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:
“But if that Golden Age would come again,
And Charles here rule as he before did reign;”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
“Telephone poles were matchsticks, put there to be snapped off at a whim. Dogs trotting across the road were suddenly big trucks. Old ladies turned into moving—vans. Everything was too bright, but very funny and made for my delight. And about half a mile from my long liquid breakfast I turned carefully down a side street and parked, and sat beaming happily through the tannic fog for about an hour, remembering how witty we all had been, how handsome and talented ... [ellipsis in original]”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)