Leicester City Centre

The modern City Centre of Leicester is roughly delineated by Leicester's inner ring-road, designated the A594. This area incorporates most of Leicester's shopping, with The Shires and the Haymarket Centre and the historic core of Leicester including Leicester Cathedral and the market. Politically, the city centre is split between the city council wards of Abbey and Castle.

The old city

The historic city of Leicester was founded by the Romans at the crossing of the River Soar by the Fosse Way, between the current path of the river and the modern Gallowtree Gate.

It is thought that the later medieval walls and gates were in approximately the same positions as the Roman ones, with the forum being where the modern inner ring road meets St Nicholas Circle. The Roman baths are nearby and are preserved at Jewry Wall. [http://semper.freelinuxhost.com/historical_maps.htm] The east gate was at the eastern end of High Street (preserved in the street name Eastgates), the north gate was at the northern end of Highcross Street, the west gate was on the town side of West Bridge, and the south gate was in the modern Friar Lane area - the city walls ran along the current Millstone Lane, Horsefair Street, Gallowtree Gate, Church Gate, Sanvey Gate and Soar Lane, with the western wall possibly running along the river Soar (there is some doubt as to whether the western wall existed). The city centre was the High Cross, at the junction of the current High Street and Highcross Street (in mediaeval times, High Street ran between the north and south gates along the line of the current Highcross Street, while the current High Street was called Swinesmarket). Leicester Cathedral and the Guildhall occupy this old area of town.

Leicester Castle lay on the south-western corner of the walls, and the Newarke was a separate walled area nearby. The Newarke Gateway (now known as the Magazine) is the only medieval gateway remaining. A small section of the town wall can be seen in the churchyard of St Mary de Castro. The town's main gates were sold and demolished in the late 18th century, being an impediment to the flow of traffic (the city's hay market was outside the walls for this reason, the main market being situated within the south-east corner of the walls).

Modern developments

With increasing development, particularly in the 19th century, the focal point moved eastwards, with the Clock Tower roundabout seeing the five-way junction of the London to Manchester, Birmingham to Yarmouth and Fosse Way roads. This was influenced by the replacement of the Welford Road (now the A5199) by the Market Harborough road (the Harborough Turnpike, now the A6), as the main route to London, because the Welford Road terminated in the tiny streets of the old town, and was therefore a hindrance for vehicles, while the London Road went past the East Gates of the city.

Meanwhile the civic centre moved southwards, with the Corporation of Leicester moving to a new town hall building in 1876 in the Market Street area, facing onto a new Town Hall Square, and just outside of the walled town. Between these areas is the modern market, based to the south-west of the Clock Tower area, which features the permanent outdoor covered Leicester Market (the largest in Europe), alongside an indoor market building selling fish, dairy produce, meat, etc, and the old Cornmarket building. Much of this old area of town is now in various conservation areas.

Outside of the ringroad, but close by, are the main campus of De Montfort University, Leicester Royal Infirmary, the Leicester Tigers' Welford Road stadium and the prison. Leicester railway station is just on the outer side of the ringroad, on the A6. The University of Leicester is further away to the south-east, linked by the pedestrian-only path New Walk. When this was laid out in 1785, on the route of an ancient footpath, it passed through open land, but soon saw development of large private houses on both sides of it. It is now largely offices, although the New Walk Museum makes a strong impact.

The area inside the ringroad has two large shopping malls - Highcross Leicester (first opened as The Shires on the northern side of High Street and opening in 1991 with a large extension opened on 4th September 2008), and the Haymarket Centre (opened in 1974, on the site of the old hay market), both facing onto the Clock Tower area. On the opposite side of Humberstone Gate to the Haymarket is a new building, with no communal space, occupied by a variety of retailers, that incorporates the famous Lewis's tower from the previous department store on the site.

Major chain stores can also be found on the pedestrianised Gallowtree Gate, running south-east from the clock tower, and which continues to the railway station as Granby Street. To the south of the Shires and west of Gallowtree Gate is an area known as "The Lanes" consisting mostly of small independent shops. This area's centrepiece is the St Martin's Square development (dating from the 1980s), and also features various smaller arcades, the "Odeon Arcade", the "Royal Arcade" and the "Malcolm Arcade". Of particular interest is the now mainly disused Silver Arcade, dating from 1899. Further south than this is the market, and then the civic centre (as mentioned above), which also features the main lending and reference libraries, and a number of shops, both chain and independent.

