Narborough Road in Leicester

15:32 April 1 Comments

Narborough Road in the late 40s

Narborough Road in Leicester was named the most diverse street in Britain by academics. The shooting street has shop owners from 23 different countries including Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania. There are also shopkeepers from eastern European counties, a fish and chip shop boss from Hong Kong and a bookmakers ran by a Canadian couple. Researchers have named it the most diverse street in the UK after discovering the owners of its 220 shop units come from 23 different counties. Members of the Braunstone History Group have spoken about how the area has changed over the years. Helen Caterwell said: 'Narborough has changed from being aa residential area to lots of shops over the years. We've seen different communities come in from different nationalities and I think it's actually quite and interesting area to be in because of the diversity of people.'

Academics at London School of Economics (LSE) admitted they were amazed at the number of nationalities when they visited the road in a suburb of south west Leicester. Dr Suzanne Hall, lead researcher, said 'What is interesting is about Narborough Road is that it's not a Little Italy or Chinatown'. 'It is the world in a microcosm, all these people, from all these different place, different cultures, living cheek by jowl, working wth each other and living in harmony. It is really an incredible array of nationalities in one place.'

Narborough Road as it is today

The countries represented on the steer are Britain, Uganda, Lithuania, Canada, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Iran, China, Tanzania, Poland, India, Cameroon, Turkey, Afghanistan, Kenya, Pakistan, Zambia, Jamaica, Kurdistan, Iraq, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Malawi.

Tajinder Reehal, 55, who was born in Nairobi, Kenya and runs Scorpion smoking shop said: 'I've seen the street change in the past 16 years. It's come alive. More bars, more restaurants. It's much more vibrant. I've seen the different nationalities come and go, too. Lots of Polish and Eastern Europeans now, but before that, it seemed to be mainly Turkish and Spanish.'
'I like it. It gives the area its identity. It feels cosmopolitan. You don't have to go into Leicester if you live here. It's all on your doorstep.'

Researchers found that shopkeepers on the street also trade skills with each other. The Canadian couple who run the bookmakers get a free haircut or free meal at a restaurant because they help other owner fill in the forms.

Lloyd Wright, who is half English and half Polish and runs a music shop said: 'There are people here from all over the world, but there's no tension. It's a very relaxed atmosphere. I'm proud to tell people this is wheel I'm from.'

I think that Narborough Road is the perfect example of an ethnoscape. The road shows the effects that migration of people across cultures and borders has led to. This is a cultural landscape that you can read from the shops and the different people who work on the street. It is a mini community of people from a variety of cultures working in harmony.

Why is Leicester so diverse? 
The city became four times lager as people moved to Leicester during the industrial revolution to find work in the shoe and textile mills. After Indian population grew in the post-war years, the authorities took out adverts to discourage Ugandan Asians from moving there in 1972 during Idi Amin's dictatorship. But the adverts have been heavily criticised by community leaders and they actually had the opposite effect encouraging the group to come to the city.
The 2011 census showed that less than half of Leicester's population described themselves as White British. The census reported: 'Of the 110,843 born abroad, 36% arrived since 2004.'

See the article written by the Daily Mail here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3432300/How-things-used-Evocative-pictures-street-named-diverse-Britain-looked-years-ago.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3429838/Most-multi-national-high-street-Britain-boasts-business-owners-23-different-countries.html

Dr Suzanne Hall (LSE): http://www.lse.ac.uk/researchAndExpertise/Experts/profile.aspx?KeyValue=s.m.hall@lse.ac.uk