Timeline of Leicester

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Leicester, the county town of Leicestershire, in England.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Prehistory and protohistory

See also: Prehistory and Protohistory

Palaeolithic

• c. 12,000 BC – Ice sheets retreated helping to form the geography of the Soar Valley.
• c. 10,000–9,500 BC – First hunter gatherers active in the Leicester area. Flint axe heads from the Early Stone Age have been found found on Abbey Meadows, in Scraptoft, and in Eyres Monsell.

Mesolithic

• 9,500–4,500 BC – Late hunter gatherers active in the area. Stone tools found at Humberstone and Mowmacre Hill.

Neolithic

• 4,500–2,500 BC – Farming begins in the area and forests are cleared. More than 50 axes and other worked flint tools have been discovered scattered across every part of the city and its suburbs.

Copper Age

• 2,500–2,000 BC - pottery craft was discovered.

Bronze Age

• 2,000-1,000 BC
  • Metal working begins: metal remains found in High Street, Abbey Meadows, Eyres Monsell, and Glenfield. Pottery remains have been found in Glenfield in large quantities, as well as in Western Park and the modern city centre.
  • Evidence of ritual areas, crop marks and burial mounds, survive in Western Park and New Parks (for pre Roman Leicester religion see Druidism).
  • Burial area near High Street with a crematorium urn and another crematorium urn from Aylestone Park.
• 1,000 BC – earliest permanent settlement on Glenfield Ridge overlooking Soar Valley from the west (today Glenfield).

Iron Age

• c. 750 BC – Legendary foundation by King Leir according to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work Historia Regum Britanniae. This origin myth dates to the 12th cent and is based on Lier's name. There are no archaeological remains of a settlement on the eastern bank of the Soar to support the legend.
• c. 200 BC — Hill forts present at Ratby, Beacon Hill, Burrough Hill, and Breedon on the hill.
• c. 100–50 BC – the Corieltauvi Tribe develop an Oppidum on the eastern bank of the River Soar.
  • The settlement had the northernmost Iron Age coin mint yet discovered in Europe.

Roman period

See also: Roman Britain

1st century CE (AD)

• 44–46 – Roman Conquest of the area by Legio XIV Gemina under Aulus Plautius.
• c. 48–60 – The Corieltauvi become allied with Rome (approx. date):
  • Tribespeople were made Civitas stipendaria of the Roman Empire.
  • The gradually Romanising settlement of Ratae Corieltauvorum (meaning Ramparts of the Corieltauvi) was recognised as the Corieltauvi's Civitas Capital. The plural conjugation of the name Ratae might have either referred to the different sided ramparts of a single oppidum or to the ramparts of several oppida surrounding the main one excavated east of the River Soar.
• c. 48 – The Fosse Way was constructed just to the north of the original Iron Age oppidum, perhaps initially as a defensive ditch. The northern most boundary of the first wave of Romano-British occupied territories, it came to be a major route of transportation connecting Lincoln to the north east and Cirencester, Bath, and Exeter to the south west. It was also came to act as the Decumanus Maximus (principal street running east to west) of the city of Ratae. Outside the city walls the Fosse way is the road northeast to Belgrave, Syston, and Melton (today's A46), and southwest to Coventry (today's B4455 and A429) until the mid 20th century. In the 18th and 19th the areas around the Fosse Way had been developed while the straight road was preserved as today's:
  • Narborough Road,
  • Belgrave Gate
  • Belgrave Road (the Golden Mile),
  • and Melton Road.
• c. 51 — Watling Street constructed about 12 miles south of the city connecting Canterbury, London, and St Albans in the south east with Wroxeter in the north west, later extending to Chester. This road followed the route of today's A5 and marks the boarder between Leicestershire and Warwickshire.
• c. 70 – The Via Devana is gradually constructed connecting Ratae to the Roman capital Colchester in the south east and Chester in the north west vier Watling Street. This road eventually constituted the southern section of Ratae's divided Cardo Maximus (principal street running north to south) connecting what is still Southgates with the old Forum (roughly today's Jubilee Square) vier Vaughan Way before joining the Fosse way in the western half of the Decumanus Maximus, exiting vier the former West Gates, and continuing towards Mancetter where it met Watling Street. To the south east it passed through Medbourne to Godmanchester. The route survives today as
  • Gartree Road (the B582 passing through the Strettons),
  • Evington Footway,
  • New Walk,
  • and Glenfield Road (possibly).
• c. 75–99 – A drainage ditch, most likely with a defensive rampart of some kind, was dug around an area north of the original Iron Age oppidum. These boundaries will mark the site of the 3rd century stone walls and the boroughs boundaries with very few changes until the 19th century. Within the boundaries of the outer ditch a gridded network of streets (cardines, decumani, and insulae) were laid out, including the split Cardo Maximus and the continuous Decumanus Maximius.
  • The route the Cardo Maximus followed is now:
    • South Gates;
    • The short footpath continuous with Wyggeston’s House as far as Applegate (the route of the Decumanus, i.e. the Fosse Way);
    • The route of the present Highcross Street over Vaughn Way as far as Sanvey Gate and Soar Lane.
  • The Decumanus Maximius, following the route of the 48 AD Fosse Way, is now:
    • East Gates opposite the Haymarket and Belgrave Gate;
    • Silver Street;
    • Guildhall lane past Wyggeston’s House and Jubilee Square;
    • beneath St Nicolas Circle to the lost west gate around St Augustine's Road.
  • Raw Dykes likely constructed during this stage of development.

