Leicester

Leicester
—  City and Unitary Authority area  —
City of Leicester
View of Leicester from Horston Hill
Arms of the Leicester City Council
Motto: 'Semper Eadem'
Location within England
Coordinates:
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	East Midlands
Ceremonial county	Leicestershire
Admin HQ	Leicester City Centre
Founded	AD 50 as Ratae Corieltauvorum by the Romans
City Status	"restored" 1919
Government
- Type	Unitary authority, City
- Governing body
- Leadership	Leader & Cabinet
Area
- City and Unitary Authority area	28.3 sq mi (73.32 km²)
Population (2007 est.)
- City and Unitary Authority area	292,600 (Ranked 19th)
- Urban	441,213
- Ethnicity (United Kingdom Census 2006 Estimate)[1]	62.0% White 29.4% S.Asian 4.6% Black 2.6% Mixed 1.5% Chinese and other
Time zone	Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
- Summer (DST)	British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Postcode	LE
Area code(s)	0116
Twin Cities
-  — Chongqing	China
-  — Krefeld	Germany
-  — Masaya	Nicaragua
-  — Rajkot	India
-  — Strasbourg	France
-  — Haskovo	Bulgaria
-  — Sialkot	Pakistan
Grid Ref.	SK584044
ONS code	00FN
ISO 3166-2	GB-LCE
NUTS 3	UKF21
Distance to London	102.8 mi (165.4 km)
Demonym	Leicesterian
Website: http://www.leicester.gov.uk/

Leicester (pronounced /ˈlɛstə/) listen is one of the 3 main cities in the East Midlands and is the the largest city and unitary authority area in the region, 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 is the largest in the East Midlands.

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.

Leicester has a large ethnic minority population, mainly from the Indian subcontinent. There are many Hindu mandirs, Sikh gurudwaras 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. Since 2004, a large number of eastern Europeans and Africans have also moved here.

General

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, Humberstone Gate, High Street and Gallowtree Gate are pedestrianised, and vehicles are restricted on the others.

The clock tower

Leicester City Centre is home to The Haymarket and 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.

Major industries in Leicester today include food processing, hosiery, knitwear, engineering, electronics, printing and plastics.

History

According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, a mythical king of the Britons King Leir founded the city of Kaerleir ('Leir's chester' – i.e. fortified town). Even today the name of the city in the Welsh language is Caerlŷr. Leir 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.^[2] William Shakespeare's King Lear is loosely based on this story and there is a statue of Lear in Watermead Country Park.

Roman

The remains of the Roman baths at Jewry Wall

Main article: Ratae Corieltauvorum

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 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.

The Romans named the river "LEGRO" and the surrounding area was the campus "CASTRA." Legro-Castra (campus of the Legro). The Dutch settlers amended the name Legro, and the river became known as the Leir. In Norman times, the leir was renamed the soar, by which time leir chester had become the adopted name for the town.

Saxon and Viking

Knowledge of the town in the 5th century is very patchy. Certainly there is 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 was not 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 is not actually buried there. He was originally buried in the Greyfriars Church in Leicester, but there is a legend that his corpse was exhumed under orders from Henry VII and cast into the River Soar, although there is 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 was not 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"^[3] was born at Bradgate Park near Leicester.

Tudor

Leicester Abbey ruins, now part of Abbey Park.

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.^[4]

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

The Leicester War Memorial Arch in Victoria Park

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, apparently drawn by the city's free and easy atmosphere and by the number of mosques, a group of Dutch citizens of Somali origin settled in the Leicester. 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.^[5] 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's immigrant and minority communities disperse to other places.^[6][7] 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" but with positive overtones meaning unchanging,reliable or dependable.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 legless wyvern distinguishes it as a Leicester wyvern as opposed to other wyverns. The supporting lions are wearing coronets in the form of collars, with the white cinquefoil hanging from them.

Demography

The United Kingdom Census 2001 showed a total resident population for Leicester of 279,921, a 0.5% decrease from the 1991 census.^[9] Approximately 62,000 were aged under 16, 199,000 were aged 16–74, and 19,000 aged 75 and over.^[9] 76.9% of Leicester's population claim they have been born in the UK, according to the 2001 UK Census. Mid-year estimates for 2006 indicate that the population of the City of Leicester stood at 289,700 making Leicester the most populous city in East Midlands.^[10]

The population density is 3,814 inhabitants per square kilometre (9,878.2/sq mi)^[11] 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.^[12] 23.0% of Leicester’s residents were born outside of the United Kingdom, higher than the English average of 9.2%.^[13]

In terms of districts by ethnic diversity, the City of Leicester is ranked 11th in England. According to 2006 estimates, 58.3% of residents are white British, 3.7% other white, 29.4% Asian or Asian British, 4.6% black or black British, 2.6% mixed race and 1.5% Chinese or other ethnic group.^[14] Leicester has the lowest proportion of indigenous inhabitants of any British city.

