Sitting close to Leicester city centre, Bede Island occupies a strip of land bordered by the River Soar to the west and the Grand Union Canal to the east. This waterside position gave the area potential that went largely unrealised for decades, particularly on the southern section known as Bede Island South, which became notorious as brownfield land and the home of Vic Berry’s locomotive scrapyard.
Regeneration and the Waterfront
During the 1990s, an urban regeneration programme transformed Bede Island South from a neglected industrial site into a housing and employment area, with the waterfront development forming a central part of Leicester’s broader city transformation. New residential streets, office buildings, and improved public spaces replaced the scrapyard and derelict land, bringing the canal and river frontage into productive use for the first time in generations.
Streets Named After Herbs and Spices
One of the more unusual aspects of the new housing development is the naming of its streets. Local children from Hazel Street Infants and Juniors School and Shaftesbury Junior School were asked to suggest names for the new roads. The pupils proposed naming the streets after the pop group the Spice Girls, but Leicester City Council considered this unsuitable. The compromise reached was a set of herb and spice names instead, giving the area Sage Road, Tarragon Road, Coriander Road, Mint Road, and Thyme Close.
Office Development and Former Sites
On the northern side of Bede Island, office blocks were constructed on land that had previously held the offices of the Great Central Railway and the art-deco buildings of the Kirby and West dairy on The Newarke. The dairy operation had relocated to Richard III Road before the site was redeveloped, making way for the commercial buildings that now occupy that part of the island.