Work starts on 2.5m redevelopment project in Leicester

  • 2013-11-21
A multi-million pound project has been launched in Leicester to transform the city’s Cathedral Quarter.

The area, newly-developed and combined with a number of neighbouring sites, is expected to become a space for outdoor events capable of seating up to 800 individuals.

Analysts believe the project will be finished at some point next spring; work is already underway on Jubilee Square, which is located nearby.

According to the BBC, the city’s mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, called the Cathedral Gardens work “exciting and important” and said he looks forward to seeing the project develop in the months to come.

The first phase involves clearing the terraces near the front of the cathedral. More than 100 memorial headstones will be taken away for restoration. While half of them will be put back in the new garden site, the rest will be placed in the cemetery near Welford Road.

The services of professional printers allow councils and historical societies to effectively publicise details of restoration projects. Poster printing in Leicester is particularly popular.

A King Richard III statue, currently based in Castle Gardens, will be relocated to a spot outside a modern visitor centre, opposite the cathedral.

The 15th Century monarch – whose skeleton was discovered in 2012, buried beneath what was once the choir building of a Leicester church – made the news recently, as a painting of his famous last stand at the Battle of Bosworth went on display at the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery.