Major £11.3m revamp of cathedral planned

DETAILS of plans for a £11.3 million revamp of Leicester Cathedral have been released.

Senior clergy have unveiled proposals for a four-level heritage centre with two underground floors in the corner of Cathedral Gardens. Major repairs and renovations to the main building are also scheduled. The proposals form part of Leicester Cathedral Revealed, which has the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and is in its development stage.

The plans will form the basis of proposals to be submitted over the summer to the city council and the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England.

Since the reinterment of Richard III in March 2015, visitor numbers to Leicester’s Cathedral have jumped 10-fold from 20,000 to more than 200,000 a year, making it one of the county’s major tourist attractions.

An independent assessment by the University of Wolverhampton calculated the cathedral makes an annual contribution to the economy of £8.7 million.

The team calculated Leicester Cathedral Revealed would increase the figure to £15 million a year.

The Dean of Leicester, the Very Rev David Monteith, said: “Nowadays, we welcome very many visitors to our cathedral, coming for many reasons, both spiritual and otherwise.

“We want to give every visitor the proper welcome they deserve and to be able to tell the stories of our city and our faith in ways which are accessible to as many as possible.”

Cathedral’s project director Pete Hobson said: “Our plans are developing well, but there is still a way to travel. Now we would really like to give the public a chance to have their first look and tell us what they think. We’ll be listening carefully to every comment.”

The last major building work at the cathedral took place in the 1930s when some vestries were added to St Martin’s.