City in Leicestershire, England
Leicester
A king lay under a Leicester car park for over 500 years, and the city's football club once won the Premier League at odds of 5,000-1.
Key information
- County
- Leicestershire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 368,600 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Richard III's remains, Leicester City's 2016 title, Diwali lights, Red Leicester cheese, the National Space Centre
- What locals are called
- Leicestrians
- Famous people
- Gary Lineker, David Attenborough, Joe Orton, Sue Townsend
- Football clubs
- Leicester City (the Foxes)
About Leicester
The king in the car park
In August 2012 archaeologists began digging in a council car park in Leicester, looking for the lost grave of Richard III. They found a skeleton within days, with a curved spine and terrible head wounds. A parking space marked with a painted letter R turned out to sit almost on top of it. DNA testing confirmed his identity in February 2013. The last Plantagenet king, killed at Bosworth in 1485, had been buried in the friary of the Greyfriars in Leicester. The friary was later demolished and its site built over. On 26 March 2015 Richard was reburied in Leicester Cathedral after a procession through the city. The visitor centre next to the dig site now tells the story.
The 5,000-1 fairytale
Leicester City were nearly relegated in the 2014–15 season. A year later they won the Premier League, at pre-season odds of 5,000-1, a price the bookmakers had treated as a joke. Claudio Ranieri was the manager. Jamie Vardy, a former non-league striker, scored freely, Riyad Mahrez was the dazzling winger, and N'Golo Kanté covered half the pitch. Together they beat the big-money clubs to the 2015–16 title. The Foxes added the FA Cup in 2021, beating Chelsea at Wembley. They play at the King Power Stadium. The city has other sporting passions too. Leicester Tigers are one of English rugby union's grandest names, based at Welford Road, and Leicester Riders play top-level basketball.
Romans, Danes and the road to a hosiery capital
Romans founded Ratae Corieltauvorum here beside the River Soar. The Jewry Wall, which stands beside St Nicholas Church, is one of the tallest surviving pieces of Roman civil building in Britain. It was part of the public baths complex and has stood for roughly 1,800 years. In the ninth century the Danes made Leicester one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw. After the Norman Conquest came a castle, and later the earls of Leicester, among them Simon de Montfort, a rebel who helped shape the idea of parliament in the 1260s. The Industrial Revolution turned the city into a centre for hosiery and footwear, and the knitting and shoe trades drew workers and money for generations.
The world's first package holiday starts here
On 5 July 1841 Thomas Cook put a group on a train from Leicester to Loughborough for a temperance meeting. It was a short hop of about eleven miles, and around 570 people went along. Cook is often credited with launching the organised excursion, and the business that grew from it became a household name in travel. Leicester's other great exports include Walkers crisps, which grew from a family butcher's business and a crisp-making start in 1948. Red Leicester cheese, with its deep orange colour, takes the city's name, although it began as a county cheese.
Lights, curry and a very mixed city
Leicester is one of Britain's most diverse cities, with a large South Asian population, much of it with family links to East Africa and India. Its Diwali celebrations, centred on Belgrave Road, are among the biggest held outside India. In 2024 the council dropped the separate public lights switch-on and folded its main celebrations into a single Diwali-day event. Belgrave Road is known as the Golden Mile for its jewellers, sari shops and sweet centres. It's also the place to find a proper curry, from dosas and chaat to rich Gujarati thalis. The city also has a long-established Caribbean Carnival tradition, which has been a colourful part of its summers in past years. Leicester Market has traded in the city centre for centuries. In November 2023 its outdoor stalls moved temporarily to Green Dragon Square while the historic market site was redeveloped, and the food hall stayed open.
Rockets, writers and famous Leicester sons
The National Space Centre, with its 42-metre Rocket Tower, sits on the edge of the city and holds real spacecraft hardware. It is a fitting museum for a city whose university has long worked on space science. Leicester has also produced a remarkable cast. Gary Lineker was born here and began his career at Leicester City. David Attenborough grew up on the university campus where his father was principal. Playwright Joe Orton came from the city, and Sue Townsend, creator of Adrian Mole, was another Leicester writer. The Victorian Clock Tower in the centre, finished in 1868, is the city's traditional meeting point, and everything else has grown out around it.
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