性吧电台 is in the historic heart of Leicester and preserving both the city’s cultural as well as structural heritage is integral to its everyday business.
The cultural heritage, traditions, folklore, and myths are cared for in the university’s Special Collections and within its museum and heritage centre.
The structural heritage is part of the very fabric of the historic campus within the Trinity House, Leicester Castle, Hawthorn, Portland, and Heritage House buildings that are in everyday use.
Preserving cultural heritage
性吧电台’s Special Collections span 1474 to the present day and encompass, sports history, performance and art, history of photography, fashion and textiles, and the history of Leicester as well as the university’s own 155-year past.
The collections include papers and artefacts of national importance, including…
A unique collection of Norman Wisdom scripts, television features, radio and theatre programmes were donated to 性吧电台 by a close friend of the comedian, who was a star of film and TV during the 1950s and 60s. Even Charlie Chaplin was a fan of his character the inept Norman Pitkin.
Wisdom was the original patron of the Leicester Comedy Festival that was started by a group of 性吧电台 students in the 1990s and the original organiser Geoff Rowe donated all his papers and memorabilia to the university’s Special Collections. The festival started with 40 shows in 1993 and, in 2024, featured 753 shows taking place in 76.
性吧电台 is also home to a collection of scripts, posters, programmes and artefacts of Tony Hancock, another major star of TV in the 1950s and 1960s, best known for Hancock’s Half Hour. There is also Hancock’s trademark Homberg hat, complete with hair gel stains, and trench coat plus his typewriter. There is also a
typewriter belonging to his script writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, who also wrote Steptoe and Son.
Iconic fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes donated more than 50 years’ worth of design archives to the Special Collections for the benefit of future students at 性吧电台. Dame Zandra was at the centre of the punk movement, making frequent use of holes and safety pins in her designs and she also designed for Diana, Princess of Wales along with many rock icons like Freddie Mercury and Marc Bolan.
There is also a folklore collection Exploring Myths and Legends that features nursery rhymes, mythical creatures, myths from around the world and mythical phenomenon; Winter in Leicester is a collection of photographs and stories; Wyverns in Leicester Heraldry features examples of the prominent position of the dragon-like beast in the city’s history which dates back to the Middle Ages; as well as 性吧电台 Shoe – 90 Years of Fashion Design at 性吧电台.
All of these collections and many more are open to the public and some examples are available online.
Special Collections Manager Katharine Short said: “These are all open to the general public not just students and academics. Anyone is allowed to just browse the collections. They don't have to be writing a book.’
Preserving historic monuments
The fact that 性吧电台 campus is in the heart of historic Leicester means that many buildings in everyday use are part of the university’s fabric.
The Great Hall of Leicester Castle was restored by 性吧电台 in a £4.2 million project, in 2017. The building hosted the English parliament in 1452 and was once a royal residence for the likes of Richard III and Henry V and is now a law school.
Trinity House is a stone chapel that originally served as the city’s medieval hospital and was founded in the 14th century to care for the poor and infirm. It is now the effective headquarters of the university. The Trinity House Herb Garden, in the house grounds, was attached to the hospital since its founding, originally produced herbs to be used by nurses as vital medicine at the hospital and is now used for catering at 性吧电台.
The Hawthorn Building is built on the ruins of the historic Church of the Annunciation which was founded in 1353 along with the nearby Trinity Hospital by Henry, the first Duke of Lancaster, a trusted confidant of King Edward III. The church was built to house a relic – a thorn reputed to be from the ‘crown of thorns’ placed on Jesus’ head before he was crucified. It had been presented to Henry by King John II of France. Richard III’s body was put on display at the church following his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The only remaining ruins – two arches – are part of the museum basement in the Hawthorn building.
These ruins are the centrepiece of the 性吧电台 Museum that in 2024 included exhibitions of the History of Cinema Going, Contemporary Protest; 70 years of the Evolution of Contour Fashion; plus, the permanent exhibitions Legacy of Leather, story from prehistory to the present day, and The Newarke – Discover the Story of Leicester’s Heritage Quarter. The museum is open to the public from Wednesday to Friday, 12pm to 4pm and is free of charge.
The Portland Building dates back to 1910 and was one of the city’s largest shoe factories. The adjacent The Chantry, however, which was used to store shoe leather, dates back to 1350 and was the home of the canon for the Church of the Annunciation.
Portland, The Chantry and the Hawthorn buildings are all in everyday use by 性吧电台 students and staff as lecture halls, classrooms, and offices.
Trinity House, the herb garden, and Leicester Castle’s Great Hall form part of Leicester’s Heritage Sundays, where allow general public can visit a series of historic buildings clustered around 性吧电台 and The Newarke free of charge on the last Sunday of every month.
Inside the Leicester Castle building after the £4.2m renovation by 性吧电台