Leicester U Like

As regular readers will know, I am always happy to sing the praises of London as a top, spanky place to live and the city which has my heart, despite the fact that I live in Glenfield, not by the sea.  Glenfield used to be a charming village.  Now it is a suburb of Leicester, which is joined to the throbbing metropolis by a distinctly unpleasant housing estate called New Parks.  Let’s just say that despite its proximity to the city centre, property in New Parks is always cheap.  You could probably get a three bedroom semi there for round about a hundred grand.  This is never a good sign.

Apart from the Co-op, for which I have developed a strange passion, mainly because of its utter randomness (It has a branch of Dorothy Perkins in the middle of it, and the boy who works on the cigarette counter is a ladyboy type person who used to look like Amy Winehouse, and now looks like early Mark Almond crossed with Pauline Prescott), there is not a lot to recommend Glenfield.  One of the best things that can be said about it, is that it is not New Parks.

Leicester, on the other hand, is actually not too bad at all.  It is a surprising city.  It can seem quite dull, but a little digging around and some patience, can yield some rather lovely results.  I thought I would share some of them with you.  All the places I am talking about here are within minutes walk of each other and in the city centre.  There are some areas further afield which are just as much fun, but I will save those for another day.

The Good Earth Restaurant

This is a vegetarian restaurant tucked down a tiny back alley.  The entrance is just a doorway, and you then go up some absolutely killer steps, but it is worth the effort when you get to the top.  If you have buggies, there is a shop next door, run by the owners of the restaurant, and they will let you park your buggy at the back of their shop, and even guard your shopping for you should you so desire.  It makes it easier than trying to lug it all upstairs with you.

Once you get up there you take your tray to the counter and the staff will explain to you what is available.  The menu changes every day.  It is all freshly cooked, and there is a limited supply. The restaurant opens at 12, and by 2 p.m. you are wasting your time, so you need to be quick off the mark.  I went there for lunch today and had a deliciously creamy pasta bake with pesto and cheese.  There are huge bowls of different salads along the front of the counter and you can fill one of two sizes of plate to go with your main meal.  They do at least two, fresh home made soups a day, which are reasonably priced at £3.25 a bowl with bread. 

You cannot get fizzy pop or alcohol.  There are fruit juices, tea or coffee, or water.  The deserts are mainly cake based and again, all home made.  Today I had a piece of the most calorific, and therefore gorgeous, tiffin.  In the summer they make huge bowls of syllabub with fresh fruit.  I would kill for a portion right now.  It is divine.

I have been going there since I was tiny.  It has been around forever.  My aunt used to work there as a waitress back in the sixties.  It was called The Hungry I then, and was a pancake house, but it was still owned by the same people who own it now, which is great.  The decor has not changed a jot in the nearly forty years I have been going there.  It is hideous, rustic spinning wheels and garden implements mounted on dark, wood panelled walls, and red swirly carpets.  But you don’t go there for the decor, and I find it very comforting.  There are not many things in my life that have stayed the same for as long as I  can remember, but this is one of them.

The lady who reviewed this place on the link I have put in above, said the food is expensive for what it is.  I beg to differ.  Today I had the pasta bake, which was a huge portion and came with a bread roll, a small plate of salad, which was heaped about a foot high, a coffee and a piece of tiffin you could have used as a raft, and it came to £10.20.  I don’t think that’s dear at all, especially when you figure that everything is freshly prepared with good ingredients.  If you do go, they only take cash, so be prepared.  It is definitely worth a visit.

The Market

Leicester market used to have a glowing reputation as one of the best fruit and veg markets in the country.  Nowadays it is a little past its sell by date as rising rents and health and safety palaver rear their ugly heads, but it is still worth a visit if you like your shopping on the lively side.  It is slap bang in the middle of the city centre, and well sign posted from the Clock Tower, which is the geographical epicentre of the shopping area.  It is quite sprawling and roughly divided into different sections.  It is open every day except Sunday, and I love it. 

The fruit and veg stalls are brilliant.  You can get everything from traditional apples and oranges to fruits you’ve never heard off.  There are stalls specialising in Thai cuisine, Afro-Caribbean cuisine and Asian cuisine. There are the most amazing herb and spice stalls, and if you ask nicely some people will let you try before you buy. 

There’s a section that’s like a permanent flea market selling all kinds of random items.  There are some great fabric and needlework stalls.  The man on the fabric stall has bags of offcuts stuffed under his stall which he will sell you really cheaply if you need things for craft projects.  There are clothes, and shoes and hosiery, and books and pet supplies.  It’s endless really, and the stalls change from day to day, so it’s worth going back again and again.

There’s a permanent, indoor section at one end which has a fantastic fish market, and cheese stalls, and a butcher’s.  And you can keep going up all the floors until you get to the top where there is still a greasy spoon where you can have double egg and chips with brown sauce and bread and butter and huge mugs of builders tea.  It’s called Rossis, and I used to go there with my gran a lot when I was a little girl.  I do love  a good, greasy fry up.

