A day at St Martin's Lodge - a unique place to stay in Leicester

When King Richard III was found in the car park in Leicester, just a stone's throw from the Cathedral, the eyes of the world honed in on the city.


Where to stay in Leicester
The story brought tourists from all over the world, on day trips, to stay overnight, but there was only a few modern hotels close by to the historic Cathedral Quarter. Until now....

You can now stay at St Martin's Lodge which has just opened bang opposite the Cathedral where Richard III is buried, close to the city's mediaeval Guildhall..

It's a Grade II Georgian  listed building, a former house and more recently a solicitors office, which I've watched being transformed over the last year.

What's more, the rooms at the back overlook the very spot, a mere thirty steps away from where Richard III's body was actually found in the car park.

Earlier this week, I was given an exclusive preview of the new, luxury accommodation  which offers 28 en suite rooms, two of them fully accessible rooms.

 

 

The whole building has been restored sympathetically with beautiful old marble fireplaces kept in situ, and original bow windows restored.  It's also decorated in historic colours, with every room very different from each other. Fortunately though, the bathrooms are bang up to date with the latest designer showers and baths!

 

 



 



 I was staying overnight , and as the door to my room was opened, I was delighted with the view...

All I had time for was a quick look around, as I was recording and editing all day. I couldn't wait until the end of a long day to return and relax.

The view had changed dramatically by nightfall as the Cathedral was bathed in red for Remembrance
and I just stood gazing out at my favourite area of the city.

 

 

Prising myself away from the windows which run along the length of the room, I made myself at home 

I eyed the bed longingly,

After a ten hour shift at work though, I decided to make the most of the beautifully appointed bathroom. I wallowed in the huge roll top bath by lamplight, watching the shadows play on the wall and  admiring the beautiful tiles.....

After an oh so comfortable night's sleep in a bed the size of the Isle of Wight , I tested the shower, which was big enough for three people, and reluctantly got ready for work again.

It was the attention to detail I noticed though before I left....lovely drawings and sketches on the walls by local artists, local bottled water in glass bottles in the fridge, organic toiletries in recyclable packaging, USB points and plug sockets by the bed, in the sitting area and at the desk and dressing area.
There's  a Nespresso machine, kettle and a selection of teas available  in each room, but don't expect breakfast or a bar here.

This isn't a hotel, it  has the atmosphere of a private house. Breakfasts and lunches are available at St Martins House just a few steps across  the square, and a wide selection of bars and restaurants are only a hop, skip and jump away from St Martins Lodge.

This is in a prime location for anyone staying in Leicester, especially if you want to visit the King Richard III Centre which is a mere fifty yards away, or walk around mediaeval and Roman  Leicester, or if you're attending a wedding or a conference.

Despite just opening , bookings have been brisk, with the first guests coming from Singapore for a wedding( they took every room except one) and had the reception just across the Square , quickly followed by a posse from Wyoming , USA and a number of business guests.

St Martins Lodge is quirky, quaint and quite unique.  I also like its back story. It's owned by the Church - the Diocese of Leicester , who were offered the building a few years ago. How could the Church turn down the space,  the location , with a large car park at the back ?

It couldn't...the restored building is enhancing the Cathedral Square, attracting visitors to the area, and the profits will help pay the salaries of  priests and church staff as well as extending the church's work across Leicestershire and Rutland. That's what I call a win win situation.

You can find out more information about St Martins Lodge and book rooms here.....
http://www.stmartinslodge.co.uk/


You can also hear more on this story from me here  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06p244m 
- just scroll  I hour 25 minutes into the programme.











 

Days of past, present and future at Winstanley House

If you want to go to out to eat in Leicester these days, there's so much more choice than say ten years ago. Some of the big boy chains moved in, some small independents are flourishing, some have fallen by the wayside.

 I couldn't have forecast ten years ago where the latest restaurant would open though. It's called the Black Iron at Winstanley House and is two miles away from the city centre set in one hundred and sixty acres of public parkland. Next to a housing estate.There's a hotel as well, with huge function rooms for up to four hundred people, ripe and ready for the wedding market.

