Look Up Leicester
Foreword According to the most recent (2015) Good Growth for Cities Index ranking, Leicester is the ninth best city to live in, and to quote: “ahead of any its rivals in the Midlands”, but you wouldn’t think it by speaking to the residents in Leicester where we tend to be slightly self-deprecating. Look Up Leicester is a young people’s project that builds on a strand of previous Focus projects such as our ‘Year of the Leicestival’ project back in 2013, that aims to challenge the commonly held point that Leicester is not a city to be proud of and lead to a fuller appreciation for what is really great about the city instead. From the start of the project, Look Up Leicester has ascertained that the way to get Leicester residents to have an increased pride in their city is through our Youth Action Team gathering people’s stories of historic buildings in Leicester that mean something to them. We have never intended Look Up Leicester to be solely an architectural lesson, despite Leicester having quite the collection of architecturally fantastic buildings. It is people’s stories in relation to buildings that we’re interested in and collecting, with the aim of passing our message on and inspiring others to ‘big up’ Leicester in the process too. Look Up Leicester has enabled a diverse group of young volunteers to develop, plan and lead a project that looks into other young people’s stories and Leicester residents’ stories around the following themes: • Landmarks – buildings that you see and think are uniquely ‘Leicester’ • Above the shop-fronts – this has been an important feature of our project as looking above Leicester shop-fronts is what marks our city out as different to all the rest
2
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
• Places that put Leicester on the map – this city is quite under-rated by its residents but there is so much that it has achieved and certain buildings are tangible evidence of this • Hidden Gems – great buildings that people end up going past without looking twice, because they aren’t quite obvious • Buildings we just like – anything that just catches our eye and places that mean something to the young people that have worked on this project It made sense to kick-start our project by looking into the Clock Tower – an iconic Leicester landmark and a focal meeting point for all people meeting up in the city centre, whether they live in Leicester or are travelling from elsewhere in the country. From this point on, the year-long journey of the 25 young people who have taken part has given them a greater appreciation about what is great about our city, especially with Leicester receiving a fascinating amount of attention on both national and international levels with the discovery of the remains of King Richard III and the very recent Leicester City Premier League win. This booklet represents the awe-inspiring journey young people undertook, getting involved in local heritage and developing their skills in the area as they changed their perceptions and came to the conclusion that, ‘Actually, Leicester – it’s not s**t’. Leicester really has got a lot to shout about and our project has been about socially connecting a group of young people to the place they live and feel proud of their heritage and diversity to enable them to understand how and why they can really shout about Leicester as their great city.
Contents Foreword
2
A message from our Youth Action Team
4
Above the shop front
5
Landmarks
16
Hidden Gems
25
Places that put Leicester on the map
29
Buildings we just like
34
Building locations
38
Promoting the project
39
Acknowledgements
41
Thank you to our Youth Action Team
42
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
3
A message from our Youth Action Team
W
e’re members of Focus’ Youth Action Team (YAT) and we want to share the message of our volunteering journey on Look Up Leicester (LUL). As the YAT, we have set out to change people’s views about Leicester and make people see Leicester in a different way – a positive way. At first, we had to notice that there really are great buildings in Leicester ourselves. So we started off by finding out about the stories around a building that put Leicester on the map: the King Richard III Visitor Centre, with the help of Look Up Leicester project partners RIBA – the Royal Institute of British Architects, and so this is how we got one of the themes of the project. A more general theme of Look Up Leicester is above the shop-fronts. A year ago, before the project started, as a group on the whole, we didn’t really look ‘above’ the shop-fronts in the high street – we know where the Highcross is, the Haymarket Shopping Centre, the High Street with HMV and KFC and where all the big brands of shops are. The idea of looking ‘up’ and ‘above’ all these places became stronger on the guided walk we went on with the Leicester Civic Society – another project partner. We didn’t just glance and walk away like normal; we actually registered the interesting signage and statues above these shop-fronts and learned about
4
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
the hidden stories about these features. Like, did you know that the reason the shops on the high street have lots of 2nd floor display windows is because Leicester used to have trams, traffic often got really busy and they came to a stop so passengers were able to keep busy by looking at the shop window advertisements. The next step after changing our views was to change other people’s views about Leicester and pass our message on, so we took part in interview training workshops led by a man called Colin Hyde (who, by the way, is really passionate about weird creatures and statues on buildings in Leicester) from the East Midlands Oral History Archive. You will see some of the places and people we found to get some stories. These stories reflect what people think of Leicester’s architecture and buildings that just mean something special to them as you go through the booklet or visit our website (www.lookupleicester.org.uk). As our project draws to a close, we realised we actually do care about something that actually doesn’t suck – our city, Leicester. We hope you enjoy reading about our project as much as we loved volunteering on it.
