Thurnby Lodge is an estate in eastern

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

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

, England. Roughly, it consists of the area inside the city boundary which is north of the Uppingham Road, east of the A563 outer ringroad, and south of the

Scraptoft Scraptoft is a village in Leicestershire, England. It has a population of about 1,500, measured at the 2011 census as 1,804. It lies north of the A47 road east of Leicester, and runs directly into the built up area of Thurnby and Bushby to t ...

Lane. Since the core area around Thurncourt Road is a council estate with a negative reputation, many, particular those around the western and southern fringe, would disassociate their area from Thurnby Lodge. It is near, however not part of

Thurnby Thurnby is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Thurnby and Bushby, in the Harborough district, in the county of Leicestershire, England. It is just east of Leicester's city boundaries. Thurnby village proper is set to the ...

(to the south-east), after which it is named. Other nearby places are

Humberstone Humberstone may refer to: Place-names * Humberstone, Leicestershire, now part of the City of Leicester, England ** Humberstone & Hamilton, an electoral ward and administrative division of the City of Leicester, comprising in part the suburb Humbe ...

(north and west),

(east), Evington (south) and Goodwood (south).

History

Thurnby Lodge is a council estate built from the early 1950s onwards to facilitate the central Leicester

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

until the 1960s. The area west of Bowhill Grove was the last phase of the estate stretching to Nursery Road at its most westerly point. Two, three and four-bedroomed council houses were built in brick and concrete block, terraced with large rear and smaller front gardens. Many of the houses on the estate have transferred to private ownership under the

right to buy The Right to Buy scheme is a policy in the United Kingdom, with the exception of Scotland since 1 August 2016 and Wales from 26 January 2019, which gives secure tenants of councils and some housing associations the legal right to buy, at a large ...

, resulting in a large variety of upgrades and extensions to the original council properties.

Education

Children on the estate usually attend Thurnby Lodge Primary School or Willowbrook Primary Academy (whose sister and architecturally identical school Scraptoft Valley was on the adjoining Netherhall estate). The popular public houses the Stirrup Cup on Thurncourt Road and The Mayflower on Ocean Road have transformed into pleasant family pubs. At its northerly point, the White House Inn on Scraptoft Lane is the largest public house.

Transport

The estate was serviced by

Midland Red Midland RedCompanies House extract company no 82681
Midland Re ...

buses, routes L37 and L38 whose terminus were on Thurncourt Road opposite the shops. Buses that currently serve the area are: Arriva Midlands services 53, 55 and 56

Centrebus Centrebus is a bus company based in Leicester operating services in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. Centrebus have a 51% shareholding in High Peak Buses and since December 2019 through c ...

40 CircleLine, First Leicester services 38 and 38A.

Environment

The area south of the main shops on Thurncourt Road, towards the parallel railway embankment, was originally mainly unlandscaped country land with a natural stream running through it. The stream divides at a point opposite Thurncourt Road shops into two further tributaries, one which continues on towards the city and the other taking a route southwards under tunnels beneath the railway embankment. This natural area was extensively landscaped in several phases by the

Leicester City Council Leicester City Council is a unitary authority responsible for local government in the city of Leicester, England. It consists of 54 councillors, representing 22 wards in the city, overseen by a directly elected mayor. It is currently control ...

and a floodplain added up until the present day, destroying a natural fertile habitat for the then common water voles and small fresh water fish found within the habitat. {{Coord, 52.638, -1.060, region:GB, display=title Areas of Leicester