King Richard III Visitor Centre is a museum in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

, England that showcases the life of King

Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

and the story of the discovery, exhumation, and reburial of his remains in 2012–2015. For a long time, the burial place of Richard III was uncertain, although the site of his burial was assumed to be in a Leicester car park. DNA evidence enabled the identification of his remains. The centre opened on 26 July 2014 on the site of the then recently excavated Greyfriars, the medieval friary where the King was buried in 1485 following his death at the

Battle of Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field ( ) was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of House of Lancaster, Lancaster and House of York, York that extended across England in the latter half ...

Location

The Centre occupies a former school, Alderman Newton's School, next to the original Social Services car park where King Richard's remains were found during Philippa Langley and the Richard III Society's excavation project, which was started by the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) on 25 August 2012 (the remains were found on the first day). Because of worldwide interest in the discovery, Leicester City Council converted the Victorian school building into a visitor centre. The project includes a covered area over the original grave site, which was in the choir of the friary, alongside a section of the choir floor of the church. The centre cost £4 million, and was designed by Paul East of Maber Architects.

Access and conservation

The burial site is part of a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

. In December 2017,

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

scheduled a significant part of the site of the former friary. While the associated buildings had long been demolished, the site was assessed as having archaeological potential.

Awards

In October 2018, the Visitor Centre was awarded "Best Museum" in the Group Leisure and Travel Awards, after being nominated in the same category as the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

and the National Railway Museum.

Gallery

File:Original grave of Richard III.jpg, The original grave of

, under the then choir of

Greyfriars, Leicester Greyfriars, Leicester, was a friary of the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscans, established on the west side of Leicester by 1250, and Dissolution of the monasteries, dissolved in 1538. Following dissolution the friary wa ...

. A projector light outlines the skeleton in its original position. File:Richard III Visitor Centre - geograph.org.uk - 4394208.jpg, Replica of Richard III's armour File:"Muscle Stage" of the Reconstruction of Richard III's Face.jpg, The "muscle stage" of the reconstruction of the face of Richard III File:Reconstruction of Richard III's Face.jpg, Richard III's reconstructed face File:Dynasty Death and Discovery, Richard III museum gallery.jpg, The upstairs gallery of the museum File:Richard III replica skeleton.jpg, The replica of Richard III's skeleton File:Replica portrait of Richard III.jpg, A replica of the oldest surviving portrait of Richard III, with the original dating to around 1520 File:Memorial stone dedicated to Richard III.jpg, A

ledger stone A ledger stone or ledgerstone is an inscribed stone slab usually laid into the floor of a church to commemorate or mark the place of the burial of an important deceased person. The term "ledger" derives from the Middle English words ''lygger'', '' ...

(memorial stone) dedicated to Richard III, originally from Leicester Cathedral File:Richard III coffin pall.jpg, The pall that covered the coffin of Richard III when he was re-buried in 2015

References

External links