2nd century

• 122 – the Emperor Hadrian visited Ratae.
• c. 130–200 – Ratae developed into well established Municipium:
  • The Forum and Basilica complex were constructed on the north side of the Fosse Way between what is presently Highcross Street and Vaughan Way. The site is now Jubilee Square.
  • Thermae (public bath house) constructed. Ruins preserved in the courtyard of the Jewry Wall Museum.
  • Jewry Wall constructed, the wall of a communal Palaestra or Gymnasium constructed on the eastern side of the bath complex, the archways are likely the surviving entry between the exercise hall and the baths.
  • The Mithraeum, a temple to the deity Mithra, was constructed on what is now St Nicholas Circle.
  • The "Cyparissus Pavement" laid (approx. date).
  • The four "Blackfriars Pavements" laid (approx. date).
  • The "Peacock Pavement" laid (approx. date).

3rd century

• c. 208 – Emperor Septimius Severus likely visited Ratae during his journey to Hadrians Wall for the Caledonian Campaign.
• c. 220 – Civic buildings expand:
  • Large Macellum (indoor market hall) constructed immediately to the north of the Forum, around the site of the Medieval Blue Boar Inn in between todays Highcross Street, Vaughan Way, and Jubilee Square.
  • Semi circular Theatrum constructed adjacent to the north wall of the Macellum (today under Vaughan Way).
  • A Septisolium shrine was probably constructed around this time according surviving written testimony and some possible archaeological evidence. Inspired by the Roman Septisolium, although on a far smaller scale, it was devoted to the seven planetary deities (Saturn, Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus).
• c. 270 — City walls constructed in stone along the route of the earlier ditches (see entry for c. 80–99 AD above). Stone defensive structures remain until the 16th century and surviving stones can be seen reused in the wall between St Mary de Castro churchyard and the gardens of the Newarke Houses Museum.
  • The entrance roads and tracks along the walls extern have almost all survived as thoroughfares in the modern city. Working round the boundary, to and from the focal point of the Victorian Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower, and starting from East Gates these are:
    • Gallowtree Gate,
    • Horsefair Street,
    • Millstone Lane,
    • past Southgates and Vaughan way,
    • The Newarke, particularly the south wall of the 11th century Leicester Castle,
    • Castle Gardens,
    • St Nicholas Circle,
    • Bath Lane,
    • Soar Lane,
    • past Northgate and Highcross Streets,
    • Sanvey Gate,
    • and Church Gate.
  • The walls had four major gateways of which no visible remains survive. Three of them have been preserved in the names of the streets. They were:
    • South Gate – today commemorated in the street name Southgates, they stood roughly where Millstone Lane meets Vaughan Way. Two roads branched from here; the Via Devana to Medbourne and Godmanchester, and an unnamed road to the local settlement of Tripontium on Watling Street (now the Caves Inn near Lutterworth). The Newarke Street Cemetery grew up in between the two forks in the road.
    • East Gate – today East Gates, it stood roughly between Cheapside and Gallowtree Gate. This was the eastern entrance of the Fosse Way (Belgrave Gate and Melton Road) into the city and the road to Lincoln. In the Middle Ages the two tracks following the east wall became Church Gate to the north leading up to St Margaret's and Gallowtree Gate to the south leading up to the gallows where the track met the Via Divana at the top of St Mary's Hill (opposite the Victoria Park gates on London Road).
    • North Gate – today the crossroads of Highcross Street, Northgate Street, Sanvey Gate, and Soar Lane. In the Middle Ages the road to Leicester Abbey and a procession route between St Martins Church (the Cathedral) and St Margaret's Church (Sanvey Gate being an Anglo Saxon distortion of the Latin Sacra Via or Holy Way).
    • West Gate – today where St Augustine's Road meets St Nicholas Circle. The onward route of both the Fosse Way (Narborough Road) to Bath and Exeter and the Via Devana (possibly Glenfield Road).

4th century

• 360 – major fire destroyed the public baths and many other buildings never to be rebuilt.
• c. 375 — Antonine Itinerary records Ratae on a postal route between London and Lincoln.

5th century

• 406–420 — End of Roman occupation beginning around 406 with the departure of many unpaid centurions and the rise of Constantine III.

Early Middle Ages

See also: Early Middle Ages, Kingdom of Mercia, Heptarchy, and Danelaw

6th century

• c. mid 5th – early 6th cent — Middle Angles begin to inhabit the Trent and Soar Valleys including a small settlement on the edge of the old Roman city of Ratae, near Southgates.

7th century

• 653 — Cedd’s mission to the Middle Angles.
• 680 — Cuthwine was installed as the first Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Leicester.

8th century

• 792 - Bishop Unwona of Leicester accompanies King Offa of Mercia (of Offa's Dyke fame) on pilgrimage to Rome.

9th century

• 803 — Earliest Saxon written record of the town, referred to as Legorensis Caester.
• 840 – According to local tradition Saint Wigstan, a young prince of Mercia, was martyred at Wistow just south of the city on the Kalends (1st) of June.
• 874 – Leicester ceased to be a diocesan seat when the last Saxon Bishop flees the invading Danes. He settled at Dorchester and his successors ultimately become the Bishops of Lincoln.
• 877 – The Danes were in power and Leicester became one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw.
• 880 – The nave of St Nicholas' Church dates to this time (next to Jewry Wall, approx. date).

