17 Friar Lane

A Garden Fit for a King

17 Friar Lane stands on was once part of the Friary of the Franciscans or Grey Friars (from the colour of their garments). After the Friary had been dissolved and demolished, in 1538, the land came into the possession of the Herrick family. Robert Herrick built a house and garden and in 1612 Christopher Wren, the future Dean of Windsor and father of the famous architect, walked with Herrick in the garden and was shown ‘a handsome Stone Pillar, three foot high’, which Herrick had erected and on which was inscribed the legend ‘Here lies the body of Richard III, sometime King of England.’ This was the last recorded location of Richard’s body. The estate passed from the Herricks to the Nobles, the Pares, and the Burnaby families in turn from the 16th century to the 19th.

17 Friar Lane

The land was divided in 1743 and the house at 17 Friar Lane, which appears to have been built for William Bentley sometime between 1759 and 1771, came into the possession of John Barratt in 1771. It then passed down through his family until it was leased in 1852 by Dr Benfield, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary. The building is now reckoned to be the best looking house of its period surviving in Leicester.

A curious detail is that Dr Benfield built a gateway next to his house for access to the coach-house, but one of the piers of the new gate projected slightly onto the pavement. Because of this the doctor paid the Corporation a rent of one shilling on 1st July each year.

Council Property

Part of the land near 17 Friar Lane was sold in 1863 to the Alderman Newton’s Boys’ School who built a schoolhouse (now the Richard III Visitor Centre), while Leicester Corporation bought the estate from the Burnabys and briefly considered it as the site for the new Town Hall. After the death of the doctor and his wife the house was used by the Wyggeston Girls’ Junior School. In 1914 the property was divided into two lots, both of which were sold to the County Council who moved the County Health Department into the house, including the Public Health Laboratory in one of the servants’ bedrooms on the second floor. When the Council moved to their current base in Glenfield in 1968 it became the property of Leicester City Council, with the unbuilt land serving as a car park for Council staff.