Our Vision

• Creating experiences to make Leicester special by involving and inspiring residents and visitors and sharing the city’s significant collections.
• Celebrating the stories of Leicester’s diverse communities and the unique places, art and heritage which shape the city’s identity and showcasing these to the world.
• Engaging with every primary schoolchild in Leicester.

Welcome Video

Our Venues

Leicester Museum & Art Gallery

New Walk’s World of Discovery

Free Entry

Leicester Museum & Art Gallery opened in 1849 with 10,000 objects donated by the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society. The collection of curiosities, artwork, antiquities, fossils, animal, bird and insect specimens offered local people a window into the wider world.

Today, the Museum has 15 galleries and is a popular place for people to meet, with a busy programme of events, lectures and educational visits. The Museum is also available for private hire and as a beautiful setting for wedding ceremonies and celebrations.

Abbey Pumping Station

Leicester’s Industrial Museum

Free Entry

Opened in 1891 as the City’s main sewage pumping station, this beautiful Victorian building still houses the 4 massive steam powered beam engines from its original use.

Step through the doors beneath the 150-foot chimney and you will discover how Leicester’s Victorians tacked some of the big issues of the day, including how to keep clean water flowing for the growing City.

Not only for the steam enthusiast, Abbey Pumping Station has exhibits that encourage all the family to get hands-on with science, industry, transport, health and hygiene.

Belgrave Hall

Heritage Venue & Gardens

Free Entry

Built from locally quarried stone between 1710 and 1713, Belgrave Hall was commissioned for hosiery merchant Edmund Craddock and his wife Anne. Later it became the home of William Vann, High Sheriff of Leicestershire (c.1767) and John Ellis, businessman and Leicester MP, who was instrumental in introducing the railway to Leicester in 1833. 

Today Belgrave Hall is a heritage venue for weddings and events. The walled gardens are regularly open to the public and the hall itself is open on special event days.

Jewry Wall

Roman Centre of Britain

Jewry Wall is currently closed for a major refurbishment. Please visit the Jewry Wall page for the latest updates on this exciting project.

Leicester Guildhall

Medieval Venue & Museum

Free Entry

Leicester Guildhall dates back to medieval times and would have been a building of importance during the time of Richard III. The Great Hall, built in 1390, was a meeting place for the Guild of Corpus Christi, a select group of influential businessmen and gentry founded in 1343. The emblem of the Guild, the Host and Chalice, is featured in 15th century painted glass window fragments in the Mayor’s Parlour.

Today, Leicester Guildhall thrives as a performance venue, attracting acts from across the country and as the home to the Medieval Leicester galleries. Walk the streets of medieval Leicester and uncover a world both familiar and very different to our own! 

Newarke Houses

Social History & Regimental Museum

Free entry

Newarke Houses is made up of two 16th century residences owned by William Wygston and Thomas Skeffington. One of the buildings, Skeffington House, which was built between 1560 and 1583, is the only surviving Elizabethan urban gentry house in Leicestershire.

Since 1953, Newarke Houses has brought together a collection of the things which make up people’s everyday lives. Come to see the collection of toys from the beginning of the 1500s to the present day, a thought-provoking regimental collection and First World War trench, a 1950s street scene with its shops and pub, and hear the stories of people who call Leicester their home.

King Richard III Visitor Centre

Dynasty, Death and Discovery

Paid / ticketed entry

The visitor centre stands on the site of the medieval friary of the Grey Friars, where the King’s remains were buried over 500 years ago.

The exhibition charts the king’s life and death – and explains the events that led to his hasty burial and eventual rediscovery. It reveals one of the greatest archaeological detective stories ever told and features the first-ever genome sequencing of ancient DNA.

Visitors will be able to see the exact place where Richard’s remains were buried over 500 years ago. This poignant place has been transformed into a glass-floored contemplative space.

The centre is a stone's throw away from Leicester Cathedral, which has housed the tomb of King Richard III since a reinternment ceremony in March 2015.