10th century

• 918 – The city's Danish defenders surrender without a fight to Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians, and Edward the Elder, the children of Alfred the Great.
  • Towns defensive walls repaired.
  • St Mary's Church founded by Ethelfleda and Edward, the site of todays St Mary de Castro.
• 971 — Bishops of Leicester in exile at Dorchester and Lindsey merged to form one bishopric.

High Middle Ages

See also: High Middle Ages and Kingdom of England

11th century

• c. 1070 – The Norman Conquerors reached the city.
  • Hugh de Grandmesnil was granted the lands encompassing the town of Leicester and made first Sheriff of Leicestershire.
  • Motte and Bailey structure of Leicester Castle was begun.
  • St Mary's, now part of the castle Bailey, was reconstructed (including nave and west wall still standing).
• 1072 — The ancient bishopric of Dorchester, Leicester and Lindsey in exile, was moved to Lincoln under the new Norman bishop Remigius de Fécamp. Leicester and Leicestershires churches became part of the Diocese of Lincoln until 1541.
• 1086 – The Domesday Survey report on the town of Ledecestre (Leicester):
  • Leicester Castle was completed.
  • The walled town occupied 130 acres and had 322 houses.
    • 190 owned by Hugh de Grandmesnil
    • 39 in the possession of William the Conqueror and the Crown.
    • 93 in other hands.
  • The walled town had several churches of which 5 survive:
    • St Nicholas Church, the old Anglo Saxon Minster dating back to the 6th or 7th century constructed in the shell of the old Roman Gymnasium;
    • St Mary de Castro in the precincts of Leicester Castle;
    • All Saints on Highcross Street, the northern section of the old Roman city's split Cardo Maximus, the first church reached on entering the North Gate);
    • St Margaret's Church, just outside the north eastern corner of the walls at the crossroads of Sanvey Gate and Church Gate;
    • & St Martin's Church, constructed on Fosse Way, the city's old Decumanus Maximus, roughly midway between the East and West Gates;
  • And three churches which do not:
    • St Clement's Church, later the Blackfriars Church in the northwest corner of the town;
    • St Michael's Church, in the northeast corner of the town around what is today Vaughan Way, Burgess Street, and East Bond Street;
    • & St Peter's Church, near what is now Free School Lane, its stones surviving in the structure of the Free School.
  • The town operated along principles of pre-conquest Anglo-Saxon and Danish law and authority.
    • There were 65 Burgesses or Freemen, the ancestor of the current Guild of Leicester Freemen and the established core of the towns Burgher class.
    • The town was governed by a Portmanmoot of 24 Jurats elected from among the Burgesses (the ancestor of the 1589 Corporation & the modern City Council).
  • Leicester Market (known as the Saturday Shambles) was active.
• 1092 – First recorded existence of the Archdeaconry of Leicester. Title held by Ranulph appointed by Bishop Remigius.

12th century

• 1107 — Robert de Beaumont Count of Meulan was made Earl of Leicester, the first of that title, and granted possession of the castle and the old Roman town by King Henry I.
  • College of Priests established to serve St Mary de Castro and the castle's residents by the 1st Earl.
  • Beaumont confirmed the rights and privileges of the Portmanmoot and its Burgesses.
• 1143 – Leicester Abbey was founded by Robert le Bossu, 2nd Earl of Leicester for the canons previously resident at St Mary de Castro. All city parishes were placed under its control.
• 1173 – Leicester was besieged after Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester became a principal rebel in a revolt against Henry II. Castle Keep destroyed and much of the north west of the city damaged.

13th century

• 1228 – Leicester fair active.
• 1229 — Robert Grosseteste appointed Archdeacon of Leicester (famous scholastic philosopher and theologian, later Bishop of Lincoln).
• c. 1230 – The Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans or Greyfriars) established St Mary Magdalene's Friary (Leicester Greyfriars) just inside the towns southern wall east of Southgates, between what became Southgates, Friar Lane, Grey Friars, and St Martins. They were the first of mendicant orders to establish themselves in the town.
• 1231 — Expulsion of the Jews of Leicester. The 6th Earl of Leicester Simon de Montfort expelled the Jewish community to beyond the town walls, the first of such official pogroms preceding the national Edict of Expulsion in 1290.
• c. 1247 – The Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans or Blackfriars) established St Clement's Priory (Leicester Blackfriars) in the north west corner of the old town walls taking St Clement's parish church as their priory church. The site was between Soar Lane and Great Central Street and was commemorated after the reformation in names such as St Sundays Bridge (St Sunday being an English nickname for St Dominic), Friars Preachers Lane which was the name of Great Central Street, Friars Causeway, Friars Mill, and the district of the city known as Blackfriars.
• c. 1254 — The Order of Friars Hermits of St Augustine (Austinfriars) established St Katherine's Priory (Leicester Austinfriars) north west of West Bridge on Bede Island. The site is now on the right hand side of St Augustine's Road.
• 1265 — Edmund Crouchback granted the earldom, castle, and city of Leicester on 26 October after the death of Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham earlier that year.
• 1267 – Earldoms of Leicester and Lancaster united into one when Crouchback was made Earl of Lancaster.
• 1269 – Leicester assessed as 13th richest borough in the Kingdom of England.

