City of Leicester & Leicestershire - The Good and Historical Stuff

[davieG]

 

Paul Loseby

sSdropeton14f75u61Y57 4ae91trt 384h04a41dsa26c6h295:eh1y1ui3  · 

One of the reasons I like working on these historical photos, is the frequent questions about the hidden stories.
This photo of the Leicester Clock Tower and Eastgate, is one of those with questions. The first thing I found was that on the back of the horse and cart (passing Eastgates Coffee House), there is a man asleep on the back. He seems to be quite ‘well-to-do’ as he seems to be wearing jodhpurs. He seems well out of it - what time of day was this, and where had he been.
The coffee house itself shows that you can get soup; dinners from 12 pence (old pence); chops and steaks from the grill, and of course tea, coffee and chocolate.
Some time after that, the adjacent building was demolished and the new buildings set back. I’d never heard of Rowe and Co who seem there, to sell haberdashery and carpets. This was probably a shop for those who couldn’t afford the haute couture of Arthur Pearson’s shop opposite. They were milliners and a house of fashion. Would the ladies have gone there for their everyday frock?
Still at Pearsons, they have drop blinds in the window - I didn’t know they had them then. The windows are obviously being cleaned as there is a wooden stepladder outside.
With no Amazon, everything is being delivered by barrow boys. My own Dad would wheel such a barrow to the market, delivering produce from the wholesale market in Rutland Street.
There is one chap pushing a blue cart and this looks like a street cleaner. To think that the same thing with similar carts, was happening 100 years later - and possibly even today.
I’ve no idea where the horse drawn carriage was going but the four or five people on top seem to be enjoying the view. How many hours did those horses work before getting a break?
Publican Fred Lye seemed to like his whisky selling Irish and Scotch. That building is still there as is the one on the corner next to it, but both with difference facades. I can’t make our what the next shop sells.
To think that within 100 years of this photo being taken, so many would have been killed in two world wars and many ‘small wars’ such as Aden and the Falklands. Could they ever have imagined that they would be able to watch moving pictures from a box in their living room, with hundreds of channels and you could change them by pointing a small hand held block of plastic at the screen. Would they have imagined that you could have ‘the world in their hands’ with a smartphone that had more information than ever the Encyclopaedia Brittanica had, and which at the same time, would have access to millions of songs, and ‘do their sums’?
How things have changed and in my view, not always for the better.
The original photo was a sepia picture on the website Storyofleicester.info

[Parafox]

Fantastic photo. 

[davieG]

 

[davieG]

 

Story of Leicester

tdpoSnoresf68lchhf3hma30g095ga7i87f7a6tgf47igai12h3018488303  · 

King George V and Queen Mary passing by crowds gathered near the Clock Tower, 1919.

King George V and his Queen Consort Mary received a joyous welcome to the city on 10th June 1919. London Road, Granby Street and Gallowtree Gate were packed with cheering, flag-waving crowds, and church bells rang out from Leicester churches. Their majesties arrived in the Royal Train at Midland Station and were greeted with a 21-gun salute and a band playing the National Anthem.

The 1919 visit was a memorable one for the people of Leicester. On 16th June 1919, the front page of the Leicester Mercury newspaper featured a letter to the Mayor from the Home Secretary. It stated how much the King and Queen had enjoyed their visit and, more importantly, announced that the King was restoring ‘the Ancient Town’ of Leicester to a city.

Read more on our new pages dedicated to a History of Royal Visits for the Coronation of King Charles III:

[davieG]

 

Paul Loseby

 I've been working on a photo of the recruiting soldiers on the steps of the Leicester Town Hall. You may notice that some of the soldiers have Boer War medals and that, the Boy Scout on the left, has also been awarded medals.

I recently came across a record of my wife's grandfather being awarded medals in WW1, when he was 15 and with the YMCA. When I did some research, I found that the Scouts and YMCA were frequently deployed in Belgium, France and Italy to support the troops. (I'll attach a photo from the Scouts' Heritage site).

