The grand hotel of its day – fit for royalty
Our occasional series The Story of Leicester, with words and pictures from Leicester City Council, returns today with a look at one of the city’s most famous inns
IN Leicester’s medieval High Street (now Highcross Street), close to where a Travelodge stands today, there was once an elaborate timber-framed building known as the Blue Boar Inn.
Here, by tradition, Richard III spent a final night or two before the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
Medieval inns like the Blue Boar were the grand hotels of their day, providing food, lodgings and stabling for travellers, including wealthy merchants, aristocrats and royalty.
Typically, inns would have buildings on the street frontage and a gateway providing access to a rear courtyard that might be surrounded by further buildings with first-floor accommodation accessed via external staircases and galleries.
There are few historical references to the Blue Boar Inn and even its name in the 15th century is uncertain.
Some believe that it was originally called the White Boar (Richard III’s emblem), the sign being hastily changed after Bosworth to a Blue Boar (the insignia of Henry VII’s general, John de Vere, Earl of Oxford).
Later, there are hints it changed its name again to the Blue Bell, although this may simply be confusion with another Leicester inn.
Since Richard III’s death, many legends have arisen concerning the king.
One is that he could not sleep in strange beds and so brought his own with him from Nottingham to Leicester, where it was then set up for him in the Blue Boar Inn.
When Richard left Leicester, his bed remained behind ready for his return.
This, of course, never happened.
After his death the bed stayed at the Blue Boar, passing from tenant to tenant until it was eventually acquired by Leicestershire Museums Service, where it is today on display at Donington Le Heath Manor House.
Infamously, in 1604, one owner, Mrs Clark, was murdered because of a hoard of gold coins she allegedly found hidden in the bed.
The criminals, Thomas Harrison and Edward Bradshaw, aided by Mrs Clark’s servant, Alice Grimbold, robbed and murdered the lady.
They were quickly apprehended and Bradshaw was hanged for his crime in 1605, while poor Alice – found to be an accomplice in the robbery and murder of her mistress – was burnt at the stake.
After the murder, the bed became quite infamous and in 1611 “King Richard’s bed-sted I, Leyster” was included on a list of sights and exhibitions in England which could be seen for a penny.
The Blue Boar was demolished in 1836, and our knowledge of the inn comes mostly from a number of 18th and 19th century engravings, the bestknown of which were made by the noted local artist John Flower.
Shortly before the Blue Boar was demolished a Leicester architect, Henry Goddard, also made a detailed record of the building, with meticulous drawings including the roof structure, timber joints and mouldings, all carefully annotated with measurements.
These notes were recently rediscovered in the Goddard family archive and have been used to reconstruct a 3D model of what the Inn would have looked like.