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Leicester is a city and unitary authority area in the East Midlands area of England. It is also the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National
Forest. In 2006, the population of the Leicester unitary authority was estimated at 289,700, the largest in the East Midlands, whilst 441,213 people lived in the wider Leicester Urban Area. Eurostat's
Larger Urban Zone listed the population of the area at 772,400 people as of 2004. Leicester is the 10th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom using the 2001 census definitions and the urban area
is the fifteenth largest conurbation in the UK, the second largest in the region behind the Nottingham Urban Area.
Ancient Roman pavements and baths remain in Leicester from its early settlement
as Ratae Corieltauvorum, a Roman military outpost in a region inhabited by the Celtic Corieltauvi tribe. Following the demise of Roman society the early medieval Ratae Corieltauvorum is shrouded in
obscurity, but when the settlement was captured by the Danes it became one of five fortified towns important to the Danelaw. The name "Leicester" is thought to derive from the words castra of
the "Ligore", meaning a camp on the River Legro, an early name for the River Soar. Leicester appears in the Domesday Book as "Ledecestre". Leicester continued to grow throughout the
Early Modern period as a market town, although it was the Industrial Revolution that facilitated an unparalleled process of unplanned urbanisation in the area.
A newly constructed rail and canal
network routed through the area stimulated industrial growth in the 19th century, and Leicester became a major economic centre with a variety of manufactories in engineering, shoemaking and hosiery
production. The economic success of these industries, and businesses ancillary to them resulted in significant urban expansion into the surrounding countryside. The boundaries of Leicester were extended
throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming a county borough in 1889, and granted city status in 1919.
Today, Leicester is located on Midland Main Line and close to the M1 motorway. The city
has a large ethnic minority population, particularly of South Asian origin, a product of immigration to the United Kingdom since the Second World War. To cater for the South Asian community, there are
many Hindu, Sikh and Muslim places of worship and the Melton Road district serves as a focus, containing large numbers of Asian restaurants and other small businesses. Leicester is a centre for higher
education, with both Leicester University and De Montfort University being based in the city.
History
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, a mythical
king of the Britons King Leir founded the city of Kaerleir ('Leir's chester' – i.e. fortified town). Even today the name of the city in the Welsh language is Caerlŷr. Leir was supposedly buried by
Queen Cordelia in a chamber beneath the River Soar near the city dedicated to the Roman god Janus, and every year people celebrated his feast-day near Leir's tomb. William Shakespeare's King Lear is
loosely based on this story and there is a statue of Lear in Watermead Country Park.
Roman
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St Nicholas' Church and the Jewry Wall
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Leicester is one of the oldest cities in England, with a history going back at least 2000 years. The first known name of the city is the Roman label Ratae
Corieltauvorum. Before being settled by Romans it was the capital of the Celtic Corieltauvi tribe ruling over roughly the same territory as what is now known as the East Midlands.
The Roman city of Ratae Corieltauvorum was founded around AD 50 as a military settlement upon the Fosse Way Roman road. After the military
departure, Ratae Corieltauvorum grew into an important trading centre and one of the largest towns in Roman Britain. The remains of the baths of Roman
Leicester can be seen at the Jewry Wall and other Roman artefacts are displayed in the Jewry Wall Museum adjacent to the site.
Anglo-Saxon and Viking
Knowledge of the town in the 5th century is very patchy. Certainly there is some continuation of occupation of the town,
though on a much reduced scale in the 5th and 6th centuries. The area was first settled by the Middle Angles and was
subsequently included in the kingdom of Mercia. Leicester was chosen as the centre of a bishopric (and therefore a city)
in 679/80 which survived until the 9th century, when Leicester was captured by the Danes (Vikings) and became one of
the five boroughs (fortified towns) of Danelaw, although this position was short lived. The Saxon Bishop of Leicester fled
to Dorchester-on-Thames and Leicester was not to become a bishopric again until the 20th century.
