Leicester City Centre designated Leicester's new cultural quarter, and is already the site of the Leicester Creative Business Depot(built on the old Leicester City Bus depot and keeping the initials) and the Athena. The LCB Depot opened in July 2004, and by the time of its first birthday had let 37 of 55 units, with talk starting of finding an additional site. Opposite the Athena, a new flagship £60 million Curve Theatre, Leicester, designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects, started construction in 2005, on a site that has been long-disused. It is planned to be ready for handover 2007 to the Haymarket company, who
Eric Bedford (architect) on 29 August 1909 near Halifax in Yorkshire. He was educated at Thornton Grammar School and then undertook an architectural apprenticeship in Leicester. In 1934 he won a RIBA medal for his design for a railway terminal. Two years later, he joined the Ministry of Public Building and Works and, after the Second World War, was appointed its youngest ever Chief Architect. At the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Bedford had responsibility for significant elements of the overall design, including the Coronation Arches. Given its importance to government communications, the BT Tower was designed to withstand nuclear attack, and in