Victoria Park : Attraction of Leicester

Victoria Park in Leicester, England is a public park of 69 acres (279,000 m²). It is in the south-east, just outside the city centre, close by the University of Leicester and Leicester railway station.

It has facilities for various sports, including tennis, basketball, bowls, croquet, football and cricket. A skate park has been recently added. The park is sometimes used as a venue for outdoor events - in recent years these have included BBC Radio One’s One Big Sunday, the Leicester Caribbean Carnival, and Leicester Pride. A pavilion provides changing facilities, and also the site of a cafe.

It was historically part of the South Fields of Leicester, and was used from 1806 to 1883 as a racecourse - a function that was then transferred as to the purpose-built Leicester Racecourse in Oadby. It was opened as a park in 1882. The park is home to two memorials. The War Memorial, a quadrifrons arch, was designed by Edwin Lutyens and built in 1923, to commemorate the dead of the First World War. The memorial, a Grade I listed building, stands at the top of an ornamental walkway ("Peace Walk") with gates (also by Lutyens) opening on to University Road. A smaller memorial near the cafe commemorates the American 82nd Airborne Division, stationed in Leicester prior to D-Day.

Gates and lodges on the London Road side of the park were also designed by Lutyens and built in 1930.