The Officer in the middle is from the West Yorkshire Regiment. Graham Bandy on the Tigers Facebook page, informs me that the officer would have been there, awaiting transfer to the Leicestershire Regiment.

[SeCrEt FoX]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

 

Story of Leicester

tdpoSnoresf68lchhf3hma30g095ga7i87f7a6tgf47igai12h3018488303  · 

King George V and Queen Mary passing by crowds gathered near the Clock Tower, 1919.

King George V and his Queen Consort Mary received a joyous welcome to the city on 10th June 1919. London Road, Granby Street and Gallowtree Gate were packed with cheering, flag-waving crowds, and church bells rang out from Leicester churches. Their majesties arrived in the Royal Train at Midland Station and were greeted with a 21-gun salute and a band playing the National Anthem.

The 1919 visit was a memorable one for the people of Leicester. On 16th June 1919, the front page of the Leicester Mercury newspaper featured a letter to the Mayor from the Home Secretary. It stated how much the King and Queen had enjoyed their visit and, more importantly, announced that the King was restoring ‘the Ancient Town’ of Leicester to a city.

Read more on our new pages dedicated to a History of Royal Visits for the Coronation of King Charles III:

Look how tall the coppers are! Didn't you have to be 6 foot plus to be a police officer back in the day? The older generation always tell me that's when they were feared and respected, and you would get a clip around the ear back then. 

[davieG]

 

 

Rob Hubble

nesdoStrop36tfca81a7ft8tc6l5a900ii7f280th759ch0113a7u3495t90  · 

Narborough Road South 1958.

[davieG]

Born and Raised in Leicester

  · Sparrow Park, Uppingham Road

[davieG]

 

Stephen Butt

snrotoepdSa3uaug4f6tm6mu1c52453a1at69230a2mh0c2llm2f093f9841  · 

A very interesting photograph of the Newarke or Magazine Gateway viewed from Newarke Street. Fascinating advertisement for the Palace Theatre on the left. (Twice nightly!) A corporation workman in the middle of the road.

[davieG]

Stephen Butt

dnproSetso1a11u68088130u533999ha7l45f0i2mi4f4mh906hamfhm4u82  · 

Lee Circle looking towards the British Steam Specialities building and Fleet Street.

[davieG]

Made In Leicester

Stephen Butt  · 7 m  · 

London Road and the Marquis Wellington in 1906. The church now used by the Seventh Day Adventists on the right. The site between now occupied by the Fraser Noble Building of Leicester University.

[Foxdiamond]

On 01/05/2023 at 17:22, davieG said:

 

Paul Loseby

sSdropeton14f75u61Y57 4ae91trt 384h04a41dsa26c6h295:eh1y1ui3  · 

One of the reasons I like working on these historical photos, is the frequent questions about the hidden stories.
This photo of the Leicester Clock Tower and Eastgate, is one of those with questions. The first thing I found was that on the back of the horse and cart (passing Eastgates Coffee House), there is a man asleep on the back. He seems to be quite ‘well-to-do’ as he seems to be wearing jodhpurs. He seems well out of it - what time of day was this, and where had he been.
The coffee house itself shows that you can get soup; dinners from 12 pence (old pence); chops and steaks from the grill, and of course tea, coffee and chocolate.
Some time after that, the adjacent building was demolished and the new buildings set back. I’d never heard of Rowe and Co who seem there, to sell haberdashery and carpets. This was probably a shop for those who couldn’t afford the haute couture of Arthur Pearson’s shop opposite. They were milliners and a house of fashion. Would the ladies have gone there for their everyday frock?
Still at Pearsons, they have drop blinds in the window - I didn’t know they had them then. The windows are obviously being cleaned as there is a wooden stepladder outside.
With no Amazon, everything is being delivered by barrow boys. My own Dad would wheel such a barrow to the market, delivering produce from the wholesale market in Rutland Street.
There is one chap pushing a blue cart and this looks like a street cleaner. To think that the same thing with similar carts, was happening 100 years later - and possibly even today.
I’ve no idea where the horse drawn carriage was going but the four or five people on top seem to be enjoying the view. How many hours did those horses work before getting a break?
Publican Fred Lye seemed to like his whisky selling Irish and Scotch. That building is still there as is the one on the corner next to it, but both with difference facades. I can’t make our what the next shop sells.
To think that within 100 years of this photo being taken, so many would have been killed in two world wars and many ‘small wars’ such as Aden and the Falklands. Could they ever have imagined that they would be able to watch moving pictures from a box in their living room, with hundreds of channels and you could change them by pointing a small hand held block of plastic at the screen. Would they have imagined that you could have ‘the world in their hands’ with a smartphone that had more information than ever the Encyclopaedia Brittanica had, and which at the same time, would have access to millions of songs, and ‘do their sums’?
How things have changed and in my view, not always for the better.
The original photo was a sepia picture on the website Storyofleicester.info

