A circular bus route on the ring road

A lot of Leicester attractions and car parks are situated on or near the ring road. A lot of cars use the ring road and it is often congested. It's quite a long walk from one side of the ring road to the other and the transport hubs aren't in great locations. Why not have a circular bus route?

Ticket discounts or freebies could be available to people carrying tickets from the railway, NCP or other bus routes.

The ring road carved up the city when it was built but it isn't going to go away so we might as well make the most environmentally friendly use of it.

The death (and rebirth) of a 400 year old Leicester custom

Since 1636 the occupant of what was the Crown & Thistle pub (now part of O'Neill's) on Loseby Lane paid a peppercorn 'rent' of a damask rose and four old pennies to the Lord Mayor of Leicester. More details can be read here.

Why was this lovely old custom allowed to quietly die when the pub was absorbed into O'Neill's in 1997?

Update 6:30pm: Lord Mayor tweets that he'll see what he can do: https://twitter.com/LeicesterMayor/status/19498460378

Update 28/07/2010: Lord Mayor discussed this on BBC Radio Leicester (34mins in) and apparently O'Neill's are up for bringing it back: http://twitter.com/LeicesterMayor/status/19721471851

Update 15/11/2010: Leicester Mercury reports that the custom will be brought back next summer. Thanks to the Lord Mayor and O'Neill's.

Update 24/06/2011: The damask rose ceremony was held again after a 10 year absence (but were the arrears paid?!)

Food courts

If you've ever been to Singapore you will have dined at the numerous and excellent value 'hawker centres' aka food courts which are dotted all over the city. These are multiple-outlet halls or open air food courts with communal seating areas and a large choice of different canteen-style kitchens surrounding. Typically there is a wide choice of ethnic foods including Chinese, Malay, South Indian, Indonesian, Western food, etc. They provide great value for money and generally very healthy food but they are also a place where people can meet up.


Lavender Food Court, Singapore. Image copyright mailer_diablo

Does this look like something that would work well in Leicester? Imagine being able to sit somewhere and have a choice of English, Indian, Caribbean, Chinese, etc food either at lunchtime, after work or in the evening. It would be a great addition to the New Business Quarter area of Leicester. In Singapore they even converted the old colonial railway station at Tanjong Pagar into a food court - worth a thought for our lovely but soon-to-be-obsolete station frontage?

Update 15/11/2010: Looks like my wish will be granted: Leicester City Council plan to include a multi-ethnic food court in their forthcoming revamp of Leicester Market (subject to planning approval). I've also been shown outline plans for a food court as part of a proposed new residential development in the Cultural Quarter.

Update 13/05/2011: Market Corner was opened today by Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby.

Welcome to Leicester - Population 32

Here are are some scenes that confront drivers approaching Leicester from the motorways and roads into the city:-


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It would be very easy to blink and miss the UK's 10th largest city altogether if you didn't already know it was there.

Wouldn't it be great to have large welcoming signs at the approaches to the city showing pictures of what goes on here? This sort of thing is commonplace in countries like Belgium.

What positive images of Leicester would you choose to tempt people to visit? How about Guildhall, Tigers, Diwali & Highcross?

UPDATE 18/07/2010:-
The University of Leicester has just given Sir Terry Wogan an honorary degree for recognising this problem many years ago: "Sir Terry's link with Leicester began when he referred to it as 'the lost city' – one constantly mentioned in traffic reports but 'otherwise unknown to mankind'". Read the Leicester Mercury article here.

A Freshers Fair for the City

The myriad clubs, associations, societies, & volunteer groups which exist in Leicester are the lifeblood of the city but they don't always get the support and membership levels they need to succeed.

In light of the massive success of the recent Food & Drink Festival at Leicester Market and the move toward a more diverse usage for the market, wouldn't it be good to see a recruitment fair event take place there?

This could follow the model of the university freshers fairs where many different clubs get to set out their pitch for new members.

UPDATE 30th June 2011: Our Leicester Day is happening! 11th September 2011

Re-open the Castle Inn

Picture this: You're sipping a cold beer on a hot summers evening seated outside a bar in a beautiful cobbled medieval street surrounded by marvellous ancient buildings.

Brugge? Ghent? Vienna? Munich?

Well yes, but what if this could be in cosy old Leicester? Think it sounds ridiculous? Have a look at this picture:-


(photograph copyright Matt Ots - more here)

This is Castle View, one of Leicester's hidden gems within the boundary of the original Norman castle bailey. Around it are some of Leicester's most fabulous bits of heritage, St Mary's de Castro church where Geoffrey Chaucer was married, the Great Hall of the castle, Castle Gardens, the Newark Houses Museum and Trinity Hospital.

Now imagine once again this was full of people chatting, drinking and generally enjoying the atmosphere. What better way to breathe new life and interest into this beautiful but largely neglected corner of the city?

Not only is this not all that far-fetched, it actually used to happen:-


The above picture is the Castle Inn, next to the turret gateway as was a few decades ago. Many of the buildings on Castle View now lie empty having previously been used by De Montfort University.

None of this requires a regeneration masterplan or a millionaire developer - just a bit of imagination and a landlord who can see the potential of the location.

Better integration for new arrivals

Vast amounts of media coverage are given over to the need to 'integrate' immigrants into the UK and the immigrants are usually blamed when this doesn't happen properly.

But real integration isn't to be found on the pages of the Home Office's Life In the United Kingdom book (which is now required reading for all would-be non-EU immigrants) any more than reading the Highway Code teaches us to actually drive a car.

Talk to anyone who has actually arrived in the UK from another country (whether as on a temporary basis or as a permanent settler) and the story is one of confronting a wall of British reserve and sketchy information. A common result of this is that immigrants collect in cliques of their fellow countrymen, cliques which can often become quite insular and entrenched and which do not help them fit in (let alone improve their English)

What is badly needed is practical direction for people who arrive here so that they can meet and learn from long-term residents quickly. It is ironic that if you are fleeing persecution or are an international student (both of which normally imply only temporary residence) there are helpful organisations such as Refugee Action and International Students Associations to assist you. If however you've managed to jump through all the appropriate hoops and are planning to make the UK your permanent home then you're pretty much "on your own sonny."

As a city which is generally at ease with people of different origins, shouldn't Leicester be leading the way once more by instigating some sort of pro-active integration assistance for people who move here? It doesn't even have to apply just to foreigners - arriving in a new city can be just as daunting for British citizens.

My suggestion is that we need some sort of 'Arrivals Club', perhaps loosely based on the International Students Association model. This would welcome newcomers wherever they are from but also strive to make sure that they are influenced by people who have lived here for years instead of disappearing into the cocoon of cliques. As well as benefiting immigrants this would also give Leicester people an opportunity to show off their city which wouldn't do civic pride any harm either.

A survey earlier in the year found Leicester to be the "third unhappiest place in Britain" and suggested a reason being "people in Leicester were less likely to live near family and less likely to have close friends to call on in an emergency". What then could be more important for the well-being of the city than making sure newcomers integrate well, make good local connections and put down local roots?