Is the City of Leicester a dump?

[Guest]

Most the citys with shit Labour councils have always voted Labour and will always continue to vote Labour as such they will continue to be shit. Even with a 13 years of Labour government nothing got better! at least the Tories look after their own.

 

If only politics was as simple as that!

[ScouseFox]

liverpool is labour (I think) and is great. work that one out.

[Stadt]

liverpool is labour (I think) and is great. work that one out.

Liverpool could be ran by Lamby and Kingfox and you'd think it was great

[ScouseFox]

lmao the reason it's great is cos we don't let people like lamby or kingfox in

[SemperEadem]

Most the citys with shit Labour councils have always voted Labour and will always continue to vote Labour as such they will continue to be shit. Even with a 13 years of Labour government nothing got better! at least the Tories look after their own.

Nothing got better with 13 years of labour?! Are you sure about that?

Oh the Tories look after their own. Well isnt that a lovely social way to look at the country, the rich looking after themselves whilst others suffer but thats ok because they are doing fine.

Edited 15 June 2015 by baker11

[purpleronnie]

Nothing got better with 13 years of labour?! Are you sure about that?

Oh the Tories look after their own. Well isnt that a lovely social way to look at the country, the rich looking after themselves whilst others suffers but that ok because they are doing fine.

Not sure it's worth argueing with someone with such an incredible narrow minded view about politics and society.

[Rincewind]

Thry look after the ones that fund the party.

[rico]

Buses and cars could be barred from Leicester's busy Church Gate

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Buses-cars-barred-Leicester-s-busy-Church-Gate/story-26687690-detail/story.html

[Livid]

Buses and cars could be barred from Leicester's busy Church Gate

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Buses-cars-barred-Leicester-s-busy-Church-Gate/story-26687690-detail/story.html

 

It's already meant to be restricted to Buses, Taxis and Loading only.

 

We came out of the Haymarket car park yesterday (which was an experience in itself arrrrgggghhhh!) and the restriction sign was just being ignored.

 

A bit of CCTV, ANPR and a few fines may get the message across and reduce some of the traffic problems.

 

For what it's worth I think some of Soulsby's ideas are just insane (Green area down Melton Rd, are you mental!!) but the removal of the Belgrave Flyover has improved the look of the area and not really affected the traffic flow. Although I thought Jubilee Square would turn into an area for Wetherspoons regulars to sleep it off in the summer, i've been to the Cathedral and the area around there with the square looks quite impressive.

 

Every city has it's rough areas but generally I think Leicester is on the up.

Edited 15 June 2015 by Livid

[Voll Blau]

What a horrendously written article.

 

 

That's what I thought. Bad even by the pretty awful journalistic standards of the Merc.

 

Er, what exactly is so bad about it?

[Freesolo]

If you wanted to go out to a few nice bars that are not filled with Kids and banging Dance Music in Leicester where would you guys recommend? I'm going for a night out with some friend's all in our 30's and haven't had a night out in Leicester in a long time.

In the past we have been to a Vodka bar think it was called Revolutions? and a few bars on the High Street just further up from the Indoor shopping centre, also a strip club that i have forgotten the name of but was on Belgrave Rd.

[rico]

If you wanted to go out to a few nice bars that are not filled with Kids and banging Dance Music in Leicester where would you guys recommend? I'm going for a night out with some friend's all in our 30's and haven't had a night out in Leicester in a long time.

In the past we have been to a Vodka bar think it was called Revolutions? and a few bars on the High Street just further up from the Indoor shopping centre, also a strip club that i have forgotten the name of but was on Belgrave Rd.

 

Terrace, full of women too

[Voll Blau]

Terrace, full of women too

 

Good luck getting in there as a group of three or more lads though.

 

I'd recommend Parcel Yard or Landsdowne for near the station and Cafe Bruxelles or Rutland & Derby in town.

[midland_red]

What a dispiriting thread...

As if the question of whether Leicester is a dump or not is defined by whether St Matthews or Highfields are. All post industrial cities have their grim parts.

Example 1 - drive into Manchester from the east and you pass through England's nearest equivalent to Detroit

Example 2 - walk along the canal from Sheffield's centre to Meadowhall

ALL post industrial cities have struggled to find new uses for old commercial and industrial buildings, and any occasional visitor to Leicester can see that the centre (which is what counts BTW) is visibly improving, with old buildings gradually being brought back into use

Examples - The Castle, Bishop St Post Office, Turkey Cafe, the old club on Welford Place, Midland Bank on Granby St

And at the same time, several architectural excrescences have been knocked down

Example - the 1970s market hall, Belgrave Flyover, New Walk Centre.