Languages

Alongside English there are around 70 languages and/or dialects spoken in the city. In addition to English, eight languages are commonly spoken: Gujarati is the preferred language of 16% of the city’s residents, Punjabi 3%, Somali 3% and Urdu 2%. Other smaller language groups include Hindi, Arabic, Bengali and Polish.^[15]

With continuing migration into the city, new languages and or dialects from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe are also being spoken in the city.^[15]

In primary schools in Leicester, English is not the ‘preferred’ language of 45% of pupils and the proportion of children whose first language is known, or believed to be, other than English, is significantly higher than other cities within the region, or within the UK. ^[15]

Dialect

Leicester dialect, along with that of Nottingham and Derby is a form of East Midlands English.

"Chisit" is the regional nickname and dialect for the people of Leicester. They are often referred to as Chisits because of how they speak and more commonly of how they pronounce the question 'how much is it'? sounding - in the Leicester dialect - like 'im a Chisit'. [1] The nickname was given to the Leicester folk from the inhabitants of the Lincolnshire seaside town of Skegness which is a popular holiday destination for the people of Leicester.

In Leicester, words with short vowels such as up and last have a northern pronunciation (ie "up" not "ap" and "last" not "larst") whereas words with vowels such as down and road sound rather more like a south-eastern accent. The schwa sound at the end of a word followed by the letter R is pronounced as an open back rounded vowel, a feature paralleled in the German language. Words such as 'take' and 'make' are often pronounced the northern way 'tek' and 'mek' and words such as 'owt' and 'nowt' are pronounced in a southern way 'ote' and 'note'.[2]

Leicester has a very distinctive dialect and can prove baffling for non-residents of Leicester. Fast talking and elipsed pronunciation combined with regional words can make understanding fairly difficult.Words ending in "ty" or "by" are pronounced "teh" and "beh" eg thirty is "thirteh" and Ratby is "ratbeh". [3]

Other distinctive features are;

Mi' duck -"my dear" a term of endearment often following 'ay up' (Hello there). Jitty - Alleyway. Croggy - Ride on the back of a bicycle. Code - Cold. Ode - Old. Cob - Bread roll. Mardy - Grumpy or bad tempered. Safto - This afternoon. Oakie - Ice cream. Straigh-the-way - Straightaway (mispronunciation).

The dative case of inanimate nouns is also marked by removing "to the".

Population change

Economy

Highcross Leicester shopping centre.

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.^[16] 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.^[17] 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 16 major Indian food manufacturers are based in Leicester including Sara Foods, FGS Ingredients Ltd, Mayur Foods, Cofresh Snack Foods Ltd, Farsan, Apni Roti and Spice n Tice. Sara Foods are renowned for their Samosas and Paneer rolls that are sold to supermarkets around the U.K. 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, established in the 1980s, is a major producer of 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, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, HSBC, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Companies that have their head office based in the area include Next (clothing) Mattel UK, and the 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.It is based in Rutland Street on the former Leicester City Bus property hence a play on its current title. Businesses in Leicester include Reach Marketing, Haley Sharpe Design, Checkland Kindleysides, printers Printmatein Scudamore Road ,Taylor Bloxham Ltd in Beaumont Leys, sister companies C & R Printing Services in Enderby and FastAnt at Meridian Park, and Channel 2020.Other Leicester printers are Artisan Press at Beaumont Leys and Senator Print Finishers at Littleton Street.

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 the 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.

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 Guidance Ltd, listed on the Lord Lieutenant's website. Guidance Monitoring Limited (GML) specialises in the design and manufacture of sophisticated electronic tagging/tracking systems for asset protection and personnel monitoring including for security and criminal justice applications.[1]

Politics

Leicester Town Hall.

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

Leicester railway station lies on the eastern side of the city centre on the A6 London Road.

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 railway station 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, Stansted Airport and Norwich; and west to Nuneaton and Birmingham. Leicester is 99 miles (159 km) from London on the Midland Main Line, the fastest trains taking 1 hour and 07 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.^[22]

Great Central Railway

Main article: 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. Served by Leicester Central railway station, the Great Central Main Line closed as a through route in the late 1960s. A preserved section remains, from the newly opened Leicester North railway station (the original route through Leicester has now been rebuilt on), 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.

Buses and coaches

An Arriva Midlands Dennis Dart departing from St. Margaret's Bus Station, Leicester.

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 buses operating at least every fifteen minutes, a site is also under construction at Enderby, and there are also weekend services from County Hall, Glenfield (service 101) and Oadby Racecourse (service 102).

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.Most First routes are within the city due to its former identity being Leicester City Transport.
• Arriva Group are the parent company of Arriva Midlands who operate a mixture of local and rural bus services throughout Leicestershire.It operates both in the city and county and it was formerly known as Arriva Fox County,Midland Fox and Midland Red (East).
• Centrebus operate budget local services mainly between local authority estates.
• A number of coach operators run excursions from the station including Woods Coaches of Wigston.Other operators include Fleetline Buses,Ausden Clarke,Confidence,Hylton and Dawson and Steve Akiens.

