Leicester city is close to the M1 motorway, and is on the Midland Main Line from London St Pancras International to Sheffield, Nottingham and Leeds. High-speed trains operated by East Midlands Trains can reach London in just over an hour. It is also served by rail lines to Birmingham via Nuneaton, and to Cambridge via Peterborough.
Major industries in Leicester today include food processing, hosiery, knitwear, engineering, electronics, printing and plastics.
The city centre is mainly Victorian with some later developments, which have usually been integrated in smoothly. The heart of the city centre is the Clock Tower, which is at the intersection of five routes into the city - High Street, Churchgate, Belgrave Gate, Humberstone Gate, and Gallowtree Gate. Today, the latter two are pedestrianised, and vehicles are restricted on the others, with the High Street currently being pedestrianised.
The clock tower Leicester City Centre is home to the Haymarket and the Shires (soon to be renamed Highcross Leicester) shopping centres, both of which face the Clock Tower. Leicester Market, Europe's largest covered market, is nearby. The historic core of the city lies slightly to the west, and monuments here include the Castle, the Anglican cathedral of St Martin, the medieval churches of St Mary de Castro and St. Nicholas, the Guildhall and the Jewry Wall.
There are a number of major developments on the horizon implemented by the Leicester Regeneration Company including the £60 million Leicester Performing Arts Centre designed by Rafael Viñoly.
The performing arts come up trumps in Leicester at the excellent Phoenix Arts Centre, Newarke Street (tel 0116/255 4854, ), which features a first-rate mix of comedy, music, theatre and dance, whilst doubling up as an independent cinema. The city's main concert hall is De Montfort Hall, on Granville Road (tel 0116/233 3111, ) - adjoining Victoria Park at the end of New Walk.
In 1990, Leicester was designated the UK's first Environment City, and won the European Sustainable City Award in 1996.
Leicester has a large ethnic minority population, mainly from the Indian subcontinent. There are many Hindu mandirs, Sikh gurdwaras and Muslim mosques around the city, mostly converted from existing buildings. The Jain Temple in Leicester is near the city centre (The Jain Centre). The area around Belgrave Road is known as the Golden Mile, and contains many Indian restaurants, jewellery shops, and other shops catering to the large Asian community in the neighbourhood. Many people travel to the area specifically for the restaurants, which serve authentic Indian cuisine. The annual Diwali celebrations are also held here and at the nearby Abbey Park, and are the biggest outside of India. There are also many of Afro-Caribbean descent (mainly from Antigua & Barbuda, Montserrat and Jamaica), the community being centred around Highfields to the south-east of the city centre, and Leicester plays host to the second largest Caribbean Carnival in the UK after Notting Hill.
Leicester is close to the heart of the M1 motorway at Junction 21, this section considered to be the busiest part in the country. The M69 motorway also starts near Leicester, and runs to the M6 Motorway and is contiguous with Coventry's eastern bypass.
East Midlands Airport is near to Castle Donington which is in North West Leicestershire. Served by low-cost international airlines, makes the city easily accessible from other parts of the world providing daily services to many principal European destinations such as Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Amsterdam, internal flights to Edinburgh and Belfast and limited services to trans-continental destinations such as Barbados, Mexico, Sanford and Florida.
Leicester's other local airport is Leicester Airport at Stoughton, Leicestershire, which is more for the benefit of enthusiasts than a transport hub.
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