Sitting within Leicester’s city centre, St. Margaret’s Bus Station occupies a position close to the inner ring road that roughly traces the boundary of Leicester’s central core. The city centre it connects to has long been the commercial and transport heart of the city, shaped by centuries of settlement stretching back to the Roman town of Ratae Corieltauvorum, established at the crossing of the River Soar by the Fosse Way. The bus station falls within the Abbey ward of Leicester City Council, one of two wards – Abbey and Castle – that politically divide the city centre.
The City Centre It Serves
Leicester’s centre draws together the bulk of the city’s shopping, including the Highcross shopping centre and the Haymarket Shopping Centre, alongside the older commercial and civic fabric around Leicester Cathedral, Leicester Market, and the Magazine Gateway. A £19 million regeneration project transformed much of the central public realm, earning three awards: the Urbis Urban Regeneration Award in 2007 for Gallowtree Gate, the BCSC Town Centre Gold Best in Britain award in June 2009, and the Transport Times Walking and Public Realm award in July 2009. The improvements made the pedestrian environment around central transport hubs noticeably more accessible.
History Underfoot
The ground beneath central Leicester carries a long history. The Romans laid out their town between the river and the modern Gallowtree Gate, with the forum positioned roughly where St Nicholas Circle meets the inner ring road today. Medieval gates and walls followed similar lines, and street names still preserve traces of those early boundaries – Eastgates marks the position of the old east gate, while Highcross Street runs where the principal north-south route once passed. The Jewry Wall preserves the Roman baths nearby, and Leicester Cathedral along with the Guildhall occupy the old centre around the original High Cross junction.