Leicester Square may never return to historic home as regeneration plans ‘have stalled’

Leicester Square may never return to its historic home, it was announced today. The city’s mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, halted the regeneration of the 700-year-old market to give the council time to “consider other options”. These “options” include leaving the old Market Place as open space and moving market stalls to a space to be opened between Market Place North and Cank Street.

The mayor said today that demolishing the square’s old roof had revealed the “huge potential” of the space previously occupied by stalls and opened up views of the heritage buildings that line the square. He said the revelation raised questions about whether installing a new covered market in the market “would be the right thing to do”.

Instead, the city’s mayor said he was “more than half convinced” that the area in front of the historic Corn Exchange should be left empty to be used as open space that could host specialist festivals and markets, celebrations such as Leicester City’s recent one. The football club parades and generally serves as “an important meeting place in the heart of the city centre”.

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Sir Peter added that for most of its centuries, the square served as a meeting place in the city, featuring events from suffragette rallies to coronation celebrations. By pausing the regeneration, Leicester City Council could now take time to fully explore its future potential, he said.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one who watched the old market roof come down and was stunned by what was revealed,” he told a news conference. “As the demolition team cleared the site, I was impressed by the size of the space and the quality of the surrounding architecture. It made me wonder if I missed an opportunity to do something really special.

“If we install new permanent infrastructure on the site – with stalls that would only be used eight hours a day, six days a week – we won’t be able to use this great space for anything else. And once these new stalls are in place, they will likely be there for the next 30 years.

“So we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do something quite bold – and that is to rethink our plans and create the impressive and flexible space for large-scale public events that we currently don’t have in Leicester city center . “

The break, however, raises the question of what will happen to the market traders who moved into Green Dragon Square in December with promises to return to their historic home by the end of this year. Market traders told LeicestershireLive at the time that they did not fully believe the plan for the new-look market would go ahead.

A number of options for traders are now on the table and Sir Peter said stall managers will be involved in decision-making. One possibility is to drop them off in Green Dragon Square, Sir Peter said.

However, he added that he was leaning towards moving the fruit and vegetable market to the new Cank Street link area. Earlier this year approval was given to go through 14 and 16 Market Place North to create a footbridge between Green Dragon Square and Cank Street, using the car park on the Cank Street side as a new retail area. Their neighbors at numbers 12, 18 and 20 were to be renovated with the intention of renting them out.

However, early ideas for reworking the plans now suggest that each of numbers 12 to 20 Market Place could be demolished and the open space there be the new home of Leicester Market. The space created “would house a mix of stalls and container units in an attractive and modern retail environment, protected from the elements by a stylish roof”, a Leicester City Council spokesman said.

Sir Peter added: “I met with representatives of market traders this morning (Wednesday) to explain my change of mind and talk about ideas. While I fully appreciate their concerns about the disruption of work on site, I hope I have been able to convey that I believe we have an opportunity to make a good scheme even better.

“The proposed site for Leicester Square is a new opening which would link Market Place to Cank Street and the shops and bars of St Martin’s Square. Therefore, the circulation rate would be high – and the proximity of the market to the popular Food Hall would create a strong food-themed destination.”

He added: “This new proposal would give our market traders the clean, contemporary and attractive market area they need – and give the town a stunning open space that could become home to the Christmas ice rink, summer beach, performances live, outdoor cinema, food and drink festivals, national holidays and even open bus parades for our brilliant sports clubs.

“Of course there would be work to modernize and refurbish the beautiful old buildings that surround the space and to attract the cafes and bars that would help liven it up, but our intention would be to seek funding to support the conservation work. and work with development partners to bring new life to the area.

“I am now convinced that the right thing to do is to stop work on the current scheme to give people a chance to have their say and I look forward to hearing those views.”

The original plan for the new-look market would have seen it split into three areas. Area A, on the side next to the old fish market, would have housed a new cafe, planting and public art, and would have space for temporary stalls for one-off events such as farmers’ markets and a Christmas market. Area B, in the heart of the space, would have been the new covered market.

In place of the old wooden structures, 84 “new smart stalls” were to be installed, which Leicester City Council said would create “an attractive environment for fruit and vegetable traders and other small businesses”. The stalls would have been arranged in an “enhanced” layout to create better pedestrian routes through the market, the authority added.

There would also have been a selection of “attractive, flexible and lockable units” installed in front of the existing meat and fish market in what was to be Area C. This was to have 16 new “high quality and unique” that can be blocked. ” for merchants, the plan showed.

While the initial plan to regenerate the market was expected to be completed towards the end of this year, the new proposals could take years to come to fruition if chosen as the way forward.