The Lanes

Leicester has a faux Brightonesque section which the town planners are now calling the Lanes.  It’s a collection of small shopping streets just off the high street (again, easily signed from the clock tower), which have a lot of the hip, funky, boutique style shops that people like me love.  Silver Street is the main artery of this quarter.  It used to have a fabulous Victorian arcade just at one end.  It went up in galleried floors of Victorian, wrought iron, splendour and was full of budding clothes designers, ceramicists, metal workers etc.  Then the council closed it down.  Bah! Lots of the shops have now relocated, and stayed close by.  You should check out Well Gosh for funky alternative clothing, and some gorgeous bags. They’re doing Moomin bags at the moment which are to die for.  Well Gosh is on the corner of another little arcade, at the other end of which is a great, independent shoe shop called Tin Fish.

Silver Street also boasts a gorgeous Fair Trade shop which has some really wonderful things.  Not just the usual food stuffs, but jewellry and clothing and beautiful toys.  It is on the corner of a posh shopping square called St. Martin’s Square.  There is a glorious clothes shop here called Pollys, which sell lovely items by labels such as Noa Noa and Avoca.  There is also a cracking cook shop called The Original Cookware Company.  They sell all the things a cook’s heart wishes for from the ridiculously expensive but entirely needful Kitchenaid mixers, to edible glitter.  They also do Nigella Lawson and Emma Bridgewater crockery.  The staff are really helpful, and nothing is too much bother.

At the end of Silver Street is another street called Loseby Lane.  Here you will find the wonderful Mrs Bridges’ Tea Room, which is another venerable establishment. My mother took me there for chocolate eclairs after I had to visit the hospital with a broken nose.  Their food is lovely, and the staff are really nice.  The only problem with it is the lack of space. It is a really tiny shop and if you have buggies and children it is not ideal.  There is an upstairs, which is equally tiny.  In summer you can use the square at the back, which is a lovely sun trap and has tables and chairs, but otherwise I recommend going when you are without encumbrances.

Loseby Lane also has a fantastic second hand bookshop run by Help the Aged, which is a treasure trove of finds.  For the more fashion conscious I recommend Mimi & La Vey, who make the most gorgeous burlesque style corset dresses and have some wonderful accessories including shoes to die for.  Next door to them is an exquisite lingerie shop whose name I have forgotten, but which is delicious.

If you like interior design I recommend Harlequin, also on Loseby Lane. I love it there. I  cannot afford any of their furniture, but I want it all. The last thing I nearly cracked and bought was a small occasional table in Japanese cherrywood.  It was exquisite.  On the rest of the street you will find a great health food shop with really helpful staff, some rather lovely jewellers, a fabulous hat shop should you need to go to a wedding and make a splash, a lovely little flower shop, a very tempting children’s clothing boutique called Clafoutis, and the shop Niche which I have blogged about before.

Frog and Mouse

These are my lovely, lovely picture framers.  They also sell pictures, and some sculpture and ceramics, and do a nice line in greetings cards.  The staff are eternally helpful, really welcoming of small children, and full of brilliant ideas if you have no idea what you want doing with something arty but you know you want a frame round it.

Ye Olde Sweete Shoppe

This is great.  It has been here forever and hasn’t changed a bit.  If you want some old fashioned sweets out of a jar, weighed and put in a paper bag, this is the place for you.

Charity Shops

I am a charity shop fanatic.  I can browse all day and I love a good bargain.  Leicester has tonnes of charity shops.  I’m not going to list them all, as there really are oodles of the things, but if you’re into books I recommend the Oxfam shop on Market Street.  It is a regular charity shop at the front, and a treasure trove of books at the back.  My other favourite at the moment is the British Heart Foundation shop on Silver Street, where there is many a good bargain to be had.

Places to Eat

Apart from the Good Earth I would also recommend The Case on Hotel Street.  This is another door with many stairs, but the food is good enough to merit the climb.  The waiting staff are always nice.  The space is gorgeous, stripped back brick, wooden floorboards and the whole warehouse vibe with floor to ceiling windows all the way along one side of the room.  Fresh flowers, crisp linens, good wine.  It’s all good.  If you want a good greasy spoon you will need to find Cafe Rialto in Malcolm Arcade (just off Silver Street).  It’s properly greasy, and like all the other places I have recommended, up a lot of stairs.

Places to Walk

New Walk is one of my favourite places to wander.  It’s right in the middle of the city, and is a charming, pedestrianised road that takes you from one side of the city centre to the other.  It has pretty churches, gorgeous Georgian Houses and the New Walk Museum, which is fairly crap, but houses dinosaurs, decrepit mummy’s, stuffed shrews and an exhaustive collection of German Expressionist painting.  It will take you about twenty minutes to amble from one end to the other and it is a nice thing to do.

Granby Street is the road that takes you from the railway station to the town centre.  It is busy, lined with meh, shops and meh, eateries and fairly blah until you look up.  You need to saunter for this bit.  If you look up and stare at the passing architecture you will see all kinds of gems, including gorgeous 1920’s Valkyrie style stone heads, and Art Nouveau tiling from the facade of the Turkey Cafe.  It’s gorgeous and surprising.

High Cross

High Cross is our new and shiny part of the city.  It is just a fancy shopping centre, but I like shopping and I like fancy, and it works for me.  It has a John Lewis, which is always good.  I highly recommend their haberdashery department to while away the odd hour.  There is also a Wagamamas, a Carluccios and a Yo Sushi.  There is an All Saints and a Reiss and other good, solid shops.  It works. We like it, and their multi storey car park is very forgiving.