Great Post. Just to widen the discussion about the war losses. Do you remember the famous photo of the newspaper boy holding the news about The Titanic disaster. Ned Parfett was his name. He later joined The Royal Artillery and won the MM but was killed 2 weeks before the end of the war in 1918 just over six years after the photo 

[davieG]

Martin Webster

ndSosoertpf409li5c68i25u0acm66fcguf1haf0gt2ugm824u8tc01g5ill  · 

Great view looking down Aylestone Road

[davieG]

[davieG]

[davieG]

Stephen Butt

desotSnorpa045248u7umhi9f1ma079luh2ul5h60lh97uma9703157t1l10  · 

 

Leicester Stadium, Blackbird Road. The view from the Press Box with Speedway teams coming out to race.

[davieG]

Graham Hulme

pSoonrdtse0i0cic5m93893517u16ul800a049t0huc4tih697gg90l7t4uf  · 

 

Old postcard of Humberstone Gate in Leicester from about the 1920s or 1930s. The old Bell Hotel is seen on the right of the picture. The hotel was originally established in about 1700 and became Leicester’s most important coaching inn during the Georgian period. It was extended and altered over the years and also became a meeting place for the county gentry and business people. During the last century social events at the hotel ballroom were very popular, with dancing to the music of the Bell Hotel Orchestra. Sadly, the Bell Hotel was demolished in 1970 to make way for the building of the Haymarket Shopping Centre. It was one of Leicester’s historic buildings and, most notably, in February 1829 the Bell Hotel was used as the venue for discussions about the founding and construction of the Leicester & Swannington Railway, Leicestershire’s first steam railway (and among the earliest in the country - as well as the world) which opened in 1832. Essentially the line was constructed to more easily transport coal to Leicester from the collieries around Whitwick, Bagworth and Swannington instead of using ponies and horses and carts. The easier transportation would lead to the lowering of the price of Leicestershire coal, making it more competitive with the price of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire coal, which was being conveyed along the Soar Navigation. John Ellis, a prominent Leicestershire farmer who was at that time living at Home Farm in Beaumont Leys, was a leading supporter of the project and he gained the help of the famous George Stephenson, hailed as the ‘Father of the Railways’, and his equally notable son, the great civil engineer Robert Stephenson. Ellis brought the Stephensons to Leicester to inspect the suggested route of the line and discuss its construction. He had wanted George Stephenson as engineer for the work but Stephenson was busily engaged in the construction of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Stephenson suggested his son Robert as chief engineer for the new railway while he worked to obtain financial backing for it from his contacts in Liverpool. The scheme was thus approved at the meeting in the Bell Hotel, which included local manufacturers, merchants and bankers, as well as the colliery owners, among the interested parties, and a provisional committee of eight was formed to oversee the formation of the railway with John Ellis as chairman (Ellis later became chairman of the Midland Railway Company in 1849-58). An Act of Parliament was passed in 1830 establishing the Leicester and Swannington Railway Company after sufficient capital had been raised and the work proceeded in earnest.