Youth Action Team
Above the shop Front
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
5
6
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
One of the main reasons for how Look Up Leicester came about is the idea that people fail to look above the shop-fronts on any high street in a city, and everything looks the same everywhere we go. This means we don’t get to acknowledge features above a high street shop façade that are unique to Leicester as a city and compounds the sense that there’s nothing special about Leicester. But, of course, Look Up Leicester is about challenging exactly that view point and so our Youth Action Team hit the city centre high streets on a photography trail to do just that.
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
7
HSBC Bank is the former Burton’s Tailor’s clothing store, situated on Gallowtree Gate. The company founder, Sir Montague Burton preferred an Art Deco architectural style for his stores.
Did you know? Montague Burton was a key supplier of demobilisation suits, which consisted of a shirt, waistcoat, jacket, underwear and trousers and so it’s widely speculated that this is where the phrase “the full monty” comes from.
8
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
9
Did you know? The statue where our Youth Action Team are pictured is known as the ‘Sporting Success’ statue, which was built to showcase and commemorate the success of Leicester’s cricket, football & rugby team during the years of 1996-1997. Our cricket team won the Britannic Assurance Country Championships; Leicester City won the Coca Cola Cup and the Leicester Tigers won the Pilkington Cup. Two decades later, Leicester City have only just gone and won the 2016 Premier League when we had starting odds of 5000/1! We found this is tangible evidence of ‘Sporting Success’ indeed, and so our Youth Action Team couldn’t resist a photo with this statue.
10
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
This photo of Irish is a perfect example of one of the stores that was designed to have multiple windows for 2nd floor store displays, which goes back to when Leicester used to run traditional trams on these High Streets, going through the junction towards the Clock Tower.
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
11
Keep an eye out for these fantastic murals depicting transport during Thomas Cooks lifetime.
Did you know? You might have heard of Thomas Cook as a long-established and well-reputed travel company & used them to book your holidays, but did you know that the founder of the company, Thomas Cook, is also known as the world’s first travel agent? And he had his HQ right here in Leicester, above the Footlocker, with panel adverts on the building marking his achievements in the travel industry. What’s more is that the first packaged holiday was from Leicester to Loughborough.
12
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
Did you know? The Grand Hotel in Leicester is situated in the City Centre, near the corner of Granby Street and Belvoir Street. The Grand Hotel was built in the late 19th century, and the delightful extension on the corner, including the "wedding cake" top, was added by Amos Hall, who also designed Silver Arcade, during the Edwardian period. The Grand Hotel has always been regarded as one of Leicester's most prestigious hotels, and is used as a meeting place by many prominent local organisations, including the Leicester branch of the Magic Circle. The Kings Hall on the first floor was at one time a cinema.
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
13
14
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
15
s k r a m d n a L When we first started thinking about the buildings that Leicester is known for we thought about those that remind you that you’re home when you’ve been away. They are like your friends and family – you recognise them instantly and you love them, even if you don’t know why and even if they’re a bit ugly! They are also the buildings that everyone from Leicester talks about when they are describing how to get somewhere. Whether it’s the Clock Tower, the Space Centre or the Lego Building, we all know where they are and they lead us home. This section of our booklet highlights some of our favourite landmarks. They are not the only ones but they all mean something to us. We might not have the Sydney Harbour Bridge or Big Ben, but we love our landmarks and we wouldn’t swap them for anyone else’s.
16
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
Did you know:
Our iconic Leicester landmark, the Clock Tower, was originally known as the Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower. And although, not geographically located in the exact centre of the city, it is the point where 5 of the following streets meet: Gallowtree Gate, Humberstone Gate, Church Gate and Eastgates. As such, this area became the first traffic island in the country.
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
17
Our Clock Tower really is the focal point of Leicester’s city centre, and unlike the other buildings and structures that are featured in this booklet, the Clock Tower isn’t a building you can visit, look around and explore. However, if you’re an avid social media user, you can ‘check in’ to the Clock Tower using Facebook, and we can come up with lots of reasons of why we think it’s worth featuring as part of ‘Look Up Leicester’, but the most important is the way it connects such a wide range of people from different parts of Leicester as well as out of Leicester. Our YAT captured a series of short interviews for this feature. Continue reading to find out what people’s connection to Leicester Clock Tower is.
