Today my errands for Tidy Friday took me to the David Wilson Library at the University of Leicester. It was time to renew my annual membership as an external reader. For £30 each year, I can use the library for reference and working and borrow up to 10 books at a time.
As well as the huge array of books in moveable stacks (just begging for an Agatha Christie style Murder in the Library), the building has a wide range of work places, as noisy or as quiet as you wish, each one fitted with power and usb points and free wifi throughout. Staff are on hand on every floor to help you find what you are looking for and assist wifi access.
The Library has original art throughout the building - I recognised pieces by Joe Orton and Grayson Perry - as well as the sculpture in the piazza outside.
Just behind the Library is a fence with a gate to Victoria Park. Victoria Park is the venue for many of Leicester's festivals including Pride and the Caribbean Carnival held in the summer. The path in the photograph leads from the University to Queen's Road in fashionable Clarendon Park.
Queen's Road is home to a little shopping street full of independent small retailers, cafes and restaurants. It has a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker - well, an ironmonger's and hardware store. One of my favourite shops is the greengrocer's, I like bring able to buy a single onion or carrot or pepper. They have brown paper bags and big jugs of water with fresh parsley and watercress. One day, I thought the shopkeeper was polishing the red onions. She told me she was rubbing the dusty outer skins off to reveal the shiny red underneath.
It says florists on the sign, but I've never seen flowers in there!
