Leicester - St Peters
Neighbourhood Monitoring
St Peters Neighbourhood History
 The area was developed as early as the 18th century in parts but certainly by the late 19th Century and contains many fine Victorian townhouses (now often subdivided into flats). After the start of the First World War vast areas of red bricked terraced housing were developed. These were then in part knocked down to form what is now regarded as a modern council estate with four eighteen floor apartment buildings and one 21 floor apartment building to the east of Leicester railway station, built during the 1970s on the site of cleared slums.
Some parts of the area consist of privately owned and privately rented property, with some housing association properties. Many of the area's properties are rented by students of the nearby University of Leicester. The city's workhouse was formerly situated in the area, on the site now occupied by Moat Community College on land on Maidstone Road and Swain Street. St Peters borders onto the South Highfields Conservation Area, between London Road and Sparkenhoe Street.
For many years, Highfields has been an extremely multicultural area, with a large ethnic minority, and rapidly evolving population, traditionally being an area occupied by recent immigrants to the city. The area has played host to numerous waves of migration to Leicester and subsequent generations, notably including Polish in the 1930's to 1950's, South Asian and African Asian in the 1970's and Caribbean population influx during the 1950's to 1970's. All these communities have contributed significantly to the area's character and rich cultural diversity.
During the late 1990's until the present in continuation of this trend, many recent recent Somali immigrants have settled in the area. St Peters is closely situated to Leicester's only synagogue, an African-Caribbean Centre, and many mosques, madrassas and Islamic community centre's. The annual Leicester Caribbean Carnival traditionally parades through Highfields and St Peters to the city centre and back again, terminating at nearby Victoria Park. After funding and logistical difficulties causing the event to be cancelled in 2006, the Carnival was reinstated to Leicester's cultural calendar in 2007.
As with many inner-city areas in the United Kingdom, St Peters and its residents have often suffered from economic and other forms of social disadvantage. It is categorised as a lower super output area which means it is allocated targeted funding and resources.
St Peters has in the past been an area associated with crime - it was known even in the 19th century and certainly prior to the Second World War as the city's red light district however this is no longer the case. Although the area still suffers from many social problems, in recent years leicester city council and leicestershire police have partnered to close down some of the establishments associated with criminal activity have been closed, and the police have adopted a hard line policy on properties used for the sale and consumption of drugs, in collaboration with local residents' associations.
Most drug crime in 2007 is very minimal although cannabis consumption by under 21's and even under 16's is widespread especially within the asian youth where traditional values are diluting and evolving.
In the early 1980s the area witnessed riots similar to those in many other parts of the UK in the same period, in protest at perceived discrimination and acute disadvantage. While those events are often characterised as related to 'race relations' problems, it is of note that no disturbances were recorded in 2001, when many neighbourhood's in northern English cities with superficially comparable demographics witnessed rioting by similarly frustrated youths, testament to the excellent race relations in the community.
The Highfields Centre has been recently modernised through significant lottery funding, and houses facilities where many functions, occasions and events take place regularly. Although many of the facilities remained closed and unused for years due to lack of council funding to staff the resources.
Another major building in the St Peters area include the Melbourne Centre on Melbourne Road which was formerly a polish school. The front of this building was redeveloped for use as a health centre in the early 2000's while the rear of the building is quite run down in parts and in use by a number of organisations and businesses such as ACCF and Olies Caribbean Kitchen.
Please comment on this or further facts.
Please feel free to comment on what is written here if you feel it is inaccurate. Also if you think we should add additional information don't hesitate to let us know.
You may use our feedback form to write to us.
|