What do people think of the clock tower?
“It’s a great landmark! I use it as a meeting place. Like, I meet my friends here, it’s a landmark everyone knows so it’s easy to get everyone here in the same place.”
“It’s not high enough to see the time from anywhere but if you’re around it you can. You can use it for point of direction: meet up with people. If you’re lost, you can always tell each other “come to the clock tower.”
18
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
“It’s just the heart of Leicester I think. Like, I mainly use it as a meeting point, use it as directions, when I worked on Gallowtree Gate, I’d use it to tell people who were visiting the city where to go.”
“I use it when I’m lost.”
“I like the fact that it’s considered the heart of Leicester. So if anyone’s meeting up, they’ll say “Let’s meet Clocky” and getting to anywhere in town is easy from there.”
“Noticable. It’s good; it’s a good place. Been here for years. I use it for watching time, it’s quicker instead of looking at your watch. It’s a meeting point; most people use it as a meeting point.”
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
19
The Lego building Love it or hate it, kind of like marmite we suppose, but the ‘Lego Building’ is a prime example of a uniquely Leicester landmark that is instantly recognisable even though people are divided over its bright ‘theme-park and casino’ type colour scheme. It has so many different names from the Blue Tower; the Blue Rocket, St. George’s Tower and the ‘Lego Building’. Why this building is known as the ‘Blue Tower’ and the ‘Blue Rocket’ is pretty obvious considering its look, read below to find out about the stories behind the last 2 names...
Did you know? The reason why architects refer to this building as St. George’s Tower is to do with its location being the centre of town, also located in the area that falls into the St. George’s area as part of the regeneration scheme for that area of town. This building dominates Leicester’s skyline, has done for decades, and is visible all around from different angles of the city centre, and even branching out from the city centre too! You can see why it is such a landmark and forms a gateway into Leicester’s city centre, whether you’re approaching from St. George’s or London Road on the opposite side.
20
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
The ‘Lego Building’: Throughout the booklet, we have been calling this building the ‘Lego Building’ and it’s probably about time you find out why - we wanted to leave this story to the end of this spread as it’s a story from a member of our Youth Action Team. This goes back to when we first started working on Look Up Leicester and were deciding whether to include the ‘Lego Building’ or not, because of people in Leicester having such divided views over it. But we hope everyone connects to Megan’s story, no matter what age you are to see why it’s worth looking at. Megan’s Story: “I didn’t know it was the Premier Inn building, I don’t come to town that much except to come to Focus usually, and I didn’t know it used to have the post office in it either. I don’t remember it being any other colours than what it is now, and so I’ve always called it the ‘Lego Building’.” It might help to know that the ‘Lego Building’ has been painted in its current colour scheme since 2007, and Megan was only 13 years old when we started working on Look Up Leicester, so she would have been really young when she saw this building, and once sharing this story, other younger Youth Action Team members agreed to its name as the ‘Lego Building’. It makes perfect sense for us to keep calling it that, and if it sticks because of Look Up Leicester, that’s an added bonus! www.lookupleicester.org.uk
21
The National Space Centre The National Space Centre, is very aptly located on Exploration Drive, but the fact that it is in Leicester makes you think twice and wonder why, at least that was the case when we first started working on Look Up Leicester almost a year ago. Nils Feldmann, one of our project partners from RIBA, visited us and told us some not very well known facts about the Space Centre to help answer our question as to why this iconic landmark is in Leicester, and what is it about the Space Centre that makes it ‘uniquely Leicester’. We discovered that the with the University of Leicester (a university that has become recognised all over the world!) having such a huge expertise in astronomy and space science research, there could have been no other city to have our National Space Centre. The University of Leicester also worked with the government to realise the vision of the National Space Centre as a built landmark and educational facility for all ages, as an innovative way to mark the new millennium - the National Space Centre was completed in 2001. No other city had thought of this or gone to the extent of the University of Leicester to realise the vision of the National Space Centre and its immense worth in a city, it makes perfect sense that this iconic building is located on Leicester’s Exploration Drive.
