£55 million ‘Richard III dividend’ for Leicester

LEICESTER CITY COUNCIL has reported that the ‘Richard III effect’ has generated a £55 million boost to the city’s economy over the past year.

The council says the £55 million estimate represents the amount of cash spent in the city which has been directly influenced by interest in Richard III, who was reinterred at Leicester Cathedral a year ago.

Sarah Harrison, at Leicester city council, said: ‘The total figure is calculated using visitor figures from the Richard III visitor centre and the cathedral. We estimate that 10 percent of those people would have come from overseas, and so would need accommodation, and 38 percent came from other parts of the UK, so some of those would need hotel rooms, too.’

Hotels are said to be benefiting from the increase in tourist numbers since the discovery of Richard III’s body, with 80 percent of rooms being occupied regularly. The rise in overnight stays and visitors is estimated to have been worth an additional £5 million in revenue for businesses such as hotels, cafes, pubs, and B&Bs over the past year.


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Picture Credit: Service of Compline for the Reception of the Remains of King Richard III</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin

A king re-buried

FOLLOWING the discovery of his remains in Leicester in 2013, Richard III will be laid to rest at a reinterment ceremony at Leicester Cathedral in March. 

The reinterment will involve a series of events over several days starting on March 22 with the re-burial itself on March 26. Visitors can learn more about his dynasty, death and discovery at the King Richard III Visitor Centre in the city, or by visiting the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre.

www.kingrichardinleicester.com and www.bosworthbattlefield.com

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Picture Credit: "King Richard III" by Unknown - Scanned from the book The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens of England by David Williamson, ISBN 1855142287 via Wikimedia Commons

Top spots …

• THE Richard III Visitor Centre in Leicester has been voted the UK’s top tourist attraction by the British Guild of Travel Writers. Runners up in the UK category were the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, and the Stonehenge Visitor Centre, Wiltshire.

http://www.leicester.gov.uk/kingrichardiiivisitorcentre/index.html
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/sam-wanamaker-playhouse
http://www.stonehenge.co.uk/

• The Andreasstrasse Memorial & Education Centre, Erfurt, Germany, took top honours in the European section. The centre commemorates resistance in Thuringia to East Germany’s communist government and the secret police from 1949 to 1989. The government ran a pre-trial detention centre in Erfurt, where more than 5,000 people who had opposed the regime were imprisoned. 

http://www.thuringia-tourism.com/travel-hotel-holiday-tour/index.html

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Richard’s world on show

THE stories and legends of King Richard III will be centre stage for this year’s Yorkshire Medieval Festival (August 1-31), the longest and liveliest celebration of the Middle Ages in England.

‘We imagine that Richard’s world was brutal and volatile,’ says festival director Danielle Daglan, “but during his lifetime, English culture came of age – the world’s greatest Arthurian epic, Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, was written, and Caxton’s printing press became a world-changing innovation. One of York’s greatest treasures, York Minster’s Great East Window was built in this period, and the guilds rose to prominence, giving power to Yorkshire people as never before. It was also a golden age of chivalry, and displays of knightly prowess were hugely fashionable.’

This vibrant and violent world is recreated in a lively programme of talks and tours during the Yorkshire Medieval Festival, organised by The JORVIK Group with guest contributions from the Richard III Society, the University of York and local churches.

A full listing is available on www.yorkshire-medieval-festival.com.

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Richard III on show

THE King Richard lll Visitor Centre in Leicester – open as from tomorrow, July 26 – gives visitors insights into the life and death of one of England’s most debated kings.

Located on the site of the car park where his remains were unearthed in 2012, the centre tells the story of the king in three parts: Dynasty – Richard’s life in medieval England; Death – the Battle of Bosworth and his ultimate demise; and Discovery – the science and analysis that lead to his eventual rediscovery and identification.

Exhibits include a detailed facial reconstruction of the king, a replica of his skeleton and a glass-encased area showing the spot where his remains were discovered.

Tickets can be bought at www.KRIII.com with prices starting at £4.75 for children (three to 15 years), £7.95 for adults, and £21.50 for a family (two adults and two children).

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Richard III centre to open next month

TICKETS have gone on sale for the King Richard III Visitor Centre: Dynasty, Death and Discovery in Leicester, which opens on July 26.

The exhibition recounts the life and death of the king, including the events that led to his burial and eventual re-discovery in a Leicester car park in August 2012.

One of the exhibits will be a detailed facial reconstruction Richard III, plus a replica of his skeleton that shows his battle injuries, including the fatal blow.

The announcement of the opening date of the visitor centre follows the recent legal ruling that the king will be re-interred in Leicester Cathedral and not, as many in Yorkshire wanted, in York Minster.

Timed tickets are available now from www.kingrichardiiivisitorcentre.com. Prices start at £4.75 for children (three to 15 years), £7.95 for adults, and £21.50 for a family (two adults and two children). A concessionary rate of £7.00 will also be available.

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