City of Leicester: Ancient Bones, Space Rockets and the Golden Mile
Leicester received a peculiar gift in 2012 when archaeologists found the skeleton of Richard III under a council car park. The last Plantagenet king, killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, had lain beneath what became Grey Friars for over five hundred years. He was reinterred in Leicester Cathedral in 2015, and the adjacent King Richard III Visitor Centre now tells the story. It was the kind of discovery that transformed a city's tourist profile overnight.
Leicester's diversity is its defining modern characteristic. The Belgrave Road — the Golden Mile — is the centre of the city's large Gujarati Hindu community, which arrived primarily in the late 1960s and 1970s after expulsion from East Africa. The Diwali celebrations along Belgrave Road are the largest outside India. The city is also home to significant Sikh, Muslim, and East African communities, making it one of the most ethnically diverse cities in England. Leicester City Football Club's Premier League title in 2016, at odds of 5000-1, remains the most improbable achievement in English football history.
The National Space Centre, on the north side of the city, houses the UK's largest planetarium and rocket tower. The University of Leicester and De Montfort University bring a combined student population of around 40,000. The textile industry that once dominated — Leicester made hosiery and knitwear — has shrunk but not vanished, and the city's economy now includes food manufacturing, engineering, logistics, and creative industries. The city population is around 370,000.
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Leicester received a peculiar gift in 2012 when archaeologists found the skeleton of Richard III under a council car park. The last Plantagenet king, killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, had lain beneath what became Grey Friars for over five hundred years. He was reinterred in Leicester Cathedral in 2015, and the adjacent King Richard III Visitor Centre now tells the story. It was the kind of discovery that transformed a city's tourist profile overnight.
Leicester's diversity is its defining modern characteristic. The Belgrave Road — the Golden Mile — is the centre of the city's large Gujarati Hindu community, which arrived primarily in the late 1960s and 1970s after expulsion from East Africa. The Diwali celebrations along Belgrave Road are the largest outside India. The city is also home to significant Sikh, Muslim, and East African communities, making it one of the most ethnically diverse cities in England. Leicester City Football Club's Premier League title in 2016, at odds of 5000-1, remains the most improbable achievement in English football history.
The National Space Centre, on the north side of the city, houses the UK's largest planetarium and rocket tower. The University of Leicester and De Montfort University bring a combined student population of around 40,000. The textile industry that once dominated — Leicester made hosiery and knitwear — has shrunk but not vanished, and the city's economy now includes food manufacturing, engineering, logistics, and creative industries. The city population is around 370,000.
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