Late Middle Ages

See also: Late Middle Ages

14th century

• 1300 – King Edward I stayed at Leicester Castle.
• 1307 – King Edward II granted a fair for 17 days after Trinity Sunday.
• 1310 – King Edward II stayed at the castle and again in 1311.
• 1318 – The Parliament of England met at Leicester for the first time on 12 April. The 18th Parliament of the reign of Edward II, it was a "parliament" in a technical sense because the king was not present. The Archbishop of Canterbury, five Bishops, three Earls, and 28 barons attended. No representatives of the Commons were present.
• 1330 – Trinity Hospital was founded south of the castle walls.
• 1350 - Guild of Corpus Christi constituted.
• 1353 – The Newarke enclosure is constructed around Trinity Hospital and a college of priests is established to serve the new Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady. The foundation is established and endowed by Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster.
• 1360 – Philippa of Lancaster born at Leicester Castle, daughter of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster, later Queen of Portugal, the spouse of King João I founder of the House of Aviz.
• 1377 – Leicester assessed as 17th richest borough in the Kingdom of England.
• 1389 – Noted Leicester priest and Lollard William Swinderby was forced to recant his heresy publicly in all the city's major churches as well as those at Market Harborough and Melton Mowbray by the church court at Lincoln. Later burned at the stake in London in 1401.
• 1390 – Corpus Christi Guildhall constructed (approx. date).
• 1394 — Constance of Castile, Duchess of Lancaster, daughter of Peter King of Castile and second wife of John of Gaunt, died at the castle on 24 March.
• 1399
  • John of Gaunt died at Leicester Castle on 3 Feb in the presence of his long term mistress and 3rd wife Katherine Swynford.
  • Henry Bolingbroke accedes to the English throne and becomes Henry IV on 30 September. The properties of the Duchy of Lancaster, including Leicester Castle and its estates, were assumed into the properties of the English Crown.
  • St Mary de Castro became one of the Chapels Royal. The parish retains some of these legal privileges and royal dignities today, such as the use of red cassocks.

15th century

• 1405 – Philip Repyngdon, repentant Lollard and Abbot of Leicester, made Bishop of Lincoln.
• 1414 – Parliament of England met at Leicester in the 2nd Parliamentary session of the reign of Henry V. Known as the Fire and Faggot Parliament it met in Greyfriars Friary between 30 April and 29 May.
• 1419 – Margery Kempe (pilgrim, travel writer, and first English autobiographer) made a pilgrimage to the Newarke and Leicester Abbey, was accused of heresy by the Lord Mayor of Leicester, tried in All Saints Church, and acquitted by the Abbot of Leicester Richard Rothley.
• 1425–1427 – The English royal court was in residence at Leicester Castle:
  • The child King Henry VI stayed at the castle during which time he was knighted and underwent his coming of age ceremonies. He took his bath and vigil the night before in St Mary de Castro.
• 1426 – The Parliament of Bats was held in the Great Hall of the castle.
• c. 1444 – Most of St Margaret's Church was rebuilt, including the West Tower.
• 1450 – Parliament of England met at Leicester, 18th Parliament of the reign of Henry VI. Was adjourned because of Jack Cade's Rebellion.
• 1485 – Richard III spends his last night in Leicester before the Battle of Bosworth Field (21 August). He slept at the Blue Boar Inn on what is today Highcross Street. His body was afterwards brought back to the town through the West Gates and buried at Greyfriars.

Early Modern period

16th century

• c. 1500 - Leicester Abbey Eastern Wall constructed.
• 1504 - John Penny, Abbot of Leicester made Bishop of Bangor.
• c. 1511 – Wigston's Chantry House was built in the Newarke.
• 1513 – Wyggeston Hospital founded.
• 1530 – Cardinal Thomas Wolsey died at Leicester Abbey.
• 1534 – The parish churches of the city, county, and wider Diocese of Lincoln formally ceased to be Roman Catholic due to Henry VIII’s First Act of Supremacy and the secession of the Church of England from Papal authority.
• 1535 - In the first round of the Dissolution of the Monasteries the smaller monastic houses of Leicestershire were surrendered to the king, the community chapters were broken up, and the monastic buildings gradually demolished. In the city this affected two houses:
  • The Greyfriars
  • & the Austin Friars,
• 1536 – John Leland visited Leicester and recorded its ancient monuments and churches in his Itinerary.
• 1538 – In the second round of the dissolution of the monasteries all other monastic houses in the city and county suffer the same fate including:
  • Leicester Abbey,
  • & St Clement's Dominican Priory.
• 1541 – Leicesters churches transferred from the control of Lincoln Diocese to the newly established Diocese of Peterborough.
• 1548 – The Guild of Corpus Christi was dissolved.
• 1550 – The Free Grammar School was established by this year using money left by William Wyggeston (ancestor of the current Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College).
• 1554 - The city's churches temporarily returned to Roman Catholic observance owing to the See of Rome Act.
• 1556 - Thomas Moor (also spelled Moore) was burned for heresy at Leicester on 26 June.
• 1558 – The Act of Uniformity, the first part of the Elizabethan Settlement, returned Leicesters churches to state Protestantism.
• 1589 – Elizabeth I issues a Royal Charter establishing the Corporation of Leicester as a replacement for the Moot of Burgesses. It was granted the privilege of sharing the motto "Semper Eadem" with the monarch.
• 1595 – Skeffington House was built in the Newarke (approximate date).