It's a far cry from a number of years ago, when the building was in a sorry state. Neglected and unloved for years, no one quite knew what to do it  - a crying shame for somewhere which meant so much to many people.

The Winstanleys were local landowners who commissioned the house in 1775, and who lived here
for a hundred and fifty years. Then, thousands of local children went to school here from 1932 until 1996.

But that's in the past....years of work and £2 million later, it was the press launch. My friend Tim and I were whisked straight thorough Reception

 to the dining room, oh so tastefully done in shades of grey.

Menus were promptly presented with a flourish and our orders taken for drinks. Yes, let's mention them first because I was pleasantly surprised with the wine list. An inviting long list with interesting wines I'd not heard of before. Tim and I both loved the Zapa Oak aged  Malbec....which was far classier than the £24 price tag would lead you to believe.

So onto dinner....a set meal with three courses....

I decided to go for the vegetarian option and began with the beetroot salad. Pretty on the plate, four very finely sliced heritage varieties of beetroot were dressed with honey and hazelnuts. Crunchy, light and tasty.

The mains was a courgette flan with perfectly roasted vegetables, but the flan needed something  added. Not enough flavour for me, and it was a fairly dry plate...a puddle of a sauce would have been welcome. I improvised and swiped some of the delicious peppercorn sauce which was served with Tim's " fantastic" - his words -rib eye steak. To be fair I also quality control tested a few of the dripping fries on his plate too. It's a wonder I didn't steal the whole lot.

As for the dessert, well here I have to apologise here as this photo doesn't do this rich, moist, tangy toffee pudding justice. This did everything a sticky thing like this should do, but without making me feel as if I needed a lie down afterwards.

 

 

 

So, an enjoyable meal, followed by a fleeting trip to the bar with lots of animated chat about the food , the décor etc.

 

I couldn't help but admire the lights before being whisked off for a sneaky peek  at what the accommodation in the hotel is like.

I can sum this up in a few words.

Sleek, stylish and as fresh as paint. Literally so fresh as paint we could still smell it.

There's so much attention to detail here, even in the ladies loos....somewhere I always check out whenever I'm on a press trip or visit. These are impeccable.



 

 

There endeth my initial visit, but a couple of weeks later I was back, together with four hundred visitors who were all at school here in the dim, distant and less glossy past. I was there to record a radio feature,  they were all there to see what had been done to their old school and to reminisce. The noise levels were off the Richter scale as they laughed and gossiped and everyone I spoke to was blown away by the transformation of this building.

 

 

The acid test of reviewing anywhere is to ask yourself the question "Would I go back and would I take my friends?" Well yes, and I fancy trying the bar menu one lunchtime. I even know what I want to eat.

There again, I've also got my eye on the bottomless brunch. Cooked breakfast ( full English or steak and eggs anyone?) plus unlimited Prosecco, beer or soft drinks for an hour, all for £20. That would do me, but not on a school day obviously - the ghosts of previous headmasters might not approve.....



Gelato days - when the Maestri Gelatieri came to town

It may be Autumn, but last weekend I was taken back to Italian summer evenings on the shores of Lake Garda, to afternoons of stifling heat in Florence, and stolen moments outside Leicester Cathedral on warm, sunny lunch breaks.

So what's brought on these memories, I hear you ask. Well, it's the taste of gelato. Not just any gelato, though. I'm talking about the creamy, silky texture, the richness, and the sheer genius of the marriage of flavours which tickle your tongue, slide down your throat, and leave you with a smile on your face.

I've eaten a lot of artisan gelato recently.

We're lucky in Leicester to have Gelato Village, an artisan gelato shop at an oh so handy location just around the corner from where I work. I'm very partial to flavours such as mango, pistachio and lemon and there are many others of course. At the end of October though, a team of ten Maestri Gelatieri came to town from Italy to share their passion and skills .

