Saturday, December 01, 2012

Leicester buys site for a Richard III visitor centre

Today's Leicester Mercury reports that the city's mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has spent £850,000 on a building he hopes to turn into a Richard III visitor centre.

The good news is that the building in question is the old school that stands right next to the site. You can see it in a photograph in the post I wrote when this idea was first floated.

The Mercury report is confused, talking about a building "a few hundred yards" from where the remains were found that "stands next door to Leicester Cathedral" - I suspect the journalist is thinking of the Church of England's St Martin's House conference centre.

But I have it on good authority that it is the old school right next to the site of this summer's dig that has been bought, and the same report quotes Sir Peter as saying:
It's very evident that St Martin's Place is a building that has potential to be used for a number of purposes. 
"It is particularly of interest because it's immediately adjacent to the excavation site and also to our social services offices."
Of course, if they are unable to prove the skeleton dug up in the social services' car park is Richard, this building will turn out to be just another property investment.

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