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:
“She came out on the stage in yards of pearls, emerging like
a favorite scenic view, flashed her golden smile and sang.”
—Robert Earl Hayden (1913–1980)
“We got our new rifled muskets this morning. They are mostly old muskets, many of them used, altered from flint-lock to percussion ... but the power of the gun was fully as great as represented. The ball at one-fourth mile passed through the largest rails; at one-half mile almost the same.... I think it an excellent arm.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)