Leicester
Leicester maps (2 available)
Map of Leicestershire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Leicestershire
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Leicester books (14 available)
- 48 photos on Leicester appear in 3 Frith books - View photos of Leicester
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Leicester and Leicestershire
Leicester memories
Read and share memories of Leicester and Leicestershire inspired by Frith photos
Memories of life
I was born in 1942 and spent my childhood years living in the way road area of the city. My brother and I were lucky enough to have a family living directly behind us in Homefield Avenue (I think that is what it was called) there were three children. We used to spend many happy hours playing in the brook at the bottom of the garden getting very wet and kindly neighbours used to dry us out so we did not get into trouble. I think I can honestly say that we all had a happy childhood, most of the time was spent outside making our own fun. Our friends' family had a little wooden cabin out at Woodhouse Eves and ...read more here
Contributed by Susan Bailey
New Years Eve
I think it was possibly 1957 when I was at the Clock Tower seeing the New Year in! Lots of fun and no trouble as I remember.
Contributed by maggie martin
Thomas Pritchard , Chief Constable circa 1780's
My wife Merlyn's great, great, grand uncle, Thomas Pritchard, held the position of Chief Constable in Leicester during the 1770's to 1790's. He had seven sons, and the youngest Thomas migrated to Australia and settled in Bendigo, Victoria in 1850's, as a result of the gold rush. He married a Mary Stevenson, who also was born in Leicester. Thomas joined with a colleague Chamberlain to form Pritchard and Chamberlain, Brewery. His son Thomas Pritchard joined the firm. He was a well known opera singer in Bendigo. He named his house Leicester after his father's birthplace.
Contributed by James Logan-Bell
Lunch at the Pavilion
I was at Wyggy Boys School from 1961 to 68. Usually I went home for dinner (which we always had mid-day) as my father worked nearby and took me. But if he wasn't going home I used to meet my mother or grandmother and have lunch in the pavilion, Usually it was egg and chips for 1s.6d. and a Lyons fruit pie for 6d. No drink because it was too extravagent to buy drinks in a cafe! Sometimes I went round the Vicky Park greenhouses with my grandma before going back to school.
I also used to pass the pavilion on cross-country practice runs round Vicky Park.
Contributed by Andrew Buxton
De Montfort Rocked
Good to see DeMontfort Hall as it used to be. It was a great venue to see bands there. Once the small blues clubs had ran their course bands needed larger venues to ply their trade, De Montfort was one of the first, I saw Rory Gallagher, John Hiseman's Collesseum,Yes, Sutherland Brothers/Quiver and never to be forgotten Free (when they reformed briefly) the last band I ever saw before the modernisation of the hall was Uriah Heep with a rather drunk David Byron fronting the band. Other major bands to visit DeMontfort were Genesis, Supertramp and the most under rated bunch of musicians to ever grace these shores The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (God rest his soul)
Today Demontfort is an ...read more here
Contributed by Mick Austin
School Dance Display
The Wyggeston Girls Grammar School put on a Dance display for Parents. I remember my mum & younger sister coming to watch and my friend and I took them to a local espresso bar afterwards.
I also recall a visit with my dad to see Swan Lake c1949.
And I've seen Ray Charles a couple of times in the 60s, also Oscar Peterson, Jacques Loussier, and Elton John at the start of his career.
I haven't lived in Leicester for many years. All ths events took place in the 50s/60s.
Though I did see the Russian Ballet c1990.
Contributed by maggie martin
Extracts From Leicester & Leicestershire books
To the young in Leicester in 1949, the Clock Tower seemed like the universe, and life revolved around it guided by policemen on point duty. Holidays were generally taken at Skegness, Mablethorpe or Great Yarmouth; pre-television entertainment was fairly extravagant, with seven cinemas in the town centre, including the Floral Hall, along with three live theatres. Within two miles of the Clock Tower, local cinemas abounded, only to be swept away in the 1960s purge, including the rather magnificent Trocadero at Humberstone, replaced by a petrol station.
An extract from from"Leicestershire Photographic Memories".
Tram wires and tracks are evident in this view of the county town. With five important roads making this junction, it proved to be one of the most complicated tramway configurations in the world. The 1960s saw all but a few buildings on the left swept away. Note the fine White Hart Hotel and the adjoining buildings.
An extract from from"Leicestershire & Rutland Living Memories".
How well ordered this street scene appears, with virtually no cars, only rumbling trams, and great six-wheeler buses. The Bell Hotel speaks of genteel days, and Lewis’s store on the right speaks of a more pressurised era of merchandising in the 1930s. It is sad that a high proportion of the buildings in this photograph have been demolished in recent years.
An extract from from"Leicestershire Photographic Memories".
How well-ordered the wide street scene appears as it curves away
towards Uppingham, with virtually no cars, only rumbling trams
and plenty of buses. Little survives of the original 18th-century
development apart from the Bell Hotel in the middle distance.
The small scale of the buildings on the left of the shot, the vary-
ing eaves height, and the mix of materials does, however, go
some way to perpetuate an echo of those early days. The quirky
Art Deco of Lewis’s store on the right manages not to detract
from the overall friendliness of the immediate area. It is regret-
table that a high proportion of the buildings in this photograph
have been demolished in recent years.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".
A selection of buses and the odd tram occupy one of the four gates that surround the clock tower. The two buses parked on the left are outside the Bell Hotel, birthplace of the Leicester-Swannington railway, the first in the Midlands. One tramline disappears by the side of the hotel through a narrow gap to the depot behind. All have now gone, including the large Lewis’s department store built in classic 1930s style.
An extract from from"Leicestershire & Rutland Living Memories".