Back In Leicester Again Part 4 — Night Photos
On previous visits back to Leicester I’ve done all the walking around and taking photos during the day. It was always my plan on this trip to take the opportunity of flying solo to do a loop and take phots of some of the most historic and interesting sights in the city at night. Having been dropped off at St Margaret’s bus station after the cricket and just before 11pm, it gave me a good chance to do just that, and a reasonable place to start.
I started with St Margaret’s church, one of the five medieval churches still standing in the city centre, and the only one of those five which stood outside the original city walls.
From there I headed up Church Gate. Langton’s wasn’t on my mental list of places to take a night photo of, but the art deco stylings do draw the eye.
How much has the night life of Church Gate changed since I lived here? The place would have been buzzing with all the pubs and clubs along here back then, but now there is one bar open, and that looks almost empty.
I come out into East Gates and see another non-mental list place to take a photo of. The old Irish Menswear building.
There is a buzz in East Gates and near the Clock Tower, but it isn’t revellers. No it is the throngs of Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eats delivery bikers and their electric bikes. Amongst all their chatter I get three quick shots. The Clock Tower,
Lewis’s Tower
And the tri-sports statue.
Before heading up Gallowtree Gate, at the other end of which another posse of food deliverers congregate. I get two more shots here, the first of which is through to the now demolished market with the wrought iron arch sign in the foreground and the Corn Exchange beyond. This comes out better than expected as my eyes weren’t picking up the lettering on the market sign. The camera does bring in a lot of light to help, but it can bring in too much and it affects the auto focus and makes some of the shots a bit fuzzy, something I can’t see on the small display and don’t notice until later once they are downloaded to my laptop.
The other is of the grand NatWest building on the corner of Granby Street.
I cross over the road to go up Granby Street and as I do two delivery cyclists have a coming together down the cycle lane on the other side of the road. They don’t give each other enough room. There is a tangle of handlebars, and both go to ground in a heap. Some other food couriers go to help them up. Someone would have been getting their food a bit more mixed up than planned. And doormen stood watching and laughing.
I get the Turkey Café all lit up.
Before one of the Grand Hotel.
After which I turned around and headed back towards the Town Hall Square where there were a few photos in quick succession. The Wesleyan chapel.
The fountain
The Town Hall clock
And the front of the Town Hall itself.
Next up was another set of places in quick succession in an area which was almost deserted.
The Belvoir Street chapel (or pork pie chapel as I’ve always known it)
The old Fenwick’s building
The corner building at the King Street / Wellington Street split,
The Phoenix Assurance building
And John Biggs’ statue.
I turn and walk down Pocklington’s Walk, and find the busiest place of the evening. The pavement outside Duffy’s is packed with smokers. I find the room to squeeze past without getting taken out by a food delivery, and head around to Hotel Street and the Assembly Rooms.
And the Saracen’s Head (yes, I know it’s not called that anymore, but I don’t care) opposite it.
From there it is down to the corner of St Martin’s and the former NatWest building on the corner.
There are people out here, but it still doesn’t feel busy. I avoid the barriers protecting all the road works, and continue to the next statue, Richard III.
I tried to get the Cathedral, trying to get the best angle, but there is still work going on there as well.
And next to the Cathedral is the Guildhall.
In Jubilee Square I have another idea for a place that wasn’t on my original mental list, and here is the now empty Alfred Lenton shop.
Back across the square is Wygston’s House, somewhat blurry, and I’m sure some of the people sat outside were there when we were eight hours before.
I continue towards the main De Montfort University campus. There are a whole run of buildings there, very close together that I wanted night photos of.
The Magazine Gateway
The Newarke Houses
The Hawthorn Building
Trinity Hospital
Turret Gateway
St Mary de Castro (how I wished I had a decent camera to get a picture of the old spire all lit up at night less than twenty years ago.)
The Castle Hall
And Castle House
From both sides.
Once through that gateway I could see my hotel, but I had a few more places I wanted to get photos of. So instead of crossing straight over, I went down towards the West Bridge to cross over and head along Bath Lane. I hadn’t walked along there since back in the nineties. Although the walks along there then had used to be nocturnal as well, just a few hours later than the one now. It was usual for people to crash at my house on Western Road after nights out in either the Fan Club or Alcatraz. Only me, being a big child would often disappear on the way home as I’d detour down St Margaret’s Way and Sanvey Gate, or Highcross Street, and then along All Saints Road and Bath Lane to then ‘surprise’ those going back to mine by jumping out at them from a surprise location in front of them having ran / staggered around to get in front of them. Sometimes I might have gone the longer route and gone down Soar Lane, over the canal and river and out onto Tudor Road instead.
Anyway it would be an understatement to say Bath Lane has changed since then. Lots of apartment blocks on either side of the road, and once on All Saints Road, houses. The industrial landscape almost all now cleared out. It’s not a bad location for easy access to the city centre. All Saints Road has a whole lot of Bring The Paint street art along it, and there is some fantastic work there. The walk around to the next location of All Saints Church is a lot longer than I remember from doing the reverse journey when under the influence.
I take a photo and turn around and back up Great Central Street and past the former Leicester Central Station which has been renovated and now houses Lane 7.
Back onto Vaughan Way and nearly back to the hotel there are two more photos to take. Shaftesbury House.
And the final one of the five city centre medieval churches — St Nicholas.
I did try to get one of the Jewry Wall, but the fencing all around the site is too high and there is no light shining in that space at all to be able to differentiate it from the background.
It took me just over an hour to do that loop. The plan is to do a simplified version of the loop to get the same places early on Sunday morning in the daylight to have them all as black and white photos.
All the other pieces relating to my 2024 Leicester trip are in this library.
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