It is believed the name "Leicester" is derived from the words castra (camp) of the Ligore, meaning dwellers on the 'River
Legro' (an early name for the River Soar). In the early 10th century it was recorded as Ligeraceaster = "the town of the Ligor people". The Domesday Book later recorded it as Ledecestre.
Medieval
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Leicester Guildhall, dating from the 14th century
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Leicester became a town of considerable importance by Medieval times[citation needed]. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book as 'civitas' (city), but
Leicester lost its city status in the 11th century owing to power struggles between the Church and the aristocracy. It was eventually re-made a city in
1919, and the Church of St Martin became Leicester Cathedral in 1927. The tomb of King Richard III is located in the central nave of the cathedral although
he is not actually buried there. He was originally buried in the Greyfriars Church in Leicester, but there is a legend that his corpse was exhumed under orders
from Henry VII and cast into the River Soar, although there is no evidence for this and some historians believe that his tomb and bones were destroyed with the dissolution of the church.
Leicester played a significant role in the history of England, when, in 1265, Simon de Montfort forced King Henry III to
hold the first Parliament of England at the now-ruined Leicester Castle. This was not the only time parliament was held in Leicester, see Parliament of Bats.
Tudor
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Leicester Abbey ruins, now part of Abbey Park.
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On 4 November 1530, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was arrested on charges of treason and taken from York Place. On his way south to face dubious justice at
the Tower of London, he fell ill. The group escorting him was concerned enough to stop at Leicester. There, Wolsey's condition quickly worsened and he died
on 29 November 1530 and was buried at Leicester Abbey, now Abbey Park.
Lady Jane Grey, (1536/7 — 12 February 1554), a great-granddaughter of
Henry VII, reigned as uncrowned Queen Regnant of England for nine days in July 1553, and for that reason is called "The Nine Days Queen" was born at Bradgate Park near Leicester.
Queen Elizabeth I's personal favoured courtier, Robert Dudley, who the Queen had one time thought of marrying, and
who has been named and known as her possible lover for centuries, was given the Earldom of Leicester.
Civil War
Leicester was a Parliamentarian stronghold during the English Civil War. In 1645, Prince Rupert decided to attack the
city to draw the New Model Army away from the Royalist headquarters of Oxford. Royalist guns were set up on Raw
Dykes and after an unsatisfactory response to a demand for surrender, the Newarke was stormed and the city was
sacked on 30 May. Although hundreds of people were killed by Rupert's cavalry, reports of the severity of the sacking were exaggerated by the Parliamentary press in London.
18th and 19th centuries
The construction of the Grand Union Canal in the 1790s linked Leicester to London and Birmingham and by 1832 the railway had arrived in Leicester; the
new Leicester and Swannington Railway providing a supply of coal to the town from nearby collieries. By 1840 the Midland Counties Railway had linked
Leicester to the national railway network and by the 1860s, Leicester had gained a direct rail link to London (St Pancras) with the completion of the Midland Main Line.
These developments in transport encouraged and accompanied a process of industrialisation which intensified throughout the reign of Queen Victoria
(1837–1901). Factories began to appear, particularly along the canal and the River Soar. Between 1861 and 1901 Leicester's population increased from
68,000 to 212,000 and the proportion employed in trade, commerce, building and the city's new factories and workshops rose steadily. Hosiery, textiles and
footwear became major industrial employers joined, in the latter part of the century, by engineering.
During this period a number of what were to become substantial Engineering
business were established these included Taylor & Hubbard Ltd, Kent Street, Leicester (Crane Makers, Founders),
William Gimson and Company, Vulcan Road (Steam Boilers, Founders), Richards & Co , Martin Street(Founders, Structural Steel workers).
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The Leicester Seamstress by James Walter Butler (1990)
Leicester, Hotel Street
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Years of consistent economic growth meant that, for many, living standards increased. The second half of the 19th century also witnessed the creation of many public institutions that we now take for
granted such as the town council, the Royal Infirmary and the Leicester Constabulary and the acceptance that municipal organisations had a responsibility for water supply, drainage and sanitation.
