Leicester

Leicester , city (1991 pop. 324,394) and district, Leicestershire, central England. The city is connected by canals with the Trent River and London, and it is also a railway center. Leicester was of industrial importance as early as the 14th cent.; the making of hosiery, knitwear, and shoes are long-established industries. Other manufactures are chemicals, aniline dyes, textiles, textile and woodworking machinery, and light-metal products. The University College, now the Univ. of Leicester, was founded in 1918 and chartered as a university in 1957. DeMontfort Univ. was established in 1992. Immigration since the 1970s has made Leicester Britain’s most ethnically diverse city (in terms of the percentage of nonwhite residents).

Leicester was the Ratae Coritanorum, or Ratae, of the Romans, whose Fosse Way passes nearby. It was also a town of the ancient Britons and was one of the Five Boroughs of the Danes. Its antiquities include the Jewry Wall, a Roman structure 18 ft (5 m) high and 70 ft (21 m) long (near which extensive Roman relics have been found); remains of a Norman castle; and the ruins of an abbey founded in 1143, in which Cardinal Wolsey died in 1530. Several of the churches (St. Nicholas, St. Mary de Castro, and All Saints) show Norman work, and Trinity Hospital is a 14th-century foundation. Richard III stayed in Leicester the night before he was killed in the battle of Bosworth Field; his body was brought back to Leicester for burial.

The city is next to the M1 motorway, and is on the Midland Main Line between London and Sheffield. 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 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 mediaeval 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 a major theatre designed by Rafael Viñoly.

In 1990 Leicester was designated the UK’s first Environment City, and won the European Sustainable City Award in 1996.

Leicester has a large multi-ethnic population, mainly from the Indian subcontinent. There are many Hindu temples, 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.