Did you know? We went out to get a few photos of the semi-transparent, 41 metres-high ‘Rocket Tower’, and did you know, that the material used to create the ‘Rocket Tower’ is something known as a high-tech EFTE pillow? This part of the Space Centre is decorated entirely in these special pillows for a specific reason being the housing of two of the largest artefacts of the centre, namely ‘Thor’ & ‘Blue Streak’. Another reason is that this design allows the side of the tower to become detached for future exhibitions and greater gallery space.
Did you know? If you search Leicester Space Centre on Google Maps and select the Earth view option, this picture comes up. You can see the swirls around the red marker, that are designed to appear to represent our galaxy, the Milky Way.
22
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
23
Did you know? Leicester's Corn Exchange is situated in Leicester Market, which although basically an open market has been covered, and is now the largest covered market in Europe. The Market Place is situated in the angle behind Gallowtree Gate and Horsefair Street in the City Centre. There have been buildings on the Corn Exchange site since the early 16th century, when a building called the Gainsborough contained shops and a dungeon. The present Corn Exchange was built in 1850, with William Flint as the architect. In 1856 F.W. Ordish added the upper storey and the curious external stairs.
24
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
Hidden Gems ‘Hidden Gems’ for us are goodlooking buildings and buildings with eye-catching architectural features on them but people just go past without looking twice or up. Sometimes these buildings might just be out of the way or not so obviously where you’d expect them to be. We have a lot of hidden gems here in Leicester and this section will inform you exactly where they are. Our city centre is great and we’ve gained some insight into townscape heritage initiatives that are about transforming our city centre and increase local pride in our city by working on Look Up Leicester but as you will see in our Hidden Gems section, there is more to Leicester than just it’s city centre buildings and so we’ve included buildings from outside the centre of town too.
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
25
26
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
Did you know? The Guildhall is reputed to be Leicester’s most haunted building, boasting 5 ghosts?
A group of us from the Youth Action Team attended a guided walk led by Stuart Bailey and Howard Wilkins from Leicester Civic Society in early January – you can tell we were freezing as we wore our comfy onesies! Our walk was based on ‘Looking Up at Victorian Leicester’ and we started off at the Guildhall, not knowing much about this Grade 1 listed building as a collective group from the start at all. It isn’t exactly in the city centre, in the sense that there isn’t any high street shops around it, but we believe it is definitely a hidden gem and has so much history behind it as we learned on our walk. For example, did you know, that the timbered wall in the picture above shows some of the original hall that Leicester’s most famous group or guild – the Guild of the Corpus Christi – used for their meetings?
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
27
28
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
Places that put Leicester on the map
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
29
King Richard III Visitor Centre
W
e really liked looking at the King Richard III Visitor Centre as our first building to kick-start our
Look Up Leicester project back in September 2015. The national and international media attention from the discovery of the remains of King Richard III has, to use the well-used phrase, taken ‘little’ Leicester by storm.
30
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
O
ur partners at RIBA East Midlands provided our Focus volunteers in the Youth Action Team with the opportunity to visit the centre for a presentation & tour of how the project of the King Richard III Visitor Centre was realised. This also marked the first time we heard a key story of a bronze rose that cropped up in different reiterations as we started exploring the story of the visitor centre further. The result: over 70 minutes worth of interviews involving 4 young volunteers and 5 people with a connection to Leicester sharing their stories attached to the KRIII Visitor Centre. On top of that, the Youth Action Team put their photography training to use by creating a gallery worth of photos of the centre, documenting their own journey through the King Richard III Visitor Centre and the features of the centre special to the people we interviewed.