The borough expanded throughout the 19th century, most notably in 1892 annexing Belgrave, Aylestone, North Evington, Knighton and the rapidly expanding residential suburb of Stoneygate,
home to many of the city's wealthier families and some of its growing middle class. Leicester became a county borough in 1889, but, as with all county boroughs, was abolished by the Local
Government Act 1972 in 1974, becoming an ordinary district of Leicestershire. It regained its unitary status in 1997.
The early 20th century
Leicester was formally recognised as a city in 1919 and a cathedral city on the consecration of St Martin's in 1927. It obtained its current boundaries in 1935, with the annexation of the remainder
of Evington, Humberstone, Beaumont Leys and part of Braunstone. In 1900 an important new transport link, the Great Central Railway provided a new goods and passenger route to London.
By the time of Queen Victoria's death in 1901 the rapid population growth of the previous decades had already began to
slow and the Great War of 1914-18 and its aftermath had a marked social and economic impact. Leicester's diversified
economic base and lack of dependence on primary industries meant that it was much better placed than many other
cities to weather the severe economic challenges of the 1920s and 1930s. The Bureau of Statistics of the newly-formed
League of Nations identified Leicester in 1936 as the second richest city in Europe and it became an attractive
destination for refugees fleeing persecution and political turmoil in continental Europe. These years witnessed the growth
in the city of trade unionism and particularly the co-operative movement. The Co-op became an important employer and
landowner and when Leicester played host to the Jarrow March on its way to London in 1936, the Co-op provided the
marchers with a change of boots (perhaps made at its `Wheatsheaf' works in Knighton Fields?).
Post World War II
The years after World War II, particularly from the 1960s onwards, brought many social and economic challenges. There was a steady and irreversible
decline in Leicester's traditional manufacturing industries and in the city centre working factories and light industrial premises have now been almost entirely
displaced by new businesses. The 1960s and 1970s saw the movement of passengers and freight by rail and barge eclipsed by the growth of road
transport. The Great Central Railway and the Leicester and Swannington Railway both closed and the northward extension of the M1 motorway linked
Leicester into a growing motorway network. By the 1990s Leicester's central position and its good road transport links to the rest of the country had given it a
new strategic importance as a distribution centre and the south western boundaries of the city have attracted many new businesses in both service and manufacturing sectors.
Since the war Leicester has experienced large scale immigration from across the world. Immigrant groups today make
up around 40% of Leicester's population, making Leicester one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United
Kingdom. Many Polish servicemen were prevented from returning to their homeland after the war by the communist
regime, and they established a small community in Leicester. Economic migrants from the Irish Republic continued to
arrive throughout the post war period. Immigrants from the Indian sub-continent began to arrive in the 1960s, their numbers boosted by Indians arriving from Kenya and Uganda in the early 1970s.
In the 1990s, apparently drawn by the city's free and easy atmosphere and by the number of mosques, a group of Dutch
citizens of Somali origin settled in the city. Since the 2004 enlargement of the European Union a significant number of
East European migrants have settled in the city. While some wards in the northeast of the city are more than 70% Asian,
wards in the west and south are all over 70% white. The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) had estimated that by
2011 Leicester would have approximately a 50% ethnic minority population, making it the first city in Britain not to have a white British majority.
This prediction was based on the growth of the ethnic minority populations between 1991 (Census 1991 28% ethnic
minority) and 2001 (Census 2001 - 36% ethnic minority). However Professor Ludi Simpson at the University of
Manchester School of Social Sciences said in September 2007 that the CRE had "made unsubstantiated claims and
ignored government statistics" and that Leicester's immigrant and minority communities disperse to other places. The
Leicester Multicultural Advisory Group was a forum set up in 2001 by the editor of the Leicester Mercury to coordinate
community relations, with members representing the council, police, schools, community and faith groups, and the media.
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