Leicester

Leicester ( [ˈlɛstə]) is a city in the English East Midlands on the River Soar. It is traditionally the administrative seat of the county of Leicestershire in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and lies on the edge of the English National Forest.

General

The town lies on the M1 Motorway and the Midland Main Line railway between London and Sheffield.

Leicester's main industries today include the production of food, jerseys, shoes, knitwear and machinery. There are also electronics, printing and plastics processing industries.

Leicester has two universities, the University of Leicester (founded 1952) and De Montfort University (founded 1992).

The town centre is mainly Victorian in style, with later buildings blending in quite well. The heart of the city centre is the Clock Tower, which stands at the intersection of five streets leading into the city. Today, two of these streets are pedestrianised. Nearby is Leicester Market, the largest covered market in Europe.

The historic core of the city lies a little to the west of the centre. Here you will find Leicester Castle, the Cathedral, the Church of St Mary de Castro and the Jewry Wall.

The Clock Tower


Satellite image of Leicester

History

Leicester is one of the oldest cities in England; its history dates back almost 2000 years. The city was founded around 50 AD by the Romans as a military camp. The Romans called it Ratae Corieltavorum (also Ratae Coritanorum); the name derives from the Corieltauvi, a Celtic tribe that lived in the area before the Romans. Ratae Coritanorum became an important commercial and military centre and one of the largest towns in Roman Britain.

When the Roman soldiers left Britain in the 5th century, the site was largely uninhabited, but was later repopulated by the Saxons. Part of the Roman road network can still be seen today.

It is assumed that the name "Leicester" is formed from the words castra, Latin for "field, war camp", and Ligore "inhabitants on the river Legro" (the former name of Soar) -. In the 8th century, the place is mentioned as Legro Ceaster. Three centuries later it is recorded in the Domesday Book as Ledecestre. This name has evolved over time into today's "Leicester".

In the 9th century, the city was conquered by the Vikings and became one of the five boroughs (fortified cities) in the Danelag. The Bishop of Leicester then fled to Dorchester-on-Thames, and Leicester did not form an independent diocese until the 20th century.

In the Middle Ages, Leicester achieved some importance, being listed as a 'civitas' (city) in the Domesday Book. However, Leicester lost its status as a city in the 11th century in a power struggle between the church and the nobility. It was not until 1919 that Leicester was granted city rights again.

In 1265 Simon V de Montfort forced King Henry III to convene England's first Parliament at Leicester Castle.

With the construction of the Grand Union Canal in the 1790s, which connected Leicester with London and Birmingham, rapid industrialisation began. At first, mainly jerseys and shoes were produced, then in the 20th century mainly machinery.

The railway reached Leicester in 1832 with the opening of the Leicester and Swannington Railway. In 1840, the Midland Counties Railway connected the city to the national railway network - providing a further boost to industrial growth. From 1900, the Great Central Railway provided an alternative rail link to London until the line closed in 1966; a museum railway now runs on the section from Leicester North to Loughborough.

The Borough of Leicester grew during the 19th century, with Belgrave, Aylestone and North Evington being incorporated in 1892. Leicester became one of the County Boroughs, but these were abolished again in 1972, so that Leicester first became a District of Leicestershire, but then in 1997 it became a Unitary Authority and thus an administrative unit independent of Leicestershire again. The city is now part of the ceremonial county of Leicestershire for Lord-Lieutenancy purposes only.

Today Leicester is divided into the administrative wards of Abbey, Aylestone, Beaumont Leys, Belgrave, Braunstone Park & Rowley Fields, Castle, Charnwood, Coleman, Evington, Eyres Monsell, Fosse, Freemen, Humberstone & Hamilton, Knighton, Latimer, New Parks, Rushey Mead, Spinney Hills, Stoneygate, Thurncourt, Westcotes and Western Park.

In the decades following the Second World War, many immigrants from the Indian subcontinent moved to Leicester; in the early 1970s, many people also arrived from Uganda, also predominantly Indian. Immigrants make up about 40 per cent of Leicester's population, making the city one of the most ethnically diverse in the UK. Leicester is now often seen as a model of tolerance, despite the high vote share of the neo-fascist British National Front in the 1970s. As of the 2011 Census, 50.6% of Leicester residents were white, 37.1% were Asian, 6.3% were black; 33.6% of the city's residents were foreign-born. It is expected, based on developments in recent years, that Leicester could become the first major British city with a non-white majority.

In the COVID 19 pandemic, Leicester was a particular focus for the government in mid-2020 because the city stood out with high numbers of infected people within the UK.

Culture

Cultural sites include

• the Haymarket Theatre
• the Phoenix Arts Centre
• the De Montfort Hall.

Sports

The two best-known sports clubs are the football club Leicester City, which became English champions for the first time in the 2015/16 season, and the rugby union team Leicester Tigers. There is also the basketball team Leicester Riders and Leicestershire County Cricket Club. Three-time snooker world champion Mark Selby is from the city. Leicester has hosted the British and World Track Cycling Championships. The two largest stadiums are the King Power Stadium (football) and the Welford Road Stadium (rugby). Leicester's speedway team, the Leicester Lions, competes in the British Elite League.

Leicester was one of the venues at the 1983 Cricket World Cup, the 1991 Rugby Union World Cup, the 1999 Cricket World Cup, the 1999 Rugby Union World Cup and the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup, among others.

Media

The daily newspaper Leicester Mercury is published every working day. The BBC operates the studio for the radio programme BBC Radio Leicester in Leicester.

Places of interest

Historic buildings:

• Belgrave Hall,
• Jewry Wall,
• Leicester Cathedral

Parks:

• Leicester Botanic Gardens,
• Abbey Park,
• Victoria Park,
• Gorse Hill City Farm

Industry:

• Abbey Pumping Station,
• National Space Centre

Famous people

• Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (1208-1265), nobleman of French descent
• King Richard III. (1452-1485), King of England
• George Fox (1624-1691), one of the founding fathers of the Quakers
• Thomas Cook (1808-1892), carpenter, Baptist preacher and tourism pioneer
• Richard Attenborough (1923-2014), actor, director and multiple Oscar and Golden Globe winner.
• David Attenborough (* 1926), wildlife filmmaker and naturalist
• Greville Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone (1928-2015), British politician
• Engelbert Humperdinck (* 1936), pop singer
• Jon Lord (1941-2012), musician
• David Icke (* 1952), football player, publicist and conspiracy theorist
• Willie Thorne (1954-2020), snooker player
• Gary Lineker (* 1960), football player and commentator
• Sam Bailey (* 1977), pop singer
• Mark Selby (* 1983), snooker player
• Louis Heathcote (* 1997), snooker player

and:

• Kasabian, Rock Band

James Walter Butler: Thomas Cook Statue, Leicester, 1993

Sons and daughters of the city

Well-known Leicester personalities include the entomologist and folklorist William Forsell Kirby, the naturalist, evolutionary biologist and entomologist Henry Walter Bates, the swimmer and Olympic champion John Arthur Jarvis, the writers Charles Percy Snow, Sue Townsend and Colin Wilson, actors Graham Chapman and Richard Armitage, film producer Stephen Frears, musicians Jon Lord and John Deacon, motor racing drivers Roger Williamson and Jamie Green, footballers Peter Shilton and Emile Heskey, and four-time snooker world champion Mark Selby.

Town twinning

Leicester is twinned with the following cities

• Chongqing, China
• Krefeld, Germany
• Masaya, Nicaragua
• Rajkot, India
• Strasbourg, France