They were from all over Italy - some of the world's best gelato makers. Seven men and three women, most of whom had successful careers elsewhere before finding what they really wanted to do, which was to make gelato, in the traditional way, with their own hands and producing their own flavours. Now they were over here to share their favourite flavours and new sensations at Gelato Village..

"Come for  a meal" Laura Hadland from Thirst Media had said...."come and meet them all." So I did, over at Sapori in Anstey, a wonderful Italian restaurant which just happened to be Claudio Ranieri's favourite place when he was managing Leicester City Football Club. (I must just say I adored him- what a character, what a manager and oh how many mourned his departure.)

I digress, back to last Friday, and a noisy night with lots of feverish chat about food, wine, and yes, gelato in Italian, English and sign language.  Delicious Italian food too, for me a wild mushroom and goats cheese tartlet with cashew pesto, Italian fennel sausages and rigatoni followed by a sorrento lemon tart with a orange and carrot sorbet. Perfect.

Everyone was looking forward to their weekend organised by Antonio de Vecchi  and Daniele Taverna from Gelato Village and the Compagnia Gelatieri.

left to right Andrea Scarpati the owner of Sapori,  Raffaella Garavelli , Daniele Taverna and Antonio De Vecchi


They had all brought ingredients from their home regions, from Piedmont, the Marche, Milan, Lombardy and Perugia, to use with the non homogenised milk and cream from Red Poll rare breed cattle on the Belvoir Ridge Creamery farm in Leicestershire.

As soon as they arrived from Italy, they began to make, mix, create the most amazing selection of gelato flavours....

There were some big flavours which screamed "Eat me!" From the deeply rich Chocolate & Tuscan Cigar sorbetto to the subtle fig, almond and bay gelato, the stunningly refreshing and tangy quince and Franciacorta sparkling wine sorbetto and the Passito sweet white wine gelato.

Andrea Soban with his Biscotti Zaeti gelato...he studied law before becoming a gelato maker.

Yes, they were here to make, showcase and sell their creations but there were tastings and talks too, about the history of gelato and how they found their inspiration . According to Antonio Luzi pictured below, the gelato business in Italy is a very saturated market.

It was a busy weekend for all of the gelato makers. Some managed to get out to the Belvoir Ridge Creamery to see where the milk came from to make their gelato and that's what they were all very impressed with, the richness and quality of the milk.

Of course they went to Leicester Cathedral to see the tomb of  Richard III, but there wasn't time for them to really explore the city. There was just enough time for me to take Vera Castrovilli, Alessia Torselli and Raffaella Garavelli next door to one of my favourite places in Leicester, The Guildhall which they loved.

Vera and Alessia were both set designers in films and on stage, before fleeing their stressed careers, and Rafaella was in the corporate world flying all over Europe before returning to her home village and opening a gelateria.

Making gelato has made all three of them very happy.

I'm just as happy eating it, and really enjoyed tasting so many new flavours the weekend the Maestri Gelatieri came to town.. I do hope they come back one day......

Just to make your mouths water , here's the full list of the gelato and sorbetto flavours created for the  trip to Leicester

Paolo Brunelli made Crema Brunelli gelato with hazelnut & chocolate, and Ricotta Celeste a Pois gelato, flavoured with honey, coffee & lemon zest

From Matteo Carloni, there was Bacio gelato with hazelnut biscuits sandwiched with dark chocolate, and Malaga, a gelato made with a raisin & sweet wine custard

Vera Castrovilli & Alessia Torselli created Passito Erbaluce di Caluso, a gelato with sweet white wine

Raffaele Del Verme made a fig and chocolate gelato and a fig with almond and bay gelato

 

Raffaella Garavelli created a quince with Franciacorta sparkling wine sorbetto

From Antonio Luzi, there was a coffee gelato plus a spiced pear sorbetto

Andrea Soban made a Biscotto Zaeti gelato and Torrone, an Italian hazelnut nougat gelato.