The most difficult part of the line’s construction was the digging of the Glenfield Tunnel, which needed to be brick lined for its entire length. Following an inspection by Robert Stephenson it was found that the tunnel would require a brick lining of between 14 and 18 inches in thickness, greatly adding to the cost of construction. In June 1831 there were complaints about the poor quality of the bricks and a kiln was subsequently set up at the site to oversee the brick production. By June the following year the tunnel was complete and with a length of 1,796 yards (a mile and 36 yards) it was the longest tunnel in the world at the time. The formal opening of the first stretch of the line from West Bridge station at Leicester to Bagworth took place on 17th July 1832 when the steam engine ‘Comet’, built at the Stephensons’ locomotive works in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, hauled a train of 12 wagons, driven by George Stephenson himself. The train conveyed about 400 passengers, including the company's directors, officials and important guests, with the directors’ wagon being specially covered for the occasion - ten of the others were new open-top coal wagons which had been fitted with temporary seating. The story is given that the locomotive’s tall chimney struck the roof of the Glenfield Tunnel and the train halted for a while near the brook at Glenfield to enable passengers to wash off the grime that had resulted from the incident. At Bagworth a cold collation was provided in a marquee. The return train to West Bridge conveyed an additional two wagons which contained coal from Bagworth Colliery. A second special train ran later in the afternoon for members of the public. The section of the line from Bagworth to Swannington was completed in 1833 and involved the construction of two inclines and a cutting. The building of the railway dramatically reduced the price of Leicestershire coal, but just a few years later the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire coal owners responded by backing the construction of the Midland Counties Railway to Leicester, where the Campbell Street Station was opened in 1840 (replaced by the Midland Railway’s London Road station in the 1890s). Once again Leicestershire coal faced serious competition with cheap coal being transported from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire on the railway. Having considered various options the directors of the Leicester & Swannington Railway decided in 1846 to sell the company to the Midland Railway, accepting a favourable offer made by its chairman George Hudson. The Leicester & Swannington Railway had lasted for 16 years and became a small but significant part of the Midland Railway, as well as the oldest part. 

 

 

 

Roger Lovell

George Stephenson did not drive the first train and there are no contemporary reports of the engine hitting the tunnel. The train did stop at a brook along the route but this was to take on water for the engine.

 

 

 

Graham Hulme

Author

The main source I’ve used is - Clinker, C. R. (1954). "The Leicester & Swannington Railway" in Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological Society, which is still cited in histories of the railway. It may have inaccuracies but still seems largely reliable.

https://www.le.ac.uk/.../1954 (30) 59-114 Clinker.pdf

About the stop at the brook, I noted that “the story is given” which indicates it may not be entirely accurate. However, I’m sure the stop would have provided the opportunity for some to wash off the dirt even though it wasn’t the main reason for the stop!

 

 

h

Roger Lovell

Clinker is usually reliable but none of the news reports - including by some actually on the train - mention it. Secondly, the reason given for the incident was the need to re-ballast the track due to subsidence, but the track was initially laid upon stone sets and not ballasted.

 

https://pubhistoryproject.co.uk/2021/01/27/blue-bell-bell-hotel-humberstone-gate/?fbclid=IwAR1KC6TWjxAPAw4JExca7vK5jhfho-CaFDx0CdG7qhK-qEeFbEwlJ6i2Aj8

 

BLUE BELL – BELL HOTEL, HUMBERSTONE GATE

[davieG]

Leicester Past & Present ~ A walk down Memory Lane.

tseponoSdr7hum18m1temv5rt916im1856h9240b6o2ea1f1 86013 Nfttt  · 

 

LEICESTER PAST: Railway Bridge, Narborough Road.

[davieG]

Jo Vigor-Mungovin - Authoress

nerpooSsdtg6lt7606g834a9499a6a9631f138ia82g0263ct0hffa91770t  · 

The 12 May 1904 saw the last Humberstone Gate Pleasure Fair. In 1473 Edward iv granted a fair to Leicester to be held three days before the feast of St Phillip & St James.
During the centuries the May and Michealmas fairs became the May and October Pleasure Fairs.
The fair stretched from the Clock Tower, around Eastgates, Cheapside all the way down to Rutland Street.
Legend has it that at the May Fair in 1862, Mary Jane Merrick was frightened by an elephant which caused her sons condition - hence his stage name The Elephant Man.
By the late 1880's the fairs were under attack as 'morally wrong'. The moral argument carried on for fifteen years.
By 1904 tram lines were introduced around the Clock Tower and the fairs were finally stopped as they " interfered with the traffic and the building of the new tram lines."