The city centre is visibly cleaner and has the feeling that someone now cares about it. Pedestrianisation has made it much less polluted and nicer

Part of the improvement is that the city now has a mayor with a vision and the ability to force it through. Leicester had long suffered from mediocre council leadership and an overly negative population which seemed to share that lack of civic ambition. (Weirdly reflected in LCFC's identical lack of ambition in the 1960s and 70s BTW)

Example 1 - visit any of the facebook forums on Leicester and you will see endless moans about students and student housing. Higher education is now the city's largest industry. Those sort of comments are like saying that there were were too many engineering factories in Leicester in 1971

Example 2 - citizens are often surprised to learn that Leicester is Britain’s 10th largest city. population (Mid 2013 est) 331,606. That's clearly ahead of Coventry 323,132, Nottingham 308,735, Newcastle 282,442 or Dull 257,204. Some civic ambition is really called for here!

Example 3 - endless moans about bus lanes - debates about public transport were solved 20 years ago in London, and yo ucan see the result

To complain (as a relative did) that Leicester is nothing like as nice as Bath or Chester is to entirely miss the point about such cities to lack the ability to look upwards and marvel at the commitment to architectural standards of the commercial and industrial classes in the early 20th century. That did not just make Leicester an industrial colossus - it gave us a heritage of which we should be proud.

There is of course still a long way to go.....but things are improving from a low point of around 2000

Conculding par from the chapter on Leicester from the best book about Britian's urban areas - Towns in Britian (Adrian Jones) "many people dismiss Leicester as boring - but it is a fascinating place, lively and ambitious and stuffed with interesting buildings. the City does not reveal itself  easily but is worthwhile taking the trouble to explore."

[Jonaldinho]

Er, what exactly is so bad about it?

 

a) The numerous typos (both spelling and punctuation)

b) The way the author has structured it, particularly the way that there's a couple of indirect Soulsby quotes, then has five repetitive direct quotes for him.

 

It's just a really badly written article and looks as if the reporter did it in five minutes.

Edited 15 June 2015 by Jonaldinho

[davieG]

What a dispiriting thread...

As if the question of whether Leicester is a dump or not is defined by whether St Matthews or Highfields are. All post industrial cities have their grim parts.

Example 1 - drive into Manchester from the east and you pass through England's nearest equivalent to Detroit

Example 2 - walk along the canal from Sheffield's centre to Meadowhall

ALL post industrial cities have struggled to find new uses for old commercial and industrial buildings, and any occasional visitor to Leicester can see that the centre (which is what counts BTW) is visibly improving, with old buildings gradually being brought back into use

Examples - The Castle, Bishop St Post Office, Turkey Cafe, the old club on Welford Place, Midland Bank on Granby St

And at the same time, several architectural excrescences have been knocked down

Example - the 1970s market hall, Belgrave Flyover, New Walk Centre.

The city centre is visibly cleaner and has the feeling that someone now cares about it. Pedestrianisation has made it much less polluted and nicer

Part of the improvement is that the city now has a mayor with a vision and the ability to force it through. Leicester had long suffered from mediocre council leadership and an overly negative population which seemed to share that lack of civic ambition. (Weirdly reflected in LCFC's identical lack of ambition in the 1960s and 70s BTW)

Example 1 - visit any of the facebook forums on Leicester and you will see endless moans about students and student housing. Higher education is now the city's largest industry. Those sort of comments are like saying that there were were too many engineering factories in Leicester in 1971

Example 2 - citizens are often surprised to learn that Leicester is Britain’s 10th largest city. population (Mid 2013 est) 331,606. That's clearly ahead of Coventry 323,132, Nottingham 308,735, Newcastle 282,442 or Dull 257,204. Some civic ambition is really called for here!

Example 3 - endless moans about bus lanes - debates about public transport were solved 20 years ago in London, and yo ucan see the result

To complain (as a relative did) that Leicester is nothing like as nice as Bath or Chester is to entirely miss the point about such cities to lack the ability to look upwards and marvel at the commitment to architectural standards of the commercial and industrial classes in the early 20th century. That did not just make Leicester an industrial colossus - it gave us a heritage of which we should be proud.