Last but not least, Mirko Tognetti created a chocolate and tuscan cigar sorbetto and a Torta della Nonna gelato flavoured with pine nuts and cream.

 

 

 

Sister Act days!

Every time the film Sister Act came on the TV,  my gang of three children would sit on the sofa and sing along with delight as Whoopi Goldberg (Doloris van Cartier) ditched her lowlife, married lover Curtis and the chewing gum for a non voluntary spell in a convent. They sang along to the songs word for word, as within days Whoopi got the sisters singing sensationally and pulling in a full crowd every Sunday into the church.

As a plot it was unbelievable to say the least, but the characterisation, great soundtrack and its warmth pulled the film together. The musical too has been attracting audiences  around the world for years, so something's right. But what could director and choreographer Craig Revel Horwood and this new production bring to the Sister Act party?

Thanks to the lovely Linda, who offered me a spare ticket, I was off to see Sister Act on a sweltering  Saturday afternoon for the last matinee  - what was called  "a relaxed  performance" on the last day of the show at Curve in Leicester.

What? No Alexandra Burke as Doloris?  She'd been getting some great reviews. Well no, her place was taken by Joanna Francis who I absolutely adored for her sassiness, her verve and her singing.

Mind you, I knew as soon as the nuns filed on stage singing loudly and excruciatingly out of tune, right at the start, we were in for a treat.

What a hardworking cast, playing multiple roles , playing musical instruments , dancing and acting with real brio and humour - bringing a new meaning to multi tasking.

I particularly liked Jon Robyn's Sweaty Eddie, the policeman who has fallen for Doloris. As he sang "I could be that guy" to the perfectly timed sounds of the down and outs heaving (on stage, not in the audience) , he showed a real tenderness...and got whoops of delight from quite a few ladies in the audience.

What can I say about the nuns? Having being in a convent school myself for a year or two, I have some very interesting memories about nuns. Rosemary Ashe as Sister Mary Lazarus though, the deadpan head of the choir was a joy as she rapped, bumped and grinded her way through several numbers, and Karen Mann as Mother Superior  played her role with poignancy.

Call me shallow, but the scene which stole the show for me was "The Lady in the Long Black Dress" where TJ, Bones and Dinero, Curtis's three henchman, discuss how they're going to take Doloris from the convent .

It's a fantastic Floaters esque parody with lyrics like  "Forget Jehovah, cause the wait is over, come to Casanova for romance". I've seen this number done times before, but this is the funniest and filthiest version yet!

Such a laviscious performance from Ricky Rojas, Samuel Morgan Graham and Sandy Grigelis. Sandy (playing TJ) especially made me howl with laughter - the things he was doing with his guitar...
Craig Revel Horwood, this had your paw prints all over it...and it was fabulous.

The whole show was  -the audience thought so too,  giving a final standing ovation and singing along and clapping to a final, final number.

By now ,the cast and company will be in Monaco, playing  five nights at the Casino de Monte Carlo, before a huge UK tour visiting over 40 towns and cities during the next year.

Book your seats now, and no, I'm not being paid to say this. It's a great show - don't miss it!



 

A day remembering the reinterment of Richard III

Saturday marked the first anniversary of the reinterment of King Richard III here in Leicester.

Services were held, exhibitions opened and books launched as we remembered the heady, exciting yet reverential and remarkable day twelve months ago.

I've blogged before about the events leading upto the occasion itself....but I've only just realised how much I've done so...here are the links

http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-day-they-found-king-richard-iii.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.com/2013/02/richard-iii-days-of-hype-and-hope.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.com/2013/02/more-days-of-richard-iii-mania.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/a-day-of-spitting-feathers-more-about.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/a-day-in-land-of-king-richard-iii.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/days-of-richard-iii-fever.html
http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/richard-iiisunday-22-march-2015.html


But yesterday was a day of celebrating and remembering. Kirsteen Thomson who lives a few miles from Leicester opened her art exhibition at the Guildhall.

