Greyfriars, Leicester Greyfriars, Leicester Greyfriars, Leicester, was a friary of the Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscans, established on the west side of Leicester by 1250, and dissolved in 1538. Following dissolution the friary was demolished and the site levelled, subdivided, and developed over the following centuries. The locality has retained the name Greyfriars particularly in the streets named "Grey Friars", and the older "Friar Lane". The friary is best known as the burial place of King Richard III who was hastily buried in the friary church following his death at the Battle of Bosworth. An archaeological dig in 2012/13 successfully
Leicester area one third greater than Leicester's, approximately equivalent to a combined 'Leicester + Oadby and Wigston' with a respective population of 404,100 (2016 est.). The Eurostat regional yearbook 2015 classifies Leicester as one of country's eleven 'Greater Cities', together with Birmingham and Nottingham in the Midlands. Leicester is second only to Bristol as the largest unitary authority city in England (List of English districts by population 2015 estimates), and ninth largest counting both unitary authority cities and cities within metropolitan counties. In terms of ethnic composition, according to the 2011 census, 50.6% of the population was White (45.1% White British,