17th century

• 1616 — Leicester Boy Trials. Leicester Assizes conducted famous witch trial instigated by a 13-year-old boy who accused 15 women in Husbands Bosworth. 9 of the accused were hanged, 1 died in prison, and 5 were released on the order of King James I during his visit to the city that summer. The incident was the inspiration for Ben Jonson’s play The Devil Is an Ass.
• 1627–1628 – The Leicester anti enclosure and disafforestation riots, a series of spring riots in both years in protest of Sir Miles Fleetwood‘s enclosure, division, and deforestation of Leicester Forest on the orders of King Charles I.
• 1642 – Charles I passed through Leicester before raising his standard at Nottingham.
• 1645 – The Siege of Leicester during the English Civil War.
• 1680
  • Knitting frames for hosiery were introduced about this time.
  • Leicesters Quakers constructed their first meeting house. It was built on the extra parochial land of the dissolved St Clement's Priory near Soar Lane and the Northgates end of Highcross Street, the modern area of Blackfriars.

18th century

• 1708 — Great Meeting House constructed for the towns Protestant Dissenters on East Bond Street. Today Leicester Unitarian Chapel.
• 1717 – Last English witch trial conducted by Leicester Assizes. The two accused women, both of Wigston, were acquitted by the jury who disregarded the testimony of 25 witnesses.
• 1751 – Leicester Journal newspaper began publication.
• 1760 – Leicesters last recorded accusation of witchcraft. Two elderly ladies of Glenn Magna accused one another of witchcraft and were subjected to the ducking stool, which one passed and the other failed. Other accusations followed. The only court proceedings to arise were fines for rioting as the crime of witchcraft was removed from the statue books.
• 1770 – Daniel Lambert was born in Leicester
• 1771 – Leicester Royal Infirmary opened.
• 1773 – The High Cross in High Street was removed.
• 1785 – The Greencoat School was established with money left by Alderman Gabriel Newton .
• 1792 – Leicester Chronicle newspaper began publication.
• 1794 – The corporation sanctioned several fairs.

19th century

1800s – 1810s

• 1800
  • The City Rooms were opened.
  • Leicester Medical Book Society founded.
• 1801 – Population: 17,005.
• 1804 – The common lands around the ancient city, including South Fields, North Fields, and High Fields, were controversially enclosed.
• 1806 – Racecourse established.
• 1816 – James Towle, notable Luddite, was executed in the city on 20 November. Two more Luddites were executed the following year.
• 1817 – Leicester Savings Bank established.

1820s

• 1821 – Leicester Gas Company was established.
• 1825 – Wharf Street Cricket Ground opened, home to the Leicestershire County Cricket Club.
• 1827 – St George parish church, constructed to serve the new suburb built in South Fields, completed.
• 1828 – The new Leicester Prison opened on Welford Road.

1830s

• 1832 — Leicester and Swannington Railway began operating.
• 1835 – Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society founded.
• 1836
  • Leicester Borough Police Force was established.
  • The Theatre Royal opened in Horsefair Street.
• 1838
  • Union Workhouse built.
  • Holy Trinity Parish Church first constructed.
• 1839 – Christ Church Bow Street, a chapel of ease to St Margaret's, was consecrated by Bishop John Kaye on 28 June.

1840s

• 1840 – The Midland Counties Railway from Derby to Rugby opened, with a station at Campbell Street, Leicester.
• 1845 – Particular Baptist Chapel opened.
• 1849
  • Chamber of Commerce established.
  • Leicester Museum & Art Gallery opened

1850s

• 1851
  • A pumping station was built near the River Soar under the Leicester Sewerage Act.
  • Leicester Secular Society first established, the first Freethought Secular Society in the world.
• 1853
  • Rowe's Circulating Library in business.
  • Leicester gained its first piped water supply
• 1857
  • Hitchin-Leicester railway began operating.
  • Leicester Guardian newspaper began publication.

1860s

• 1861 – Population: 68,056.
• 1862 – Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man", was born in Leicester
• 1863 – The Old Bow Bridge was demolished and replaced with an iron bridge.
• 1864
  • South Leicestershire Railway (Hinckley-Leicester) began operating.
  • Leicester balloon riot
• 1866
  • Leicester's first working men's club opened
  • The Collegiate School for Girls opened.
• 1867
  • Major restoration work to St Martin's Church begun in 1860 was completed; the tower and spire having been dismantled and rebuilt.
  • Leicester Secular Society refounded.
• 1868
  • Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower erected.
  • St Luke's Church on the corner of Humberstone Road and Bell Lane consecrated by William Connor Magee, the Lord Bishop of Peterborough between 1868 and 1891.

1870s

• 1870 – Leicester School of Art founded (ancestor of the Leicester Polytechnic College and today's De Montfort University).
• 1871
  • Population: 95,084.
  • The Free Library opened in Wellington Street.
• 1872
  • Leicester Borough Fire Brigade was established.
  • St Mark's Parish Church, Belgrave consecrated by Bishop Magee.
• 1874
  • Leicester's first horse-drawn tram service began operating, from the Clock Tower to Belgrave.
  • Leicester Mercury newspaper began publication.
  • 16 April – St. Peter's Parish Church, Highfields consecrated by Bishop Magee.
• 1875 – Trams begin operating from the town centre to Victoria Park and Humberstone.
• 1876
  • Leicester Town Hall was built.
  • Leicester Co-operative Hosiery Manufacturing Soc iety organised.
• 1877
  • The Wyggeston Hospital School opened.
  • Skating rink opened in Rutland Street.
  • Leicester Bicycling Club active (approximate date).
  • The Opera House opened in Silver Street.
  • St Saviour's Parish Church consecrated by Bishop Magee.
  • Prebend Street Friends Meeting House opened, and the Leicester Quakers leave the old Blackfriars Northgates Meeting House.
• 1878 – Leicestershire County Cricket Club's new ground at Grace Road opened
• 1878 – Leicestershire Lawn Tennis Club Established
• 1879 – The first municipal swimming baths open in Bath Lane.