She's been fascinated by Richard III for many years. In fact, the King passed by the back of her garden over five hundred years ago. She painted the spot twenty years ago, ...and behind the green door in the painting lies the intact drawbridge to the old castle in Kirby Muxloe.

 

She's painted Leicester Cathedral, the Guildhall and other local landmarks as well as other places associated with the last Plantagenet King. Fotheringhay, where he was born, Edinburgh, Yorkshire and Wales. There's also a book about Richard III filled with her paintings ...

 

 

Another book launched yesterday was "How to bury a King" by the Reverend Pete Hobson. He's the man who was given the responsibility of  doing just that...the redesign of the cathedral and preparing it for the reinterment.

And that's something that has never been done before , so it really was a step into the unknown. Pete though is so calm and level headed , and in the build up to the pomp and pageantry of last year,
he remained quite serene every time I interviewed him.
His book tells  the inside story of what happened behind the scenes .

A CD was also launched on Saturday featuring the music during the services at Leicester Cathedral last March performed by the choir from Leicester Cathedral. I still remember the shiver at the back of my neck during the Sunday service when they sang.....

And a new, different portrait of Richard III was unveiled on Saturday at the King Richard III Visitor Centre. Back in February, the centre asked people to send in their photographic memories of the reinterment in Leicester. Over ten thousand images were sent in from all over the world, and the result is this, a rather stunning , three metre high , photo montage portrait of Richard.

I love it.....and when you look closely, you can  see some of the original photographs

Local dignitaries laid white roses at the statue of Richard just outside the Cathedral on Saturday too with quite a crowd there to watch.

The effect of  Richard's reinterment on Leicester and the county is huge - symbolically, historically and financially.

Working so close by to the cathedral, I'm amazed at the numbers of visitors there over the last year. To hear American, French , Canadian and even Australian voices as I walk past would have been very unusual a couple of years ago. Not now though.

Visitor numbers in Leicester and at the Bosworth Battlefield centre where Richard III was killed remain high, hotels are running at eighty per cent capacity,

It's been estimated this week that the reinterment  has brought £59 million worth of business to the city, and that's a conservative estimate.

But let's not just talk about money...there's a buzz about Leicester now. Our Midlands city has been put on the map historically, there's a pride about the place, and that's due to the 'Richard III effect' as it's known locally.

Of course our football team, Leicester City, have also been hitting the international headlines. The stuff of dreams, the story about our team who were languishing at the bottom of the Premier League in March last year, has now become a global phenomenon. Little Leicester City, are now at the top of the league, inspiring everyone ....and it's been suggested that Richard III , even though he died over five hundred years ago, could be responsible.

I'm not kidding. Some fans say since Richard was reinterred, the football team has had a runaway success, and that the facts speak for themselves. Is it a coincidence ? Or is it a form of "King Power" which incidentally is the name of  the stadium where Leicester City play?

Whatever, Leicester has changed since a dead king was found in a city car park and was reinterred at Leicester Cathedral. And it's a very positive change too.......





 

Days of an award winning garden

There's a garden I walk by, walk through, sit in to chat, to think, to get some fresh air at lunchtime. It's paces away from where I work,  and unlike my favourite gardens which have developed and blossomed over many years, this is a brand spanking new one.

The Leicester Cathedral Gardens were opened last year just in time for this year's re interment of Richard III although plans for the space were already afoot at least five years before.

Before last year the area in front of the cathedral was a closed graveyard. And when I say closed, it was a gloomy space, with tall, dark tombstones, trees casting lots of shade and somewhere where I never wanted to linger. Frequently there was the smell of marijuana from some of the dealers who
loitered around, and I always used to walk quickly through.

And the adjoining space was the concrete car park for the old Leicester Grammar School. But when the school moved, the Diocese of Leicester bought the property, transformed it into St Martins House, and there was the chance to amalgamate the land and transform it into a vibrant public garden.

There's still some gravestones, but there's now lawns, a water feature, trees and flowerbeds.