There is of course still a long way to go.....but things are improving from a low point of around 2000

Conculding par from the chapter on Leicester from the best book about Britian's urban areas - Towns in Britian (Adrian Jones) "many people dismiss Leicester as boring - but it is a fascinating place, lively and ambitious and stuffed with interesting buildings. the City does not reveal itself  easily but is worthwhile taking the trouble to explore."

As I asked the question 10 years ago then yes there have been some improvements but to counter this some good building structures have been pulled down or allowed to decay.

 

Besides my original thoughts were based a lot on the state of the actual city centre and frankly the last time i went it was still awash with litter/chewing gum and cigarette ends.

 

We're no longer a clean city and certainly not the cleanest in Europe an accolade we held when the industry in the city was alive and well. 

[midland_red]

1 'good building knocked down or allowed to decay' - absolutely right. I suspect that the Mayor would not have allowed the Bowstring Bridge to have been knocked down for what it worth, but abandoned factories (Corah's especially) are still at serious risk. The Waterside redevelopment plan is a good one and seems deliverable. I note that Frog Island Mills was sold for £850,000 a few months ago with planning permission for conversion to flats. I suspect the developer is waiting until the badly needed regeneration has really kicked off in this zone

2) 'no longer a clean city'  I had heard this comment  before, and tried to observe it on my last visit a few weeks ago. Littler looks OK to me and certainly no worse than anywhere else. Also there was no noticeable number of beggars or drunks and Town Hall Square seem full of normal people

[Guest Foxin_mad]

Nothing got better with 13 years of labour?! Are you sure about that?

Oh the Tories look after their own. Well isnt that a lovely social way to look at the country, the rich looking after themselves whilst others suffer but thats ok because they are doing fine.

 

Very sure indeed, Labour were a disaster. Handing more powers to the EU, selling the Gold, running a deficit when they should have been building a reserve. They built little worthwhile infrastructure, road an rail still creaking, power generation is at crisis point. They created a culture where people believed they did not have to work, a something for nothing culture, loads of non jobs in the Public sector, overpriced fancy hospitals and schools (with feature glass staircases) when refurbishment would have sufficed. They implemented a crazy tax credits system where they take money with the left hand, get an incredibly incompetent bunch at HRMC to handle it and give it back with the right, instead of lowering national insurance and income tax. The 10p rate was scrapped, red tape for business was increased, business rates increased, corporation tax increased, council tax increased, energy bills tripled, fuel duty escalator, beer duty escalator.

 

Who did Labour actually look after. The Tories look after all of the South East/West and most of Rural Britain, they are elected time after time so must be doing something correct in those areas, Labours view is keep em poor and dependant on us and they shall vote for us as we can blame the fact they are poor on Thatcher again.

 

Not sure it's worth argueing with someone with such an incredible narrow minded view about politics and society.

.

Ok the old lefty chestnut of if you don't agree with me you are narrow minded.........ok pot kettle and all that. People are allowed to think different.

 

I happened to believe in the middle ground. The best way for people to get on in life is to have a job (record numbers of), work hard and get their own things (that is the best way to increase wealth through hard work). I fully believe in a welfare system for those that need it, the NHS and free education for all, would probably have national raid and infrastructure. But...funds are not unlimited efficiencies need to be made, I have worked in the Public sector it is grossly inefficient. All governments make mistakes but we can not keep spending money we don't have. It is also unfair to expect someone to give more than 50% of their wage in tax, what is the point? where is the aspiration? work hard get a well paid job and get taxed 75%? I certainly wouldn't bother.

 

Rich bashing is pointless, they will move elsewhere to whatever country doesn't bash them, the same with corporations. There will always been a Luxembourg, Bermuda etc. Its better to have their businesses, the taxes they do pay, the employment they can create, the money they spend (VAT)(Duty) in the services industry.

[Steve_Walsh5]

If you wanted to go out to a few nice bars that are not filled with Kids and banging Dance Music in Leicester where would you guys recommend? I'm going for a night out with some friend's all in our 30's and haven't had a night out in Leicester in a long time.

In the past we have been to a Vodka bar think it was called Revolutions? and a few bars on the High Street just further up from the Indoor shopping centre, also a strip club that i have forgotten the name of but was on Belgrave Rd.

Go down Braunstone gate. Natterjacks, O bar, Möbius, Sumo. All people around your age, don't get many teenagers down there either.

