Narrow streets ……. surprising discoveries …… and an embarrassing confession

Leicester is a place we keep going back to.

Guild Hall Lane, 2023

It is where our Polly and Josh live.

And here is the confession which is that until this weekend we had rather dismissed it as a city of little architectural interest.

In our defence all our earlier trips had been to the suburbs which were pleasant and very cosmopolitan but during the brief forays into the city centre we were stuck by a mish mash of early and mid-20th century properties with some older 19th century buildings.  Most looked very tired, and some bore witness to multiple different uses over the decades, which had done little to enhance them.

The Clock Tower, 2023

But this time because we were staying in in the centre in what is the “Old City” we did our research, and of course found not only the rich history of the place, but heaps of things to go and see.

So many things to see that we just ran out of time.  

According to my Wikipedia “The historic city of Leicester was founded by the Romans as Ratae Corieltauvorum - after the Corieltauvi, the local tribe of Britons whose tribal lands these were - 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.”*

And as you would expect of a medieval city many of the streets were narrow, and twisty turney with plenty of surprises including the Guild Hall which dates from the 1390s and buildings which stand on earlier ones retaining the footprint of what went before.

Narrow twisty streets, Guild Hall Lane, 2023

Added to these there is the market, the clock tower and the New Walk a pedestrian way laid out in the late 18th century and flanked by some delightful houses.

Guild Hall, 2023

So we shall return, with more things to see and the time to see them.

Location; Leicester

Pictures; Leicester, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Leicester City Centre, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester_City_Centre