Gallowtree Gate and Humberstone Gate west of Charles Street are fully pedestrianised. Private cars (but not buses and taxis) are forbidden at certain times from a larger area. Plans exist to fully pedestrianise High Street also, which will involve routing buses via Mansfield Street. [http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council--services/regeneration--culture/environmentdevelopment/consultations/streets-spaces/pedestrianzone-]

The area around the junction of Humberstone Gate and the ring-road is the site of two strip malls - the larger of which is on the south-east side of the roundabout and called 'St George's Retail Park', the smaller being on the south-west side.

Transport

The main bus station in the city centre is on Charles Street, a number of buses also terminate on Humberstone Gate. Bus companies to serve the city centre are First Leicester, Arriva Fox County and Centrebus. Regional and national coaches depart from the nearby St. Margaret's Bus Station.

Leicester London Road, mentioned above, is now the only train station in the city centre, after the closure of Leicester Belgrave Road and Leicester Central in the 1960s.

Leicester used to have a tram network — this ceased operation in 1949, being replaced with buses.

According to the council, Leicester has 7,500 off-street parking spaces available near the city centre. [http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council--services/regeneration--culture/transport--traffic/transport-development/parking-homepage/city-centre-parking]

Facilities

Although home to a variety of theatres, such as the Haymarket Theatre, Little Theatre and Phoenix Arts, there is currently no major mainstream cinema left in the city centre (although there is a small cinema showing mainstream films on Abbey Street, and Phoenix Arts has a regular programme of art-house and world cinema), however a cinema de lux is being constructed as part of Highcross Leicester. The nearest currently being the Odeon at Freemen's Common, some way to the south. The old Odeon was refurbished and opened in 2005 as the Leicester Athena, a conferencing and banqueting venue. The former ABC Cinema on Belgrave Gate has now been demolished and is currently being used as a car park, the site will be turned in to a new shopping area with shops, casino, theatre and a new link road which will provide access to the new Highcross Leicester and St. Margaret's Bus Station.

Since the closure of St Margaret's baths, there is no municipal swimming pool in the city centre. Its replacement, the Braunstone Leisure Centre, is some miles away in Braunstone.

The area in the inside of the ring-road is nearly entirely built up, with only Nelson Mandela Park (at the extreme south, in Southfields), and Town Hall Square being considerable open spaces. Outside the ring road are Castle Gardens, by Leicester Castle, and Victoria and Abbey Park.

Musical venues in the city are somewhat limited - the largest two venues, De Montfort Hall (mentioned above) and University of Leicester's union, are both in Southfields, some way from the city centre. In the city centre the largest venue holding regular events is The Charlotte on Oxford Street, with other venues being the pub-sized "The Musician", "Firebug", and "The Shed".

Several old Anglican churches are based in or around the city centre. St Martin's is now Leicester Cathedral. The other four historic parishes were St Margaret's, St Mary de Castro, All Saints', and St Nicholas'. The first Anglican Church to be built in the city after the medieval period was St George's - this is now used as an Orthodox church.

The city centre is covered by an extensive system of CCTV cameras, supplemented by CCTV vans. Now that the main police station on Charles Street has closed, City Centre policing is based in a building off Belgrave Gate.

Regeneration

Highcross Leicester opened on 4th September 2008 and has several flagship stores, including a John Lewis, a multiplex cinema, apartments, 2 public squares and al-fresco dining and is the start of many regeneration projects in Leicester that have started to come to fruition.

To the east of Charles Street the city centre is dominated by disused factories and warehouses (which also have some presence in the other outer areas of the city centre). Conversion of these to residential accommodation is ongoing, particularly in the area east of Charles Street and around Humberstone Gate, which has been dubbed 'St George's' by the council, and was made a conservation area in 1989.

St George's South has been designated Leicester's new cultural quarter, and is already the site of the [http://www.lcbdepot.co.uk/ Leicester Creative Business Depot] (built on the old Leicester City Bus depot and keeping the initials) and the Athena. The LCB Depot opened in July 2004, and by the time of its first birthday had let 37 of 55 units, with talk starting of finding an additional site. [http://www.lsep.co.uk/depotcelebratesasuccessfulyear.html]

Opposite the Athena, a new flagship £60 million Curve Theatre, Leicester, designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects, started construction in 2005, on a site that has been long-disused. It is planned to be ready for handover 2007 to the Haymarket company, who will then vacate their existing building (Haymarket Theatre). The first productions would be in 2008. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/content/articles/2005/06/22/performing_arts_centre_intro_feature.shtml] The centre is being funded by the various sources including the City Council, the Arts Council, the European Regional Development Fund and the East Midlands Development Agency. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/content/articles/2004/07/23/tanda_pacc_money_feature.shtml]