Then in town you've got Queen of bradgate, Terrace, Hakamou, fat cats (if you can get in) cafè Bruxelles which are all decent.

[Wymsey]

Q of Bradgate is overrated imo.

Only good because of fit waitresses hanging around etc; bit pricey all in all.

[fuchsntf]

Wow that's a massive assumption, part of the reason I think it's a dump is because of the rubbish people drop to the floor we used to have the reputation as the cleanest and second most 4prosperous city in Europe.

ohhhh DavieG, that was a time when you and I were just kids, and man had not yet landed on the moon and Leicester had 3 train stations, and theeee Best covered market in Europe.You know those days when we had to clean our own noses, and

could go as kids alone to the soccer game, taking the short route over cut, and when your dad gave you a clip around the ear,

without us daring to report him to the social.

If I remember right they are now called the 'good ol days'..when you dropped your sandwich on the street, picked it up,

and carried on eating it.Everybody smelt clean on Sundays after their baths, even the uncle who just came from the pub.

Wow that's a massive assumption, part of the reason I think it's a dump is because of the rubbish people drop to the floor we used to have the reputation as the cleanest and second most 4prosperous city in Europe.

ohhhh DavieG, that was a time when you and I were just kids, and man had not yet landed on the moon and Leicester had 3 train stations, and theeee Best covered market in Europe.You know those days when we had to clean our own noses, and

could go as kids alone to the soccer game, taking the short route over cut, and when your dad gave you a clip around the ear,

without us daring to report him to the social.

If I remember right they are now called the 'good ol days'..when you dropped your sandwich on the street, picked it up,

and carried on eating it.Everybody smelt clean on Sundays after their baths, even the uncle who just came from the pub.

Wow that's a massive assumption, part of the reason I think it's a dump is because of the rubbish people drop to the floor we used to have the reputation as the cleanest and second most 4prosperous city in Europe.

ohhhh DavieG, that was a time when you and I were just kids, and man had not yet landed on the moon and Leicester had 3 train stations, and theeee Best covered market in Europe.You know those days when we had to clean our own noses, and

could go as kids alone to the soccer game, taking the short route over cut, and when your dad gave you a clip around the ear,

without us daring to report him to the social.

If I remember right they are now called the 'good ol days'..when you dropped your sandwich on the street, picked it up,

and carried on eating it.Everybody smelt clean on Sundays after their baths, even the uncle who just came from the pub.

Wow that's a massive assumption, part of the reason I think it's a dump is because of the rubbish people drop to the floor we used to have the reputation as the cleanest and second most 4prosperous city in Europe.

ohhhh DavieG, that was a time when you and I were just kids, and man had not yet landed on the moon and Leicester had 3 train stations, and theeee Best covered market in Europe.You know those days when we had to clean our own noses, and

could go as kids alone to the soccer game, taking the short route over cut, and when your dad gave you a clip around the ear,

without us daring to report him to the social.

If I remember right they are now called the 'good ol days'..when you dropped your sandwich on the street, picked it up,

and carried on eating it.Everybody smelt clean on Sundays after their baths, even the uncle who just came from the pub.

[fuchsntf]

Wow that's a massive assumption, part of the reason I think it's a dump is because of the rubbish people drop to the floor we used to have the reputation as the cleanest and second most 4prosperous city in Europe.

ohhhh DavieG, that was a time when you and I were just kids, and man had not yet landed on the moon and Leicester had 3 train stations, and theeee Best covered market in Europe.You know those days when we had to clean our own noses, and

could go as kids alone to the soccer game, taking the short route over cut, and when your dad gave you a clip around the ear,

without us daring to report him to the social.

If I remember right they are now called the 'good ol days'..when you dropped your sandwich on the street, picked it up,

and carried on eating it.Everybody smelt clean on Sundays after their baths, even the uncle who just came from the pub.

[Webbo]

I remember a time when you could post something on here and it only came out once.

[fuchsntf]

I remember a time when you could post something on here and it only came out once.

yup, it kept blinking, I kept blinking, I only hit post once but....

[DennisNedry]

I know it's an unfair comparison, but I visited the center of Cambridge today, and it's places like this that really make you realise how shit Leicester is.

 

More impressive architecture, no empty outlets, cleaner, more attractive women (this is fact), doesn't seem to be racial ghettos, no tramps, better laid out for buses and cyclists. But the weirdest thing is that everybody seemed to be smiling. Leicester is full of right miserable bastards.