[1] With your back to the Town Hall, facing the fountain, turn right to join Bishop Street. Turn right onto Bishop Street and then left at the end on to Bowling Green Street. As you reach Fenwick's Department Store cross Welford Place using the pedestrian crossing and turn right.
[2] Walk along Welford Place and left into King Street, though not the immediate left which is Wellington Street. Continue along and just before the bollards, turn left on to the pedestrianised New Walk.
(A) New Walk was originally known as Queen's Walk and was laid out in 1785 on the line of the Roman Road, the Via Devana (which ran from Leicester to Colchester) as a pleasant promenade. It later provided a pedestrian way from the town to the racecourse opened on Victoria Park in 1806.
[3] Heading up new walk, pause at the Church and Priory on the left.
(B) The wool manufacturer Richard Raby purchased land on this site in 1816 (at that time, it was still open countryside) to build a Catholic church. The church was built in 1819 and a presbytery was added in 1824. The parish took the name of Holy Cross. By 1929 the church proved too small for its congregation and so a foundation stone for a larger church was laid in that year and the church finally completed and consecrated in 1958.
(C) Blackfriars Priory houses the order of Dominican Friars. In England and other countries the Dominican friars are known as Black Friars because of the black cloak they wear over their white habits.They first came to Leicester in 1247 and were then given the church of St Clement (since demolished) which stood in the area off Great Central Street, where the remains of the old railway station now stand). The friars fled from England during the Dissolution of the Monasteries / Protestant Reformation. The first to return came from the Spanish Netherlands. In 1817, Friar Benedict Caestryck came from Ypres in Flanders to oversee the building plans for the Catholic church of Holy Cross in Leicester.
[4] Carry on walking up New Walk and pause opposite the Museum. On your left and set back from the walkway you will see a row of four attractive white Regency houses with elaborate black wrought iron balconies.
(D) Judges and barristers lodgings. These houses (dating from 1825-28) are used to accommodate representatives of the legal profession during their attendance at Leicester Crown Court, which is situated directly behind them. These were part of a larger terrace of houses stretching to Waterloo Street. Some of the houses were demolished in 1973 to make way for Waterloo Way.
(E) New Walk Museum was designed by Joseph Hansom, who gave his name to the Hansom cab and also designed the semi-circular Baptist chapel (known as the pork pie chapel) on Belvoir Street, Leicester. It was built as a school for the sons of nonconformists and served this purpose for thirteen years before being purchased by the Corporation and established as a museum in 1849.
On the forecourt of the museum are two interesting features. The Butterfly Pavement was laid in 2003. The artist Linda Schawb was inspired by the New Walk Museum collection of butterflies and also by Henry Walter Bates, a peer of Charles Darwin and the explorer who collected many of them. Several of the glass blocks were chosen and drawn by the public. To the left are two large contemporary seats entitled 'Emergence' (2004). Artist Graeme Mitcheson drew inspiration from organic forms seen in the existing Victorian railings located along New Walk. The seats are carved out of black limestone from Kilkenny, one of Leicester's friendship towns.
[5] Cross the road bridge over Waterloo Way and continue up New Walk. On the corner of DeMontfort Street is The Belmont Hotel. Turn right here towards the statue in the park on your right.
(F) The Belmont Hotel was originally built by William Russell between 1862 and 1865 as a girls' boarding school. It was then used for a number of purposes before being purchased by Rachel Bowie in 1934, since when it has been used as a hotel. On the side of the hotel is a blue plaque that marks the home, 18 Belmont Villas, of the architect and designer Ernest Gimson, described as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". He lived here during the 1870's and was visited by William Morris, founder of The Arts and Crafts movement on a number of occasions. There is now a permanent exhibition dedicated to the work of this movement in the New Walk Museum.
(G) St Stephens United Reform Church began life as St Stephens Presbytarian Church and stood on a site near the London Road railway station where the residential tower block is now. This was a very busy and noisy location, so when plans for the area were proposed, it was decided to move the church. In 1893 it was carefully taken apart and moved stone by stone to its present location.
(H) Robert Hall ( 1764-1831) was a Baptist minister remembered for his scholarship and oratory. He served as a minister in several Leicester parishes during the first two decades of the nineteenth century and there is a church named after him on Narborough Road Leicester.
[6] Enter the park, walking past the statue, cross De Montfort Square and return onto New Walk, walking back towards New Walk Museum.
(I) 'The Clicker' by the Loughborough based sculptor John Atkins celebrates the contribution of the footwear industry to the growth and prosperity of the city and county of Leicester. The clicker was a skilled worker who cut the upper parts of the shoe from the leather, using a hand knife. The name derives from the clicking sound made by the knife on the cutting block and the statue uses the shapes of the leather with which any clicker would have been familiar.
[7] Pass the New Walk Museum and continue walking down New Walk.
(J) At the end of a long row of Georgian Houses stands the site of the original Leicester Nightshelter for the homeless and rough sleepers. at 7-11 New Walk. The inside of the building was not ideal for this use however, and so it was closed in the early 2000's and replaced by the purpose built Dawn Centre on Conduit Street in March 2006.
Retrace our original route along King Street, Bowling Green Street and Bishop Street and return to Town Hall Square.