Further to the south of St George's are plans to create a new business area, near the railway station, including re-use of the old police station, and renovation of the Leicester Mercury building. [http://www.leicesterregeneration.co.uk/project_business.html]

St George's North has been proposed for a residential community by the Leicester Regeneration Company. [http://www.leicesterregeneration.co.uk/project_residential.html] Development has also started on waterfront properties, with a plan to re-use the Great Central station site. [http://www.leicesterregeneration.co.uk/project_waterfront.html]

Listed buildings

There are a few Grade I listed buildings.

*Abbey Park ruins and wall, remains of Cavendish House
*Jewry Wall
*Castle, Turret Gateway, Castle Hall, and St Mary de Castro
*The Guildhall
*The Assembly Rooms on Hotel Street
*The Newarke Magazine Gateway
*St. Margaret's Church
*St. Nicholas's Church
*The Victoria Park war memorial

A few of these are also Scheduled Ancient Monuments. There are many Grade II listed buildings, including

*the Charles Street police building
*the Clock Tower
*St Martin's Cathedral (II star)
*31 Granby Street (HSBC bank)

All Saints is Grade B.

Tall buildings

Leicester has the tallest buildings in the East Midlands region. The tallest buildings are: [http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=127059]

*Cardinal Telephone Exchange, on Humberstone Road, 84m
*St George's Tower, St George's Way, 82m
*Leicester Cathedral, 67m
*Thames Tower, 58m
*New Walk Centre, 55m

The Telephone Exchange building is currently in use by BT. After a few years standing empty, work is finally underway to convert [http://www.stgeorgesleicester.com/ St George's Tower] into a mixed use development of retail, commercial and residential units. Thames Tower is due to be converted into flats and retail [http://www.buyproperty4less.com/uk-property-details/index.asp?did=67] . The New Walk Centre is the main base for the City Council.

3 new skyscrapers designed by Ian Simpson have recently been given planning approval. Westbridge Hotel Tower is set to become the tallest building in the East Midlands. A 39-story building standing at around 117 metres high. This is to comprise of a 5 star hotel and residential accommodation, containing a sky-bar with panoramic views of the city.

No. 1 Westbridge Building will be 2 skyscrapers built next to the Westbridge Hotel Tower. One a 26-story building and the other 20 story. This is to be a mainly residential building with bars/restaurants on the ground floor.

The 3 skyscrapers are to be built next to the River Soar in the new Waterside area.

LE1 Postal district

The postal district LE1 is close to the area covered inside ring-road, but is somewhat larger. The only area inside the ring-road but not part of LE1 is the section of Humberstone Road inside the ring-road.

LE1 includes the St Matthew's estate, and extends as far north as the River Soar, thus including Abbey Park. Where the A50 crosses the Soar, the boundary runs south, including Great Central Street in LE1, but not the waterfront. It then broadly follows the path of the ring-road until it reaches Waterloo Way, where the border diverges substantially, to include the swathe of land between London Road, Victoria Park Road and Waterloo Way in the LE1 postcode, including the University of Leicester, the De Montfort Hall, Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, Regent College, the Welford Road cemetery, and Victoria Park. However, London Road station remains outside LE1.

The boundary then includes several streets west of the railway line but east of the ring-road as part of LE1, before meeting up with the roundabout again and then going inwards to exclude Humberstone Road from LE1 (as above).

Nearby places

To the west, the city centre borders the river, on the other side of this is the West End of Leicester. To the south-east it borders Highfields, to the east, St Matthew's, and to the north-east, Belgrave.

External links

* [http://www.leicester.gov.uk/index.asp?pgid=803 Map of Medieval Leicester]
* [http://www.leicester.gov.uk/business--industry/the-big-build/major-schemes The Big Build at Leicester City Council]
* [http://www.leicesterregeneration.co.uk/ The Leicester Regeneration Company]
* [http://www.iggi.gov.uk/towncent/2002/East_Midlands/539.htm Leicester City Centre boundaries map from ODPM]
* [http://www.benravilious.com/category.asp?category=leicester Pictures of Leicester]
* [http://jonathan.rawle.org/gallery/leicester/ Leicester photo gallery]
* [http://highcross-leicester.com/highcrossleicester-video-gallery.html Online Video's of the Highcross Quarter]