Victoria Park, Leicester

Victoria Park in Leicester is a prominent public park spanning 69 acres (279,000 square meters). Located southeast of the city centre, it borders the University of Leicester and is in proximity to the Leicester railway station.

Victoria Park, once part of Leicester’s South Fields, served as a racecourse from 1806 to 1883 before racing moved to Oadby. It became a public park in 1882. A Victorian grandstand, later used as a pavilion, was damaged by a German bomb in 1940 and demolished, with a new pavilion built in 1958. Leicester Fosse (later Leicester City FC) played matches here between 1884 and 1890.

Victoria Park boasts a range of recreational facilities, including courts and pitches for tennis, basketball, bowls, croquet, football, and cricket. A skate park and an adventure playground cater to younger visitors. The park’s open grassland serves as a venue for large-scale outdoor events such as BBC Radio 1’s One Big Sunday, the Leicester Caribbean Carnival, Leicester Pride, and the Summer Sundae Music Festival. The park hosted BBC Radio 2 in the Park and a sold-out Kasabian concert with 50,000 attendees. Its pavilion offers sports changing facilities and a café.

The park is home to two significant memorials. The Arch of Remembrance, a quadrifrons arch designed by renowned architect Edwin Lutyens, was erected in 1923 to honor those who lost their lives in the First World War. It is a Grade I listed structure positioned at the top of Peace Walk, an ornamental walkway leading to University Road, where gates designed by Lutyens were installed in 1930. A smaller memorial, located near the café, commemorates the American 82nd Airborne Division, which was stationed in Leicester before D-Day. The gates and lodges on the London Road side of the park, also designed by Lutyens, further contribute to the park’s historical significance.