The Golden Mile is a name given to a stretch of the Belgrave Road in Leicester, United Kingdom. The origin of the name is often, mistakenly attributed to the many shops selling gold jewellery. In fact, the name was first used in the late 1960s and early 1970s when a proliferation of yellow-amber traffic lights appeared along a short stretch of road (one mile to be exact). While commonplace now, at the time it was unique in Leicester. It is renowned for its authentic Indian restaurants, sari shops, and jewellers, and has been described as "the closest that Britain comes to an Indian bazaar". This area of the city is also famous for its seasonal lights which combine to celebrate winter festivals including Diwali and Christmas. The Diwali celebrations in Leicester are focused on this area and are the largest outside India.
Famous quotes containing the words golden and/or mile:
“I’d let my golden chances pass me by.”
—Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960)
“I have got enough of the old masters! Brown says he has “shook” them, and I think I will shake them, too. You wander through a mile of picture galleries and stare stupidly at ghastly old nightmares done in lampblack and lightning, and listen to the ecstatic encomiums of the guides, and try to get up some enthusiasm, but it won’t come.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)