Views of Leicester

I popped up to Leicester to lecture at the business school there after having been invited by my friend Professor Bernardo Batiz-Lazo. Anyway, took some quick pics with the iphone.

That’s a serious number of languages to use to welcome you. I didnt realise it was such a cosmopolitan area, lol. German, Spanish, English, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi…..

Now if they advertise like this…bus journeys will improve dramatically. Note that its funded by the European Commission. What a tit.

The Hind. A pub. A bit run down. With branches growing from the top of the roof. Generally run down. Very sad.

Veja and Co Solicitors

They really dont want you to park there, going OTT on the no parking signs?

Robert Hall. A great orator and sermoniser.

 

Now come a series of photographs of a building which was quite interesting. It was at the corner.

 

Next to it is a smaller house with a rather interesting decoration in the front.

 

On the other side of the street. Its quite imposing, using some very interesting architectural features and materials.

The city is a lovely city, havent travelled much around it. Here are the previous 3 essays on Leicester. But one day, I will spend a bit more time here.

Photo Essay: Thomas Cook in Leicester

Thomas Cook is one of those ubiquitous names that you hear whenever somebody is trying to book a holiday or is on a holiday. It is a pretty famous name, but I never got the chance to explore the background of this gentleman.  Thomas Cook was the first person who arranged for publicly advertised and brokerage charged tourist excursions. From the time he started, back in 1841, to take a group of temperance campaigners from Leicester Station to Loughborough, 11 miles away to his company today which girdles the globe, his name is always associated with tourism. Pretty big man, eh?

There is a statue of him in front of the Leicester train station.


A plaque on the base showing his life span, 1808 to 1892.

 
Two plaques, the one on the left showing open topped railway carriages taking the first trip to Loughborough and on the right, a typical Nile river scene with a felucca and date palms. The Egyptian trip was a big sales idea for Thomas Cook.


The final plaque showing how the statue was commissioned by the Leicester City Council in the 19th century.


Another view of the statue, this time with his luggage, this angle shows him more as a traveller than the first one.

 
Although the original train station of Campbell Street Station has been torn down, this is a newer one, (which was built in 1892)  still has some wonderful period characters such as the Arrivals and Departures arches. Fascinating exercise! I stood there like a bit of an idiot observing the statue. The man had courage of his convictions to launch such a wonderful idea which so many people down the decades have used. Hats off to you, mate.

Full slide show with higher resolutions here.

Photos: Buildings in Leicester

Went to deliver a lecture at Leicester few days back and took some pictures of buildings in there. Thankfully, it wasn't raining and even though it was the evening, good sunlight was present. Full slideshow with bigger resolution is here.

A fascinating coloured building. You would rarely see this colour on a building and then the coloured window frames?

This rather weather beaten and tearing sign isn't a good advertisement for luxury apartments now, is it?

A train playing hide and seek at the Leicester Station. The brightly coloured train made an interesting counterpoint to the grimy brick walls.

A fascinating building in the University of Leicester. Lovely windows. Almost like a Lego tower building.

One of the buildings at the University. Nice angles.





A church on the New Way Road.

Photos: Daffodils in Leicester

At Leicester, spring is in the air and the Daffodils are all perking up and out. Full slide show here.

Both yellow and blue daffodils. Reminds me of the Wordsworth poem,

"Daffodils" (1804)

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

And by thursday, I will be in wordsworth territory in Lake District :)