King Richard III Visitor Centre

King Richard III Visitor Centre is an establishment in Leicester, England, that showcases the life of King Richard III and the story of how his remains were discovered in 2012. The centre opened in 2014 on the site of Greyfriars, the medieval friary where the King was originally buried.

The visitor centre occupies a former school (Alderman Newton's School) next to the car park where King Richard's remains were found during excavations in 2012/2013. Because of worldwide interest in the discovery, Leicester City Council quickly decided to convert the Victorian school building into a visitor centre.[1] The project includes a covered area over the grave site, which was in the church of the friary. The centre cost £4 million and was designed by Paul East (Maber Architects).[2]

Access and conservation

The visitor centre is open daily.

The burial site is part of a scheduled monument. In December 2017 Historic England scheduled a significant part of the site of the former friary. While the buildings in question have long been demolished, the site has been assessed as having archaeological potential.[3][4]

Awards

In October 2018, the Visitor Centre was awarded Best Museum in the Group Leisure and Travel Awards, after being nominated in the same category as the British Museum and the National Railway Museum.[5]

See also

References
  1. Kennedy, Maev (2014). "Richard III visitor centre in Leicester opens its doors to the public". theguardian.com. Retrieved 2018-12-28. Visitors to the £4.5m centre will see a replica skeleton of the Plantagenet king and the grave that held his body for 500 years
  2. Watson, Greg (2014). "Does Leicester's Richard III centre live up to the hype?". BBC. Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  3. Kennedy, M (December 2017). "Leicester car park where Richard was". www.theguardian.com.
  4. Historic England (21 December 2017). "Greyfriars, Leicester (1442955)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  5. Martin, Dan (15 October 2018). "Richard III Visitor Centre in Leicester beats British Museum and Tate Britain to top tourism award". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 15 May 2019.

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