Top 10 Free Things to do in Leicester, England

Leicester is privileged to have one of the best-preserved timber framed halls in the country dating back 600 years. The Guildhall is a historic building and the oldest building still in use in the city. It was Leicester’s first police station and between 1876 and the 1900’s and saw many unsavoury characters pass through its doors. The Great Hall itself was built in about 1390 as a meeting place for the Guild of Corpus Christi (a small but powerful group of businessmen and gentry) and it’s also believed that Shakespeare performed here during Tudor times. Today, the Guildhall is best known as an excellent performance venue, attracting acts from across the country. It’s also known as a museum where visitors can step back in time and come face to face with Crankie Gemmie and Emma Smith, two of Leicester's notorious pick-pockets who can be found lurking in the Victorian police cells. The museum is also home to the Medieval Leicester galleries and The White Rose Cafe.

Leicester Museum & Art Gallery is a world of discovery with collections and displays spanning the natural and cultural world. General entry is free to all visitors. On the historic New Walk, the museum is a family friendly day out with galleries including Ancient Egypt, Dinosaurs, Wild Space, the Victorian art gallery, Arts & Crafts gallery, Picasso Ceramics: The Attenborough Collection and Leicester's internationally renowned collection of German Expressionism. The museum welcomes a vast array of temporary exhibitions, featuring works from the collections, touring exhibitions from national museums and a programme of contemporary art and craft displays. The museum hosts a range of events from curators' talks to lunchtime concerts, a cafe and museum shop.

Newarke Houses Museum is composed of two historic houses, Wygston's Chantry House and Skeffington House and tells the story of contemporary Leicester and the history of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment. The museum displays include a cinema experience, a collection of toys from Tudor to present day and a play area for children to try various games. Find out more about Leicester's famous son Daniel Lambert and visit a 1950s street scene inspired by Wharf Street that includes the Jolly Angler public house, a grocer and a pawnbroker, with sounds and conversations from the times. Discover more about the story of Leicester at War. Through personal stories find out about the home front and the history of the Regiment, including a recreation of a First World War trench with sound and lighting. Through oral histories, archive film, computer interactives and collections discover the histories of Newarke Houses, the surrounding historic area and contemporary Leicester.

Abbey Pumping Station is Leicester's museum of science and technology, displaying the city's industrial, technological and scientific heritage. Opened in 1891, Abbey Pumping Station pumped Leicester's sewage to the treatment works at Beaumont Leys. The grand Victorian building and beautifully decorated beam engines were a cause of great civic pride, having built in the city by Gimsons. They are rare examples of Woolf compound rotative beam engines, and with all four beam engines now restored to working condition, they can be seen in steam on special event days – the only place in Britain this magnificent sight can be seen.

16 acres of lovingly cultivated grounds and greenhouses display a wide variety of features and environments. The formal planting centres around a restored Edwardian garden. Other planting includes an arboretum, a herb garden, woodland and herbaceous borders, rock gardens, a water garden, special collections of Skimmia, Aubrieta, and hardy Fuchsia, and a series of glasshouses displaying temperate and tropical plants, alpines and succulents. This garden one of the most diverse in the region. It is the perfect place for a pleasant walk and there are benches for those who simply wish to relax and admire the surroundings. Variety is the key to this garden's strength.