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Haymarket and St Georges Orthodox Church

Difficulty Easy Access

Walking time 40 minutes

Length 2.4km / 1.5mi

Route developer: John Alton

Route checker: Philip Cheesewright

Start location Matrix House, Leicester
Route Summary A short circular walk to some of the main shopping areas of Leicester city centre. It also passes through some of the cultural quarter and returns via the historic St Georges Church.
*move mouse over graph to see points on route
Getting there

The walk starts close by Leicester railway station.  It is a 5 minute walk from the city's bus stations and there is plenty of city centre parking.

Description

This inner city walk has a number of busy roads, please take care when crossing these and use pedestrian crossings where possible.

[1]  From the centre car park turn left down Constitution Hill. At the lights cross the dual carriageway (St Georges Way) and continue forward on Queen Street.

[2]  Cross St Georges Street  then at the end turn left at The Curve and bear right onto Halford Street. Continue, crossing Yeoman Street to the junction with Charles Street.

[3]  Turn right and walk along Charles Street.

[4]  Turn next left onto Humberstone Gate.  Continue forward past the Haymarket Centre to the clock tower. Continue along East Gate which shortly afterwards becomes High Street .

(A)  The Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower was built in 1868 as a memorial to local benefactors Simon De Montfort, William Wyggeston, Sir Thomas White and Alderman Gabriel Newton whose statues sit one in each corner.

[5]  Turn left, opposite KFC, and walk through Royal Arcade.  Turn right at the end and then immediately left into the St Martin Square arcade and walk through this part of The Lanes Shopping Area  to emerge through an archway. Go straight ahead down Hotel Street. 

[6]  Turn second left at the Leicester Seamstress onto Market Place South.  Pass the indoor market on the left and keep to the right down Market Place South and through Market Place Approach. This brings you to a small open square with stone benches just by the Leicester Tourist Office. Cross this and continue down Halford Street, crossing Charles Street and Yeoman Street.

(B)  The Leicester Seamstress commemorates an 18th century worker in the important hosiery trade.  The statue was sculpted by James Walter Butler and installed in 1990.

[7]  Where the street bends right by the Curve turn right over Orton Square to enter the grounds of St Georges Orthodox Church.  Continue round with the church to your left to reach St George Street.

(C)  St Georges Church was built of local sandstone in 1827,  This Anglican church  was built following the  Church Building Act of 1818 which aimed to erect churches in places of need and was the first to be built in the city since the medieval period.  In the early 1970s the church closed for Anglican worship and subsequently transferred to the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1983.   There are 70,000 ethnic Serbs living in the UK with a sizeable population in Leicester.

[8]  Turn left and continue past the Leicester Mercury offices then go right into Queen Street and cross St Georges Way to return to the start.

POI information No details available.
Notes No details available.
Acknowledgements No details available.
  • The Clock Tower
    The Clock Tower
    By - John Alton
  • The Leicester Seamstress
    The Leicester Seamstress
    By - John Alton
  • St Georges Orthodox Church
    St Georges Orthodox Church
    By - John Alton
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