 

[davieG]

Paul Loseby

nosSredpotmh6h10u55l4436uu2t564h92m15at6ahi3lcm1cu0ghfm8mu85  · 

Colourised version of a Leicester City Council photograph showing Belgrave Gate in around 1965. We can see from the chap on the scooter turning into Leadenhall Street on the right, that this was before the days of crash helmets. Just in front of him, is one of Wolsey’s vans. Vic Berry was using the old Belgrave Road railway station. The road on the right behind the Midland Red bus was Painter Street. Near that corner, at 232 Belgrave Gate, was the office for A1 Taxis, where, in 1965, I worked as the youngest taxi driver in Leicester, at the age of 17yrs and 3 months, driving a maroon Vauxhall Victor.
From the sign above, I believe the place on the right with the red stripes around the columns, sold Good Year tyres, although I seem to remember it being a secondhand shop for a time. That would appear to be what the shop this side of the stripes in the photograph is. Just camera side of that shop, looks to be a cafe, although there was one in the shops leading up to the taxi firm.
On the left, we can see the Bridle Lane pub with the large Mobil garage just past that. Does anyone know if the taller building opposite St. Mark’s church, is the old Belgrave Road Tabernacle church/Sunday School?
Vehicles now long gone, include the Foden lorry, the last having been built in July 2006. The Commer vans ceased production in 1983. The Ford Anglia cars nearest to the camera, were discontinued in 1967, and the Rover 2000, in 1977. The red Mini would appear to be one of the Super Minis with the bumper overriders, and the grey car behind looks like a Wolseley 1500.

[davieG]

 

 

Terry Jones

I imagine it was named after Edward Hartopp Grove who inherited the Knighton estate from his uncle Sir Edmund Cradock Hartopp.Edward changed his name to Cradock ..He sold 120 acres of land to The Clarendon Park Co.. Many of the surrounding streets have a connection to the Cradocks....Queens Rd on Clarendon Park was once called Hangmans Lane because it led towards the gallows on the Evington Footpath opposite what is now Vicky Park..

 

 

https://www.clarendonspark.co.uk/snapshot-hartopp-road/?fbclid=IwAR0kD63sGPsIChqEN79qt9BWSHVHkjzFXlKXQ_iRuOvDAGXTSNiecFAP63Q

 

A Snapshot of Hartopp Road
By Ruth Clowes, 1 June 2019

if you’re familiar with hartopp road, no doubt you instantly recognise it from this photograph, taken in the early 1900s. The view is facing south, looking up the hill towards Clarendon Park Road. The photo has a slightly melancholy feel about it, with the single figure driving the horse and cart, the unlit gas lights and the solid, watchful houses on either side. The scene is made more eerie by the hazy light in the distance, perhaps a combination of smog from the chimneys and the limitations of photography at the time. You can just make out the houses of Clarendon Park Road at the end.

A black and white photograph of Clarendon Park in the early 1900s. A single horse and cart is in the distance.
Clarendon Park’s Hartopp Road in the early 1900s

The houses have changed very little in the last century. In fact the major difference between then and now isn’t related to the buildings at all, but to transport. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the roads would have been busy with horses and carts. Our photographer has chosen a quiet moment for their snap, but you tell that a lot of horses used the road from the amount of mess they’ve left behind them! Needless to say, the view today is quite different, with cars parked along both sides.

The change from gas to electric street lighting is the other obvious change. The gas lights would have been lit by a lamplighter, who did the rounds every evening, lighting Clarendon Park’s gloomy streets. The light given out by these lamps was dim by today’s standards, as well as having an unsteady flicker and a ghostly green tinge. The lamplighter returned at dawn to extinguish the light. It was a steady and trustworthy job and those who did it also constituted an unofficial neighbourhood watch service.