“There’s a few coincidental stories around the centre; the coincidence about the dates; the fact that the visitor centre was empty when it was needed…Richard was killed, and buried on the 25th of August 1485 and rediscovered on the 25th of August 2012. If he’d never been found, it’d been due to 21st century property development, as it turns out they didn’t do that…” Paul Hubbard, Volunteer at King Richard III Visitor Centre
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
31
“I’ve got lots of funny stories… Oh dear, let me think what I can tell you. One that still makes me chuckle is there was a Japanese tourist walking around… turns out he was American, so we had a quite nice conversation. He said, “Now let me get this right, the Wars of the Roses were between the Plantagenet’s and The Tudors?” So I said “No, no,” and explained. He then said “So do you still kill each other about it these days?” And I said, “No, no,” and that if he visits Bosworth around about the 22nd of August, he’ll see a re-enactment of the battle but that’s as close as we get to killing people.” He then asked “Okay, but do you fight wars about it?” and I said, “No, no, we don’t!” So he just sort of shook his head and said, “I’ve got a lot to learn…” and wandered off. Lyn, Volunteer at King Richard III Visitor Centre
32
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
We get coach parties down from York – the people that thought KRIII shouldn’t be in the Cathedral here and should have gone to York. The first time I knew a coach party was coming from York, I was tempted to take a very long lunch… but one of the ladies at the end actually came up and said, “I did want him to go York but had they put him in York Minister, he would have got lost amongst everything else, whereas here he’s got the Cathedral to himself, he’s got the museum here. It all seems right and it was the right decision.” Lyn, Volunteer at King Richard III Visitor Centre
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
33
Buildings we just like
34
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
35
36
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
37
Promoting the project One of the most important parts of this project was always going to be how well we could let other people know what we were doing and whether we managed to inspire other people to look above the shop-fronts, shout about how great Leicester is and feel proud of their city. What we wanted to do was to create a bit of a buzz, do something unexpected and get information across in a fun way. We decided to tackle this by using several methods: a website, social media, an exhibition, an on-street campaign and a book (which you’re reading now, so we must have got something right!).
38
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
Website: www.lookupleicester.org.uk There are lots of companies out there that create websites and we could have gone to any of them, but we wanted as much of our project as possible to be the work of young people. So, we went to ‘A Bloke Called Brian’, who is starting out as a web designer and used to be a member of Focus’ Youth Action Team. He did all the coding, created a way for us to do updates and even offered to train some of us in web design. The site will stay around for at least three years, so we can keep adding to it and there will be a bit of a legacy – something left behind – after we finish the project. Social Media: To make sure that other people get to hear about our project, we have used social media platforms to promote it. We set up a Facebook group, which almost immediately attracted over 200 members, where people could share photos, join discussions and promote their favourite buildings in Leicester. We also used Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram to pull people in and keep the project being talked about. Exhibition: The final public celebration of our project will be a photographic exhibition, showcasing our favourite buildings, the stories we heard and our experiences in running this project. An amazing coincidence we found when we were organising the exhibition is that the date we chose to open the exhibition - 25th August - is both the 4th anniversary of the discovery of Richard III in a car park in Leicester and also the 431st anniversary of his burial. The Richard iii Visitor Centre is one of the buildings we chose to feature in this project, as it has attracted international attention and helped put Leicester on the map.
On Street Campaign One of the best ideas we had when we were planning this project was to use ‘clean’ or ‘reverse’ graffiti to promote it. If you haven’t heard of it before, clean graffiti uses a high-pressure hose and a stencil to clean dirt away on a pavement or wall, leaving an image or message behind. It doesn’t cause any damage, it only leaves a temporary message and it’s a lot of fun to do – it feels like you’re doing something wrong, but you’re not! We decided on a number of locations around Leicester where we could leave a message that said ‘Look Up Leicester’, along with our website address. We chose locations near some of our favourite buildings so that, even if people didn’t go to the website, they would hopefully at least look up and see a great building. We started a bit of a social media campaign too, to encourage people to look out for our messages. Overall, we have enjoyed promoting our project just as much as we enjoyed the project itself. It’s been really great to hear that other people like what we’ve been doing and finding out that other people feel the same about Leicester as we do. www.lookupleicester.org.uk
