Produced by Leicester City Council Marketing & Brand Management Team (RB 05.2012)
Sponsored by
Leicester
Celebrates
*All photographs courtesy of Leicester Mercury except for pages 2 & 4, copyright Leicester City Council
Welcome to your souvenir publication of
Leicester Celebrates, produced exclusively
for all schoolchildren in Leicester. In this
unique publication you’ll find information
about Leicester’s Royal connections and
how these have helped shape the city of
Leicester as it is today.
Within the publication, you’ll see there’s
also a chance to share your story by
submitting it to the Jubilee Time Capsule to
create a digital Diamond Jubilee gift for the
Queen.
I do hope you will enjoy your copy of
Leicester Celebrates and keep it as a
reminder of a very special year.
Sir Peter Soulsby
City Mayor
Leicester’s Royal connections go back a long way
and are closely woven with the development of the
City. As we celebrate the visit of Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II to Leicester in 2012, we can also
look back at some of Leicester’s Royal connections
in the past, starting with William the Conqueror, the
first Norman King of England.
After the death of King Edward VI in 1553
Lady Jane Grey, who is thought to have been
born in Bradgate, Leicestershire, became
Queen, but her time on the throne was very
short lived. She was Queen for only 9 days
and was tried for treason in November 1553,
being executed in 1554.
After his victory during the Battle of Hastings
in 1066, William the Conqueror saw the
importance of Leicester and built a castle in a
dominant position at the corner of the walls,
next to the river. You can still see the mound of
that castle today, in the Newarke area of the
City.
This area has other important Royal
connections too. The Church of the
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was
built in 1361 and housed the tombs of
prominent members of the House of Lancaster,
Kings of England between 1399 - 1471.
Some of the Church still survives in the
basement of a building which is now used by
De Montfort University.
Reproduced courtesy of Newarke Houses
Museum
Through photographs, we have also tried to
capture the essence of the last sixty years,
during which time HM The Queen has
visited our city seven times. Her most recent
visit was, of course, this year on 8th March,
when she chose to visit Leicester to mark the
start of her Diamond Jubilee tour of the
United Kingdom.
In 1426, King Henry VI was knighted in the
Church of St Mary de Castro. You can still visit
the Church today in the Newarke area of the
City.
The body of King Richard III was brought to
Leicester after he was killed in the Battle of
Bosworth in 1485 and he was buried at the
church in the Greyfriars monastery. After the
monastery was dissolved in the reign of King
Henry VIII, the bones of Richard III were said
to have been removed and may have been
thrown into the River Soar.
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control of Leicester and after his surrender to
parliament in 1647, King Charles I journeyed
south, stopping at Leicester.
King Charles I visited Leicester in 1635 and
1642 and attended divine service at Leicester
Cathedral. Charles I visited Leicester again in
1647 but in very different circumstances. During
the English Civil War, the City of Leicester was
loyal to Parliament and was besieged by the
King’s army in 1645. Prince Rupert set up his
artillery near what is now the King Power
Stadium. The Royal army was made up of 5,500
men and inside Leicester there were only 2,000
defenders. Traitors left the town at night and
revealed the weak spots in the City walls. The
Royalists aimed their cannons at these spots and
made breaches. The City defenders tried to plug
the gaps with sacks of wool but the royalist
infantry attacked. Soon Leicester was captured,
the royalists then sacked the town, killing many
people.
Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952 and was crowned in 1953.
A souvenir guide was produced for
Leicester residents to remember the
occasion.
In the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, there
may have been several Royal visits to Leicester.
There are four that we know about; the visit of
the Prince Regent, later king George IV, who
stopped at Leicester on the way to Belvoir Castle
in January 1814. Queen Adelaide, widow of
King William IV, visited Leicester in November
1839. In 1882, Abbey Park was opened by the
then Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. In
1889, H.R.H. Princess Louise came to Leicester to
open Leicester Children’s Hospital.
The town of Leicester had its status raised to City
after the visit of King George V and Queen
Mary in June 1919. King George VI and Queen
Elizabeth also visited in October 1946.
However their triumph was short lived. After the
battle of Naseby, the parliamentary army took
Leicester Clock
Tower decorated
for the visit of the
Prince of Wales
in 1882.
4
The people of Leicester enjoyed many different celebrations to mark the Coronation including street
parities, processions and floral displays.
These children enjoyed a street party on Caledine Road, New Parks, to celebrate.
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On 9th May 1958, five years after her Coronation, The Queen visited Leicester.
lved fancy dress costumes.
ty invo
In Halstead Street, Highfields, the par
d lined with
This photograph shows Stoughton Roa
ner.
crowds and with a large welcome ban
d Mayor
The Queen was greeted by the Lor
A float by the industrial group fea
tured the Shoe Trades’ Princess in
a giant
shoe drawn by eight tiny ponies.
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7
.
in Victoria Park and a large crowd
The Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee in 1977 and the people of Leicester celebrated too with street
parties and processions bringing communities together.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh then visited Leicester in 1980, 1989, 1993 and in 2002 as part of
the Golden Jubilee celebrations.
it to
crowds of onlookers. Royal Vis
the
to
ves
wa
eth
ab
Eliz
een
Qu
Leicester March 1980.
This float in the Northfields procession depicted Queen Elizabeth I.
These children took part in a stre
et
party at Digby Close, Braunston
e.
g at this street party in Sykef
And there was lots of flag wavin
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ield Avenue, West End.
These nurses all wanted to capture a pict
ure
of the special day in 1980.
9
Sikhs during
In 2002 The Queen met local
Temple in
a visit to the Sikh Gurdhwara
Leicester...
in 1989...
greet The Queen in on her visit
to
gs
fla
ir
the
g
vin
wa
d
an
ng
Children were ready cheeri
re waiting outside
...and these young people we
n Project in
the Avalon community Educatio
Duxbury Road.
cester Mercury showed
...and the front page of the Lei
Tower.
crowds gathered by the Clock
iting patiently
Four year old Jake Palmer is wa
irmary to greet
outside the Leicester Royal Inf
opened the
The Queen in 1993, where she
new Windsor Building.
opened the
In December 2008, The Queen
University of Leicester...
10
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new David Wilson Librar y at the
thedral to attend a service...
They then moved to Leicester Ca
d outside to greet The Queen
...and visited the Curve Theatre where excited youngsters waite
and Prince Philip.
y to the
...and after lunch made their wa
where the
Clock Tower in the city centre,
rformance
Royal party watched a street pe
Holi.
based on the Hindu festival of
The visit of HM The Queen, HRH Duke of Edinburgh and HRH Duchess of Cambridge on 8 March 2012
marked the start of a tour of the country to celebrate 60 years of The Queen’s reign.
The Royal party were welcomed by City Mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, Deputy City Mayor Cllr. Rory Palmer
and Assistant City Mayor Cllr. Manjula Sood.
...where The Queen and Duchess of Cambridge
attended a fashion show.
The Royal party visited De Montfort University...
to album
pho
m the City of Leicester, a special
fro
gift
a
h
wit
een
Qu
the
ted
sen
The City Mayor pre
al visits to Leicester.
which featured pictures of past Roy
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