1880s

• 1880 – Leicester Tigers Rugby Union Football Club was founded
• 1881
  • Population: 122,351.
  • Leicester Secular Hall built by the Secular Society on Humberstone Gate.
• 1882
  • Victoria Park and Abbey Park open.
  • Holy Cross Priory was established on land between New Walk & Wellington Street. First Roman Catholic church to be consecrated in the city since the reformation & a refoundation for the Blackfriars after the dissolution of St Clement's Priory in 1538.
• 1884 – Leicester Fosse football club formed.
• 1885 – Leicester and Leicestershire Photographic Society founded.
• 1886 – Spinney Hill Park opened.
• 1889
  • Leicester became a County borough per Local Government Act 1888.
  • Leicester Branch of the Socialist League organised.

1890s

• 1890 – Church of the Martyrs on Westcotes Drive was consecrated by Bishop Magee.
• 1891
  • Population: 174,624.
  • Filbert Street stadium opened.
  • Abbey Pumping Station in operation.
  • The Borough of Leicester was greatly enlarged by the Leicester Extension Act, with the addition of Aylestone, Belgrave, Knighton, Newfoundpool and parts of Braunstone, Evington and Humberstone.

• 1892
  • Leicester Tigers moved to their new home at Welford Road Stadium
  • London Road Station replaced Campbell Street Station.
  • Belgrave became part of Leicester
• 1894 – Leicester Fosse joined the Football League.
• 1896
  • Leicester Corporation purchased Gilroes and began laying out a cemetery there.
  • All of the civil parishes within the Borough of Leicester were merged into a single parish.
• 1898 – The Grand Hotel was built in Granby Street.
• 1899
  • British United Shoe Machinery was established in Belgrave Road.
  • Leicester Central railway station opened. (closed 1969)

20th century

1900s

• 1901
  • Population: 211,579.
  • St James the Greater Parish Church was consecrated by Edward Carr Glyn, 25 July.
• 1904 – The conversion of Leicester's horse-drawn trams to electric trams was completed.
• 1905 – Leicester General Hospital opened.
• 1906 – Future Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald was elected as one of the two MPs for Leicester.

1910s

• 1911 — ‘Great Fire of Leicester’ - Church of St. George the Martyr & surrounding factories (today's Cultural Quarter) gutted by fire on 5 October & subsequently rebuilt.
• 1913 – De Montfort Hall opened.
• 1918–1919 – the Spanish Influenza epidemic killed approximately 1600 people in Leicester.
• 1919
  • King George V and Queen Mary made a state visit the city on 10 June.
  • Leicester granted city status in the aftermath of the Royal visit in June. It was seen as a restoration of the historic city status held during Roman times.

1920s

• 1920 – The City Boys School opened.
• 1921
  • Population: 234,000.
  • The University College of Leicester was established.
• 1923 – In the General Election, Winston Churchill was the Liberal candidate in Leicester West and lost.
• 1925
  • Arch of Remembrance on Victoria Park completed. Designed by Edward Lutyens in memory of the sons of Leicester who died in the Great War. Unveiled by two local war widows, Mrs Elizabeth Butler and Mrs Annie Glover, in front of 30,000 people on 4 July.
  • Braunstone Frith was absorbed into the city of Leicester.
• 1927 – The Diocese of Leicester was established and the city's churches were allocated to it instead of the Diocese of Peterborough.
  • St Martin's Church became Leicester Cathedral.
  • Dr. Cyril Bardsley was appointed the first Bishop of Leicester since the year 870.

1930s

• 1932 – The Little Theatre opened in Dover Street.
• 1935
  • Humberstone, Knighton, New Parks and Beaumont Leys were absorbed into the city of Leicester.
  • Oswald Mosley and the Blackshirts (British Union of Fascists) hold several demonstrations in the Market Place and Victoria Park and are heckled by members of the city's labour movement.
• 1936
  • The city boundaries were further extended to include most of Evington
  • Odeon Cinema opened.
  • The Jarrow Marchers arrive in Leicester on Thursday 23 October from Loughborough and continue on the next day to Market Harborough.

1940s

• 1940 – Leicester suffered its worst air raid of World War II on the night of 19 November.
• 1946 – King George VI and Queen Elizabeth made a state visit to Leicester on 30 October. The visit was part of a tour marking the end of World War II.
• 1947 — University of Leicester Botanic Garden opened.

1950s

• 1950 – St Luke's Church Humberstone Road demolished.
• 1955 – New Friends Meeting House opened on Queens Road. Prebend Street Meeting House closes permanently the following year.
• 1958
  • Buddy Holly and the Crickets performed live at De Montfort Hall on 6 March, perhaps the city's first Rock n Roll performance.
  • Queen Elizabeth II visited the city on 9 May, the first of her visited to the city as monarch.
  • Christ Church on Bow Street demolished along with its parish school.

