8370 research outputs found
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Interview with Bill Shelton
No full text27 minutes 25 seconds interview with Bill Shelton, city councillor and Phoenix board member. Bill talks about his family background, his first job at Percivals shoe factory, and becoming a union member. Bill worked at the shoe factory for 21 years until he got a fulltime job with the Footwear Union in 1986. Bill was the union representative for Percivals employees and also Rowleys and Fairbrothers employees in the 1990's. Bill then talks about the decline of footwear manufacturing in Leicester. He then comments on the decline of the hosiery and knitwear industry. Bill then goes on to talk about the Odeon cinema and the films he saw there, and the Cinema architecture. Bill then outlines his political career, he was a member of the Communist party 1968-1982, then joined the Labour party. In 1999 joined the planning committee, now planning vice-chairman. Bill gives his opinion on the architecture of the Cultural Quarter, and the importance of retaining Leicester's industrial heritage
Interview with John Barradell.
No full text19 min 27 sec interview with John Barradell, retired textile designer employed by Thompson Fabrics, Leicester. The interview includes; family background; training as a graphic designer, career outline; marriage; John and his wife design for Corahs, then employed by Thompson Fabrics in their design studio, large factory employing 200 workers; John describes the overwhelming stench coming from the nearby Butchers' Hides and Skins building; unions; the area around Thompson Fabrics; retirement; social life in area; closure; John then worked in Hinckley setting up a youth opportunities program; decline of textile industry
Interview with Kenneth West.
No full text90 minutes and 39 seconds interview with Kenneth West. Kenneth West was born in Leicester in 1922. He went to work at Faire Brothers Ltd. as a mechanical engineer until he was called up in 1943 to serve in WW2. He describes working in the factory before going to war including the bombing of Freeman, Hardy and Willis, the factory fire brigades, fire watch duty , the workforce and the social events. He then describes coming back to work at Faire Brothers after WW2, entertainment during WW2 including trips to the cinemas in Leicester, hearing Julie Andrews sing live at the Savoy Cinema, dances at the Bell Hotel and Palais de Danse. He talks about the American soldiers in Leicester and the colour segregation amongst them, meeting Gordon Rolls, the smell of the tannery, Faire Brothers closure and being made redundant, working at Wykes, WW2 and the British restaurant, family life, Curve and the Cultural Quarter, Scout gangshows and the ghost at Faire Brothers
Former International Hotel.
No full textColour photograph of the tower of the former Leicester International Hotel
Inside the Two Queens art gallery, 2013
No full textColour photograph showing modern art at Two Queens gallery and studio
Interview with Anna Mee.
No full text50 minute interview with Anna Mee, lifelong resident of Leicester. She describes her family background and how she left school at fifteen and became a cutter, eventually working at several hosiery manufacturers in Leicester. She recalls her brand new Secondary Modern school ; going from work to the lunchtime dances at the Palais on Fridays ; how the industry employed an entirely white workforce until the 1970s, when Asian women started to be employed ; meeting her husband at El Rondo ; being sacked for coming back to work drunk after lunchtime drinks ; as a child going to see the Coronation with her school at the Odeon cinema ; how she and her husband took over the running of The Charlotte in the early 80s. She recalls how Helsinki's was the fashionable place to go, and the scene at El Rondo where the black guys liked to dance and so were popular with the white girls. She relates how the hosiery factories were gradually replaced by small units and the area became run down
Tannery sign at Queen Street car park.
No full textColour photograph showing the tannery sign above the entrance to the Queen Street car park. The sign reads "The Leicestershire Butchers Hide Skin & Fat Company". This site was previously occupied by B.L. Scaffolding
Hemraj Chandarana interviewed by Janya Shah, 20 September 2013
No full textTalks about the effect that Ugandan-Asians have had on the UK's economy and how despite having the odds stacked against them on arrival in the UK they survived and thrived
Ranjan Saujani interviewed by Janya Shah, 16 September 2013
No full textRecounts her parents' journeys to Africa, the brutality of the Ugandan army and the bloodshed at the time of the Ugandan-Asian exile
Aziz Moledina interviewed by Sadiq Ahamed, 7 June 2013
No full textDiscussed why he chose to live in Leicester, moved from Uganda; what the hardest thing was to leave behind in Uganda and his most shocking first impression of Leicester