Welcome to Charny…

Charnwood Street in Leicester – popularly known as ‘Charny’ – was built in the early 1870s and demolished in 1970 when the area was redeveloped. It ran from Kent Street to Spinney Hill Road to the east of the city centre, parallel with Humberstone Road. Many people will remember it, either because they or their relatives lived there, or because they went shopping there. There were around 100 small shops in the street, including butchers, bakers, grocers and sweetshops, those selling new or second hand clothes, bicycles, prams, wool, radios (and later, televisions), and the famous ‘Paddy’s Swag Shop’ which sold almost anything you can imagine!

The national shop chain of Wilkinson’s also started in a small shop in Charnwood Street, which attracted customers and ‘window-shoppers’ from other parts of Leicester and beyond. Many people will also remember the nearby brewery, the local schools, places of worship and cinemas, the accordion teacher Francis Wright, and the artist Fred Weston, whose ‘studio’ consisted of the front room of a shop.

Just click on ‘Home’ above to read more about ‘Charny’…

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed their memories or other information to these pages. I hope you will enjoy them, and that they may bring back memories of your own that you would like to share.

Cynthia Brown

*The above photograph is reproduced by permission of Michael Westmoreland, who photographed Charnwood Street just before it was demolished. See more at http://www.invisiblephotography.com/charny.htm.