Here's the walkway to St Martins House, planted with spring tulips, in the summer there's white and blue perennials and lavender...

It's a carefully laid out green space in the centre of the city with plenty of seating on benches, on raised blocks

and when it's dry lots of people sit on the lawn in the sunshine

And there's "Towards Stillness," a piece of art specially commissioned to show the story of Richard III's time in Leicester from he time of his death in 1485 to his discovery in the car park just opposite in 2013.

 

The statue of Richard III has also been relocated to this garden from its previous location in Castle gardens.....within sight of the new Richard III Visitor Centre.



But this is not just a garden for sitting in and wandering through. It can actually sit 800 people for outdoor acts of worship, for concerts, and it really is coming to life and into its own. It's cost £2.5 million which initially made some splutter and some peoples eyes water . But the project was joint funded by both local money and grants coming from Europe.

Yesterday the Cathedral Garden received an early Christmas present - a big national award from the British Association of Landscape Industries  ....and was named as the overall winner in the category for Restoration and Regeneration Schemes.

I'm pleased that the quality and design of the garden is being recognised. The dark, somewhat sinister spaces of yesterday have been transformed into a light, open garden to be enjoyed by everyone , and I look forward to watching the planting schemes mature as I sit , think and watch there during the coming months.

A day in a time warp with buttons

A week ago I was having lunch with my book writer friends. We meet twice a month...this time it was at Alex's house. She writes for both children and adults and I love her work - you can find out about her work here..
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/200500.Alex_Gutteridge


As I was leaving,  her husband Michael came home and told me how he was clearing the old family firm's premises in the centre of Leicester ready for a move to a smaller site nearby.

I pricked up my ears...Michael's grandfather  started WN Gutteridge  back in 1922 on a busy street alive with factories making knitwear and clothing which was sent worldwide. It was a haberdashery and trimmings firm which imported buttons from all over the world, then dyed them on the premises and sold them to the many textile firms in Leicester.

The old place had been sold, so Michael and his brother and fellow director Chris were having to  downsize - and it's not easy clearing nearly a hundred years of history and thousands of boxes of buttons.

Now this was a story, so on Monday I went down to interview Michael and Chris ...

I was in for a treat...it was like going back into a time warp. Four floors of history, where the echoes and ghosts of the past were very evident.

And there were boxes and boxes of buttons everywhere

And down in the basements, there were thousands of boxes of them, all extra stock from years gone by.

Boxes of buttons such as these pink rosebuds from the 50s and 60s....

Thousands of different flower buttons of different colours

Heart shaped buttons

And  many more types....shell buttons from the Philippines with a transluscent sheen, each one so individual. They were beautiful, and later in Michael's office he showed me how the buttons were made from the shells....

But there were more buttons to see, blingy buttons to go with the huge shoulder pads of the 80s, toggles, wooden buttons, buttons saying Winnie the Pooh,fabric covered buttons - you name it, they were there.

And then I was taken to the dying room where all the buttons are transformed....and to the button polisher which buffed them all to a shine.

Michael and Chris have a mammoth task on their hands....rattling around this huge, Victorian factory
where their grandfather and father worked too. At one time there were nearly forty employees, and they told me wonderful stories of how they were brought here as children, sneaking into the tiny goods lift and riding up and down for hours, how there were open fires in the offices...where one of the secretaries would make crumpets ....

But back to the buttons, which were no longer needed and needed to be disposed of...my story was broadcast on Tuesday, and by the time I got to the newsroom, there were emails and phone calls from collectors, artists and charities who all wanted some of them.

 Meanwhile I had been given a few as a memento of my visit which I will treasure. Back home,  I put them on a piece of slate to look at, which brought back memories of my childhood When I was a child on a quiet rainy afternoon I'd sit at the table moving the buttons around a tray, making shapes and button pictures.

Why not listen to a clip from my story about the buttons ...you'll be able to find out what buttons were originally made from...items that I would never have thought of! Not in a million years.....

Click below
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p039s4rw