39
Building locations Booklet Cover photo: FOCUS Charity, 73 Church Gate, Leicester, LE1 3AN Silver Arcade: Grade II listed building, Silver Arcade, LE1 5FA YAT Message: Inside the Peepul Centre, Orchardson Ave, LE4 6DP Above CRUISE: East Gates, LE1 4FB Bruxelles next to Apres Lounge: 90-92 High Street, LE1 5YP Zizzi & STA Travel with hole in building: Belvoir St, LE1 6QH Burton Tailor’s above HSBC: Gallowtree Gate, LE1 1DA Urban Outfitters: 29-30 High Street, Highcross Leicester, LE1 4JB Sporting Success Statue: Under HSBC building, Gallowtree Gate, LE1 1DA Above Irish Clothing: 8-14 High Street, LE1 5YN Thomas Cook building above Footlocker: 5 Gallowtree Gate, LE1 5AD Grand Hotel: Granby St, LE1 6ES Lumbers Jewellers: 62-66 High Street, LE1 5YP Entrance to the Silver Arcade: Silver Arcade, towards the entrance to The Lanes The Salon In One: 12 Cheapside, 5EA 147 Snooker & Pool: 171 Belgrave Gate, LE1 3HS Leicester Clock Tower Leicester Corn Exchange: Market Place South, LE1 5HB Lego Building: 1 St Georges Way, LE1 1AA National Space Centre Rocket Tower: Exploration Drive, LE4 5NS Entrance to the Guildhall: Guildhall Lane, LE1 5FQ Jame Mosque: 51 Asfordby St, LE5 3QG Inside the Guildhall: Grade I Listed Building, entrance on Guildhall Lane, LE1 5FQ Above Head 2 Head Barbers: 68 Granby Street, LE1 1DJ 173 from Formal Affair onwards, Granby Street, LE1 6FE 147 Snooker & Pool: 171 Belgrave Gate, LE1 3HS The Friary: 12 Hotel Street, LE1 5AW The Exchange, Rutland Street, Cultural Quarter, LE1 1RD Old HSBC Bank, current ISKCON Centre: 31 Granby Street, LE1 6EP Highcross: Under the Bridge, Bath House Lane, LE1 4SA Friars Mill: The oldest surviving factory in Leicester, Grade II Building, Bath Lane, LE3 5BJ The Fountain: Town Hall Square Fountain, Every St, LE1 6AG
40
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
Acknowledgements We would like to thank everyone involved in this project for their on-going support and commitment. Look Up Leicester invited collaboration between young people and practitioners alike from across a wide range of professional fields right from the start. During this time, we have taken the opportunity to discuss how best to shape elements of the Look Up Leicester project, which have then gone on to inform the content in the booklet you are now holding. We are really grateful to have been working with project partners that are passionate about working on Leicester’s built heritage as well as our young people. Our ideas, the way the book looks and its content have all derived from such conversations throughout the year, in what has been a busy, challenging and ultimately enjoyable piece of work.
Young Adult Volunteers Vipin Thomas Yasin Bailey Matthew Turrell Leicester Civic Society Stuart Bailey (Chairman) Howard Wilkins And all other members of the society for their support. RIBA East Midlands Mike Baulcombe (Regional Director) Nils Feldmann (Architect & East Midlands Award Winner) East Midlands Oral History Archive Colin Hyde Heritage Manager at Leicester City Council Sally Coleman Leicester Heritage Partnership King Richard III Visitor Centre Rachel Ayrton (Learning & Interpretation Manager) And all staff and volunteers for their interviews and support. The Peepul Centre Verinder Ponian (Business Manager) And all staff and volunteers for their interviews and support. Look Up Leicester website developer Brian Hillier And also Focus Staff Matt Lilley (Focus Director) Joe Roughton (Senior Projects Manager & Booklet Designer) Amarjeet Singh (Volunteer Co-ordinator) Emily Taylor (Office Manager)
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
41
Thank you to our Youth Action Team Look Up Leicester was informed by the views of young people in our Youth Action Team from the start and so this project would not have been possible without the dedication and enthusiasm of our Youth Action Team. Their willingness to spring into action working under an agenda to change people’s thoughts of their city is what has driven Look Up Leicester forward through its duration. Starting from a discussion led by young people, the Youth Action Team actively went out on a mission to challenge their views about their city, discover the hidden gems, capture the hidden stories behind features and creatures above Leicester’s shopfronts and visit Leicester’s landmarks. Armed with this wealth of knowledge, they have created this booklet, a photographic exhibition as well as found a new interest in Leicester’s built heritage and ensured that their work leaves a legacy.
42
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
With great appreciation to: Arshana Anuraj Megan Jones Rital Patel Stephanie Norris Mica Vaghela Jashika Patel Torey Moore Emily Anderson Luke Goodwin Shannon Richards Hamuun Farah Ladan Ali Sana Kaddo Nuura Noor Harsh Patel Xikui Kuang Maynka Patel Aman Kumar Taneisha Patel Yasin Bailey Matthew Turrell Vipin Thomas Assiah Hamed Joanna Suminska Ammaarah Sacranie Eliza Kazi Anjuman Khan Sophie Osman Risha Babu Maya Sicotray Yasmina Dirie Mohammed Kasim Hatia Ebtisaam Ahmad Faizan Ghodiwala Christopher Mark Owen Amina Adnan
www.lookupleicester.org.uk
43
FOCUS Charity 73 Church Gate Leicester LE1 3AN T: 0116 251 0369 E: focus@focus-charity.co.uk W: www.focus-charity.co.uk FOCUS is a registered charity no. 1068467
Designed by