Narborough Road

Narborough Road

Narborough Road, October 2008
Length	1.5 mi (2.4 km)
Postal code	LE3

Narborough Road is a street in the British city of Leicester. In February 2016, it was named the UK's "most diverse" road in a research project by the London School of Economics (LSE).

Narborough Road is a 1.5 mile (2.4 km)-long road in the south-west of Leicester. It stretches from Braunstone Lane in the south to Hinckley Road in the north, and is located in Westcotes, a ward of Leicester with a population (as of 2011^[update]) of 11,644. According to the 2015 Index of Multiple Deprivation, Harborough Road is located within areas that are among the 10–20% most deprived in England.

Narborough Road was previously the main route from Leicester to the nearby city of Coventry. In 1485, Richard III rode south down the street towards Market Bosworth for the Battle of Bosworth against Henry Tudor; the street was crowded with people wanting to see him and cheer him off. After Richard lost the battle, his naked body was put on a horse and ridden back along the same route. In the mid-20th century, Narborough Road was closer to being a residential area; it then became a fashion street, with its retail units mainly selling clothes and fabrics. The opening of a number of restaurants and bars brought in students from the city's two universities, University of Leicester and De Montfort University. As of December 2015^[update], 204 of the 222 units along the street (92%) are non-residential.

In 2015, a research project titled "Super Diverse Streets", funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), was undertaken by the LSE. Led by urban ethnographer Suzanne Hall, the project sought to "explore how urban retail economies and spaces are shaped by and shape migrant practices". Four streets were selected to be studied by the project: Rookery Road in Birmingham, Stapleton Road in Bristol, Cheetham Hill in Manchester, and Narborough Road. These four streets were selected for their ethnic diversity and their deprived urban locale. After surveying a sample of shopkeepers from each of the four streets, the project concluded that Narborough Road's 108 surveyed proprietors came from a total of 22 countries of birth, over four continents. The street was thus named the most diverse in the UK.