1960s

• 1962 – Jewry Wall Museum built.
• 1963 – The Beatles performed live at De Montfort Hall for the first time.
• 1966
  • St Luke's Church Stocking Farm was consecrated 29 April, a replacement to the lost Humberstone Street St Luke's.
  • The City of Leicester Polytechnic was established.
• 1969 – The Museum of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment opened in the Magazine Gateway.

1970s

• 1970 – University of Leicester's Attenborough Building constructed.
• 1972 – Abbey Pumping Station museum opened.
• 1973
  • Haymarket Shopping Centre in business.
  • Leicester Theatre Trust formed.
• 1974 – Leicester City Council established per Local Government Act 1972.
• 1979 — Leicester Chronicle ceased publication after 187 years.

1980s

• 1980 — Leicester Royal Infirmary extension opened by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on 14 March.
• 1985 – St Margaret's Bus Station re-opened with new buildings.

1990s

• 1992 – The Leicester Polytechnic became De Montfort University.
• 1993 – Queen Elizabeth II visited the city on 9 December.
• 1997
  • Leicester City Council became unitary authority per 1990s UK local government reform.
  • Leicester Bike Park opened.

21st century

2000s

• 2002
  • National Space Centre opened by the Queen on 1 August.
  • Filbert Street Stadium closes after 110 years of serving Leicester City.
  • New Leicester City Stadium opened.
• 2005 — Peepul Arts Centre opened.
• 2007 – Statue of St Margaret of Antioch relocated from Corah Works to the front of St Margaret's Church.
• 2008
  • Leicester Statue of Liberty re-erected at the foot of Upperton Road.
  • Curve theatre opened by the Queen on 4 December.

2010s

• 2011 – Institution of an elected mayor.
• 2012:
  • Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Duchess of Cambridge visit Leicester during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee tour of Britain.
  • The remains of King Richard III were discovered beneath a car park on the site of the former Greyfriars chapel.
• 2015 — Reinterment of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral (26 March).
• 2016 — Leicester City won the 2015–16 Premier League on 2 May as their first league title, having been 5000-to-1 outsiders at the start of the season. Large civic festivities followed and the team subsequently won the BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year Award.

2020s

• 2020–2022 – The COVID-19 pandemic. Between 13 March 2020 and 19 December 2022 the city reported 128,123 cases of the virus and the lives of 1,171 of its citizens were lost to it. The city was one of Britain's worst affected and was subject to an additional hundred days of lockdown.
• 2020 – New St Margaret's Bus Station building completed in November and opened 31 December.
• 2022 – The 2022 Leicester unrest. A notable summer outbreak of ethno-religious tension between members of the city's Hindu and Muslim communities.
• 2024 – Tension between a Far Right protest and an Anti Racist protest around East Gates and the Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower and other instances of unrest, 6 August (part of the 2024 United Kingdom riots).

See also

• History of Leicester
• History of Leicestershire
• Timelines of other cities in East Midlands: Derby, Lincoln, Nottingham

Further reading

Published before the 19th century

• William Harrison (1587). The Description of England. Courier Corporation. ISBN 0-486-28275-9.
• John Nichols (1795). History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester: Volume I, Part I. London: Nichols & Son. p. 407+.
• John Nichols (1815). History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester: Volume I, Part II. London: Nichols & Son.

Published in the 19th century

1800s–1840s

• John Britton (1807), "Leicester", Beauties of England and Wales, vol. 9, London: Vernor, Hood & Sharpe, hdl:2027/mdp.39015063565736
• "Leicester". Commercial Directory for 1818-19-20. Manchester: James Pigot. 1818.
• Susanna Watts (1820). A Walk Through Leicester; Being a Guide to Strangers (2nd ed.). Leicester: T. Combe.
• Robert Watt (1824). "Leicester". Bibliotheca Britannica. Vol. 4. Edinburgh: A. Constable. hdl:2027/mdp.39076005081505. OCLC 961753.
• "Leicester". Pigot & Co.'s National Commercial Directory for 1828-9. London: James Pigot. 26 August 2023.
• John Curtis (1831). "Leicester". Topographical History of the County of Leicester. W. Hextall.
• David Brewster, ed. (1832). "Leicester". Edinburgh Encyclopædia. Vol. 12. Philadelphia: Joseph and Edward Parker. hdl:2027/mdp.39015068380875.
• "Leicester", Leigh's New Pocket Road-Book of England and Wales (7th ed.), London: Leigh and Son, 1839
• John Thomson (1845), "Leicester", New Universal Gazetteer and Geographical Dictionary, London: H.G. Bohn
• James Thompson (1849). History of Leicester. Leicester: J.S. Crossley.

