9 things you may not know about Leicester

Leicester is one of the five big cities to have just got O2 4G. But how much do you know about it?

Leicester, the former holder of the ‘Curry Capital of the UK’ title, has joined the growing rank of cities where O2 4G is now available. So we thought this might be a great time to brush up on our Leicester knowledge – here’s some facts about our latest 4G debutant.

1.  Leicester is one of the oldest cities in the UK, with a history going back over 2,000 years. It is referred to in the Domesday book as ‘Ledecestre’.

2.  Leicester is said to have more traffic lights than any other city in the UK and was the first to have both traffic lights and traffic wardens.

3.  Skegness is a popular holiday destination for many ‘chisits’, a term apparently coined by the locals of Skegness to refer to someone from Leicester (it is believed they noticed that the phrase ‘how much is it?’ sounds like ‘I’m a chisit’ in a Leicester accent).

4.  Enjoy crisps? Well Leicester is home to Walkers, where Henry Walker first started making these delicious potato-based snacks in 1948.

5.  ‘Salt-n-Lineker’ – see what we did there? The face of Walkers, Gary Lineker also hails from Leicester.

6.  Many ‘chisits’ dubbed Leicester the sporting capital of the UK in 1997 when Leicester City FC won the Coca Cola Cup, Leicester Tigers won the Pilkington Cup and Leicestershire County Cricket Club held the County Championship. More recently Leicester was named as the ‘European City of Sport’ in 2008.

7.  Leicester was in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1961. Why you may ask? The city’s Tesco was the largest store in Europe.

8.  Speaking of records, Leicester is home to the largest naturally ventilated building in Europe, which is the Queens Building at De Montford University.

9.  The geographical centre of Leicester is just off Humberstone Gate, about 143 metres from the Clock Tower.

Got a fact about Leicester? Know something you want to share with the world about any of our 4G cities? Let us know in the comments. Prawn Cocktail anyone? Leicester out.