National Cycle Network

Many of the country's National Cycle Network pass through Leicestershire. In Leicester City Centre you will 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

University of Leicester seen from Victoria Park - Left to right: the Department of Engineering, the Attenborough Tower, the Charles Wilson Building.

The National Space Centre in Leicester

Leicester is home to two universities, the University of Leicester, which attained its Royal Charter in 1957 and is one of Britain's leading universities ranked 12th by the 2009 Complete University Guide, 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 off Abbey Lane, 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 on Glenfield Road. 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.^[23]

Leicester City Council underwent a major reorganisation of children's services in 2006, creating a new Children & Young People's Services department.

Education Links

• All Education
• County Schools
• 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.^[24]
• 27a Access Artspace. Housing a gallery, art rooms, performance space, dark room, board room, and more.

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

There are also a number of Small Jazz Clubs such as the 'Copa'.

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.^[25] 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 members wearing glasses.

Also emerging during this period was the band Family fronted by Leicester man Roger Chapman.

1970s

The seventies saw the emergence of the well known cabaret band Showaddywaddy from the city with lead singer Dave Bartram and their 1950s themed songs.

1980s

The early 1980s saw Leicester punk band Rabid have two minor indie hits, and there were greater successes later in the decade for Yeah Yeah Noh. The mid-1980s saw the emergence of bands such as Gaye Bykers on Acid, Crazyhead, The Bomb Party, and The Hunters Club, who were all associated with the Grebo scene. The Deep Freeze Mice had formed in 1979 and went on to release ten albums in total. Diesel Park West had their first top 75 hits in the late 1980s. Other notable Leicester bands from this decade included Po! and Blab Happy.

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 1998 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,^[26] The Dirty Backbeats,^[27] Kyte^[28], Pacific Ocean Fire, and Don's Mobile Barbers^[29] 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.

Sport

The Sports Statue on Gallowtree Gate

Sports teams include: Leicester Tigers (rugby union),Leicester City F.C. (football), Leicester Riders (basketball), Leicester Coritanian A.C. (Athletics), and the Leicestershire County Cricket Club.

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 on Welford Road are one of the most successful rugby union teams in Europe.

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. However, after a number of poor seasons, they were relegated in 2008 and will play in League One for the 2008-2009 season under manager Nigel Pearson. This is the lowest position they have been in their club history.

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.

The city also hosted British and World track cycling and Road Racing championships at its Saffron Lane velodrome in August 1970. The cycle track was improved specially for the event which was televised all over the world. Another first meant that sponsors were allowed to buy sections of the track to utilise for advertising purposes. This was also the first time that a public road - the A46 - was closed in the UK to allow the Road Race to take place:- See The Benny Foster Story published by Fretwell 1971.

In 1989, the city hosted the British Special Olympics, and will do so again in 2009.This is the adopted charity for the Lord Mayor of Leicester 2008-2009,Councillor Manjula Sood.^[30]

Until its demolition in 1999 Granby Halls was a popular live music, exhibition and sports arena in the city. It was also notable as the long serving home of professional basketball team, the Leicester Riders, from 1980 until 1999.

Leicester is also the '2008 European City of Sport'.^[31]

Recent titles won by local teams

Walkers stadium from the Grand Union canal

• 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

Snow in Leicester, taken in Spinney Hill Park

• Aylestone
• Beaumont Leys, Abbey Ward, Bede Island, Belgrave, Blackfriars, Braunstone Estate, Braunstone Frith
• 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, West End, West Knighton, Western Park, Woodgate

Places of interest and landmarks

The inside of Leicester Cathedral

20th Century Architecture: Leicester University Engineering Building (James Stirling & James Gowan : Grd II Listed),Kingstone Department Store, Belgrave Gate (Raymond McGrath : Grd II Listed)

Older Architecture:

Tourist: Discover Leicester Tour is an open top tour bus linking many of the Leicestershire tourist sites in and around the city. See [2].

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)[3], Jain Centre [4], Leicester Cathedral, Masjid Umar (Mosque)[5] 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, Highcross Leicester, 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.

Leicester as viewed looking West to North from the top floor of the Attenborough Tower at the University of Leicester. Landmarks visible include the Walkers Stadium (Leicester City FC), Welford Road (Leicester Tigers RFC), Leicester Royal Infirmary, New Walk Centre (Leicester City Council), St. George's Tower and various buildings associated with the University of Leicester.

Famous Leicesterians

See also: Notable people from Leicester

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.

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.

City flag

Leicester's city flag was designed by local Graphic Designer, Jamie Bott in April 2007 in partnership with BBC Radio Leicester.[6]

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
• Smooth Radio

The local Hospital Radio stations is Hospital Radio Fox.

References

External links

• Leicester Tourist Guide
• One Leicester
• Leicester City Council
• Virtual tour of Leicester

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