1850s–1890s

• William Napier Reeve (1854), "Our Town; and How it Strikes a Stranger", Leicester New Monthly Magazine, vol. 1, London: Houlston and Stoneman, Eliot Roscoe
  • "Our Town, No. 3: Roman Leicester", Leicester New Monthly Magazine, vol. 1
  • "Our Town, No. 4: Saxon Leicester", Leicester New Monthly Magazine, vol. 1
  • "Our Town, No. 6: Lancastrian Leicester", Leicester New Monthly Magazine, vol. 1
  • "Our Town, No. 7: Yorkist Leicester", Leicester New Monthly Magazine, vol. 1
  • "Our Town, No. 8: Tudor Leicester", Leicester New Monthly Magazine, vol. 1
  • "Our Town, No. 9: Stuart Leicester", Leicester New Monthly Magazine, vol. 1
• "History of the Borough of Leicester". History, Gazetteer, and Directory of the Counties of Leicester and Rutland. Sheffield: William White. 1863.
• Leicester Postal Handbook. Leicester: Ward & Son. 1868–1869.
• James Thompson (1871), The history of Leicester in the eighteenth century, Leicester: Crossley and Clarke, OCLC 6120339
• "Roman Leicester", Transactions of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archaeological Society, vol. 4, Leicester: Samuel Clarke, 1878
• John Parker Anderson (1881), "Leicestershire: Leicester", Book of British Topography: a Classified Catalogue of the Topographical Works in the Library of the British Museum Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, London: W. Satchell
• Hammond's Guide to Leicester and the Abbey park. W.A. Hammond. 1882.
• "Leicester", Handbook for Travellers in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire (3rd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1892, OCLC 2097091
• "Leicester". Official Guide to the Midland Railway. London: Cassell & Company. 1894.
• Charles Gross (1897). "Leicester". Bibliography of British Municipal History. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Spencer's Illustrated Leicester Almanack ... for 1898. Leicester: J. & T. Spencer. 1898.
• Mary Bateson, ed. (1899). Records of the Borough of Leicester: Being a series of Extracts from the Archive of the Corporation of Leicester 1103–1327. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press.

Published in the 20th century

1900s–1940s

• Mary Bateson, ed. (1901). Records of the Borough of Leicester: Being a series of Extracts from the Archive of the Corporation of Leicester 1327–1509. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press.
• G.K. Fortescue, ed. (1902). "Leicester". Subject Index of the Modern Works Added to the Library of the British Museum in the Years 1881–1900. London: The Trustees. hdl:2027/uc1.b5107012.
• J.G. Bartholomew (1904), "Leicester", Survey Gazetteer of the British Isles, London: G. Newnes
• Mary Bateson, ed. (1905). Records of the Borough of Leicester: Being a series of Extracts from the Archive of the Corporation of Leicester 1509–1603. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press.
• Mrs. T. Fielding Johnson (1906), Glimpses of ancient Leicester, in six periods (2nd ed.), Leicester: Clarke and Satchell, OL 25498292M
• "Leicester", Great Britain (7th ed.), Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1910, hdl:2027/mdp.39015010546516
• "Leicester" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). 1910. p. 393.
• Charles James Billson (1920). Medeival Leicester. 46 Cank Street, Leicester: Edgar Backus.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
• "Leicester". England. Blue Guides. London: Macmillan. 1920.
• Helen Stocks, ed. (1923). Records of the Borough of Leicester: Being a series of Extracts from the Archive of the Corporation of Leicester 1603–1688. Vol. 4. Cambridge University Press.
• Colin Ellis (1948). History in Leicester (2nd. (1969) ed.). City of Leicester Publicity Department. SBN 901675 008.

1950s–1990s

• A. Temple Patterson (1954). Radical Leicester: A History of Leicester, 1780–1850. University College London. SBN 7185 1003 8.
• R A McKinley, ed. (1958), "A History of the County of Leicester: The City of Leicester", Victoria County History, London
• A.E. (Tony) Brown, ed. (1970). The Growth of Leicester: A History of the City in 10 Essays (2nd. 1972 ed.). University of Leicester Press. ISBN 0-7185-1100-X.
  • A.E. (Tony) Brown, "Roman Leicester", The Growth of Leicester, pp. 11–18
  • Levi Fox, "Leicester Castle", The Growth of Leicester, pp. 19–26
  • G.H. Martin, "Church Life in Medieval Leicester", The Growth of Leicester, pp. 27–38
  • A.M. Everitt, "Leicester and its Markets: The Seventeenth Centuries", The Growth of Leicester, pp. 39–46
  • G.A. Chinnery, "Eighteenth Century Leicester", The Growth of Leicester, pp. 47–54
  • G.R. Potts, "The Development of the New Walk and King Street Area", The Growth of Leicester, pp. 55–62
  • R.H. Evans, "The Expansion of Leicester in the Nineteenth Century", The Growth of Leicester, pp. 63–70
  • R.H. Evans, "The Local Government of Leicester in the Nineteenth Century", The Growth of Leicester, pp. 71–78
  • G.C Martin, "Twentieth Century Leicester: Garden Suburbs and Council Estates", The Growth of Leicester, pp. 79–86
  • Jack Simmons, "Leicester Past and Present", The Growth of Leicester, pp. 87–92
• Malcolm Elliott (1983). Leicester,a pictorial history (2nd. 1999 ed.). Chichester: Phillimore. ISBN 1-86077-099-1.
• Patrick Clay (1988). Leicester Before the Romans. Leicestershire Museum Publications. ISBN 0-85022-244-3.

Published in the 21st century

• Buckley, Richard; Codd, Mike; Morris, Matthew (2011). Visions of Ancient Leicester. University of Leicester Archeological Services. ISBN 978-0-9560179-7-0.
• Steven Willis (2022), Updated Period Resource Assessment: The East Midlands in the Later Bronze Age and Iron Age

External links

• "Story of Leicester". Leicester City Councils official history website.
• "Leicestershire", Historical Directories, UK: University of Leicester. Includes digitised directories of Leicester, various dates
• "(Leicester)". Discovering Britain: Walks: East Midlands. Royal Geographical Society. c. 2013.
• "(Leicester population of 2019)".