science
*
Henry Bates (naturalist and explorer)
*Sir
Alec Jeffreys (
geneticist and developer of
genetic fingerprinting)
Sport
*
Emile Heskey (footballer)
*
Chris Kirkland (footballer)
*
Gary Lineker (footballer, sports commentator)
*
Michael Robinson (footballer, Spanish TV presenter)
*
Peter Shilton (International Footballer)
*
Conor Smyth (Guinness Book of Records Egg & Spoon Race Champion)
*
Willie Thorne (snooker player)
Miscellaneous
*
Daniel Lambert (heaviest man in England)
*
Joseph Merrick ("the Elephant Man")
* First
BBC local radio station
* First
Space Shuttle Simulator outside USA
* First automatic multi-storey carpark in Europe
* First
Tesco outside of London
* First European Environment City
* First
roundabout in the UK
* First
criminal conviction using
Genetic fingerprint as evidence (The technique was devised at the University of Leicester).
Leicester is
twinned with:
*
Loughborough - 18 km (11.5 miles)
*
Hinckley - 21 km (13 miles)
*
Market Harborough - 25 km (16 miles)
*
Melton Mowbray - 27 km (17 miles)
*
Rugby - 38 km (24 miles)
*
Coventry - 40 km (25 miles)
*
Nottingham - 42 km (26 miles)
*
Derby - 51 km (32 miles)
*
Northampton - 61 km (38 miles)
*
Peterborough - 66 km (41 miles)
*
Birmingham - 71 km (44 miles)
*
Milton Keynes - 90 km (56 miles)
*
LONDON - 162 km (101 miles)
Leicester is home to the
Leicester Mercury newspaper, and the
MATV (Midlands Asian Television) cable channel.
Local analogue radio stations are:
*
BBC Radio Leicester (FM)
*
Leicester Sound (FM)
*
Takeover Radio (FM)
*
BBC Asian Network (AM)
*
Sabras Radio (AM)
The local
DAB multiplex has the following stations:
*
BBC Radio Leicester*
Leicester Sound*
Sabras Radio*
Galaxy Digital*
Capital Disney*
A Plus*
Xfm*
Classic Gold Gem*
Heart 106The local
Hospital Radio stations are:
*
Hospital Radio Fox*
History of Leicester*
Leicester City Guide*
Leicester Mercury*
Wartime Leicestershire *
BBC Leicester*
Leicester City Council*
Leicester Accommodation*
Pictures of Leicester*
Leicester photo gallery*
Official Tourism site for Leicester and Leicestershire*
Local knowledge about Leicester from
The Knowhere Guide*
part ownership of oldtakingbacksunday.com is from leicester from
taking back sunday*
Insight into Leicester's youth culture from
ChavTowns
