The Castle Gateway - Leicester

A walk along Castle Street will lead through the half-timbered gateway house into the Castle yard.  Here on turning around the view depicted in my painting will be seen.  Of course, it is extremely doubtful whether a 1935 Talbot motor-car will be parked there today, but little else can have changed over the years.

There is not much recorded about the history of this particular building flanked as it is on one side by St. Mary De Castro�s beautiful church and faced by the austere exterior of Leicester castle.  The original hall of the Norman Castle was build around 1150 and there the Queen�s Judges have held assize since 1275.

This area, small though it is, abounds in Leicester�s ancient history.  Nearby, through the stone gateway known as "Rupert�s Gateway," is the Newarke House, a sixteenth century building which together with the Chantry House forms the excellent Newarke House Museum.

With cobbles underfoot and ancient walls containing these fragments of Leicester�s medieval history, this quite backwater remains largely ignored by the frantic bustle of our twentieth century existence.  A quite oasis in the heart of a work-a-day city.

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