Shopping

Leicester is a city for individuals and this is reflected in its shopping. The big brand names can all be found in the city's two large indoor shopping centres – the Haymarket and soon to be expanded Shires Centre. For designer labels and original ideas the small independent shops of St Martin's and the Leicester Lanes are just the solution. Further afield you will find the bustling Belgrave Road and its “Golden Mile” packed with shops and traders selling South Asian food, clothing and jewellery.

Variety and value for money continue to be the principles on which Leicester's retail life is based and the renovated city centre has something for every taste and pocket. New shops offering innovative ideas at affordable prices have arrived to cater for an increasing number of young, style-conscious consumers.

The Shires Shopping Centre, with its spacious walkways and grand staircases, is an elegant new showpiece attraction. It has Debenhams and Rackhams and a host of other well known stores, together with smaller speciality shops and eating places.

St Martins Square is typical of the way in which the city centre has been sensitively refurbished. Fine restored buildings and sympathetic new additions provide a stylish setting for speciality retailers offering goods from as far afield as Japan and South America. The pavement cafés and tea shops in St Martins and Loseby Lane provide a perfect place to relax.

Church Gate, Gallowtree Gate and Market Street are now all pleasant pedestrian thoroughfares lined with the best household name retailers and fascinating independent businesses. Opposite The Shires, Silver Arcade mixes vintage collectables with avant garde designer items in a three tiered Victorian shopping mall.

The Market has also been renovated, ready for its eighth century of business and remains as lively and invigorating as ever.

You can buy your fruit from the stall run by football genius Gary Lineker's family, or you can respond to the competing cries of hundreds of other traders. This is the ideal place to sample Melton Mowbray pork pies or Red Leicester cheese or get really adventurous and try some of the astonishing variety of fish like Strawberry Grouper from the Seychelles. There is produce here from all over the world as well as local textiles, secondhand books and records, and all manner of interesting bric-a- brac.

A little out of the city centre, but well worth a visit, is Belgrave Road (leading into Melton Road). Many buses go to this area from Belgrave Gate.

Known locally as "The Golden Mile", this is the centre of the Asian community and displays of Indian culture abound in almost every shop window. Gold jewellery, fabulous silks, delicious sweetmeats and savouries are everywhere, and the shops like Saree Mandir, have a national reputation.

You will also find a shopping surprise in Allendale Road and Francis Street, tucked away among the grand Victorian houses of Stoneygate, just off London Road (No.29 bus from Humberstone Gate East, in the city centre). Enjoy a relaxed browse among the small up-market shops selling antiques, designerwear and interesting gifts.