Hartopp Road today with cars parked down each side and electric street lamps
Hartopp Road today. Good luck finding a parking space, but at least you can see where you’re going

Hartopp Road is one of Clarendon Park’s oldest and is named after Edward Cradock Hartopp. Edward was a rich landowner who sold 120 acres of his land to the Clarendon Park Company in 1877. It was this land that was to become Clarendon Park and a number of the area’s earliest roads were named after members of the Cradock Hartopp family. Today, the most notable public building on the road is Create Studios, a creative hub and rehearsal space that also offers a pre-school club, guitar lessons and yoga classes.

Categories: History

[davieG]

 

Terry Jones

I remember it as The Tavern in the Town but before that it was the Midland Dynamo who altered the facade after the original pub The Black Lion closed during WW1...This is how it used to look....

[davieG]

Rob Hubble

tpsSrdonoe1u4922g3099hf8llif3ii5l2ah8fi4g510tlmgig4fh80166ah  · 

 

Tudor Road, dated 1960.

[davieG]

Rob Hubble

pornetSsdof447a1auigt37tal3a0ut02g841c42t022u9f7hc5hca985m1h  · 

 

Old John Car Park.
Bradgate 1958.

[Wolfox]

On 17/05/2023 at 16:38, davieG said:

 

 

Terry Jones

I imagine it was named after Edward Hartopp Grove who inherited the Knighton estate from his uncle Sir Edmund Cradock Hartopp.Edward changed his name to Cradock ..He sold 120 acres of land to The Clarendon Park Co.. Many of the surrounding streets have a connection to the Cradocks....Queens Rd on Clarendon Park was once called Hangmans Lane because it led towards the gallows on the Evington Footpath opposite what is now Vicky Park..

 

 

https://www.clarendonspark.co.uk/snapshot-hartopp-road/?fbclid=IwAR0kD63sGPsIChqEN79qt9BWSHVHkjzFXlKXQ_iRuOvDAGXTSNiecFAP63Q

 

A Snapshot of Hartopp Road
By Ruth Clowes, 1 June 2019

if you’re familiar with hartopp road, no doubt you instantly recognise it from this photograph, taken in the early 1900s. The view is facing south, looking up the hill towards Clarendon Park Road. The photo has a slightly melancholy feel about it, with the single figure driving the horse and cart, the unlit gas lights and the solid, watchful houses on either side. The scene is made more eerie by the hazy light in the distance, perhaps a combination of smog from the chimneys and the limitations of photography at the time. You can just make out the houses of Clarendon Park Road at the end.

A black and white photograph of Clarendon Park in the early 1900s. A single horse and cart is in the distance.
Clarendon Park’s Hartopp Road in the early 1900s

The houses have changed very little in the last century. In fact the major difference between then and now isn’t related to the buildings at all, but to transport. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the roads would have been busy with horses and carts. Our photographer has chosen a quiet moment for their snap, but you tell that a lot of horses used the road from the amount of mess they’ve left behind them! Needless to say, the view today is quite different, with cars parked along both sides.

The change from gas to electric street lighting is the other obvious change. The gas lights would have been lit by a lamplighter, who did the rounds every evening, lighting Clarendon Park’s gloomy streets. The light given out by these lamps was dim by today’s standards, as well as having an unsteady flicker and a ghostly green tinge. The lamplighter returned at dawn to extinguish the light. It was a steady and trustworthy job and those who did it also constituted an unofficial neighbourhood watch service.

Hartopp Road today with cars parked down each side and electric street lamps
Hartopp Road today. Good luck finding a parking space, but at least you can see where you’re going

Hartopp Road is one of Clarendon Park’s oldest and is named after Edward Cradock Hartopp. Edward was a rich landowner who sold 120 acres of his land to the Clarendon Park Company in 1877. It was this land that was to become Clarendon Park and a number of the area’s earliest roads were named after members of the Cradock Hartopp family. Today, the most notable public building on the road is Create Studios, a creative hub and rehearsal space that also offers a pre-school club, guitar lessons and yoga classes.

Categories: History

I wonder how many of those terraces you could buy back then for the ~£250k you’d need to shell out for one now?!!