Magazine Gateway

{{Short description|14th-century monument in Leicester, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

The '''Magazine Gateway''' (aka ''The Magazine'' and also called '''Newarke Gateway''') is a Grade I listed building in Leicester. Now a solitary landmark alongside Leicester ringroad, it was originally the main gateway of a walled enclosure built around 1400, giving access to the religious precinct of The Newarke. The vaulted archway was open to traffic until 1905. The gatehouse rooms were variously used as a porter's lodge, guest accommodation, prison, militia building, and regimental museum. It is now a building managed by the Leicester Museum Service, and is generally only open to the public by arrangement.

thumb|260px|Magazine Gateway

{{OSM Location map | lat =52.6332 | lon =-1.138 | zoom =14 | width = 300  | height = 300

|caption=Map of central Leicester showing the Magazine's place (shown in green) among the key sites of Leicester Old Town. The Roman and medieval walls are marked by the dotted line. The churches are marked in red, the monasteries in black, secular buildings in blue, and the one surviving Roman ruin in purple.

| mark = Leicester Town Walls map overlay.svg | mark-coord = {{coord|52.6324 |-1.1380}}  | mark-size = 250,312  | mark-dim = 0.8  | mark-title=none

| mark-coord1 = {{coord| 52.640414 |-1.13625}} | mark1=Red pog.svg | mark-size1=11 | label1 = St Margaret's |label-pos1=bottom | mark-title1 = St Margaret's Church | mark-image1 = St Margaret's church, Leicester.jpg  | mark-description1 = St Margaret's Church

| mark-coord2 = {{coord| 52.635333 | -1.140576}} | mark2=Red pog.svg | mark-size2=11 | label2 = St Nicholas |label-pos2=top | mark-title2 = St Nicholas Church | mark-image2 =Jewry Wall and St Nicholas.jpg | mark-description2 = St Nicholas Church

| mark-coord3= {{coord|52.632348 |-1.140229}} | mark3=Red pog.svg | mark-size3=11 | label3 = St Mary de Castro |label-pos3=right | mark-title3 = St Mary de Castro | mark-image3 = The Collegiate Parish Church of St. Mary de Castro, Leicester - geograph.org.uk - 5104462.jpg | mark-description3 = St Mary de Castro

| mark-coord4= {{coord| 52.634635 |-1.136782}} | mark4=Red pog.svg | mark-size4=11 | label4 = Cathedral |label-pos4=top | mark-title4 = Leicester Cathedral | mark-image4 = Leicester Cathedral south facade.jpg | mark-description4 = Leicester Cathedral

| mark-coord5= {{coord| 52.638731 | -1.139107}} | mark5=Red pog.svg | mark-size5=11 | label5 = All Saints |label-pos5 =right | mark-title5 = All Saints | mark-image5 = All Saints Church - widok od południowej strony.jpg | mark-description5 = All Saints Church, Leicester

| mark-coord6 = {{coord| 52.631906 |-1.140778}} | mark6= Blue pog.svg | mark-size6=11 | label6 = Castle |label-pos6=left | mark-title6= Leicester Castle | mark-image6 = The Great Hall Leicester Castle.jpg | mark-description 6 = The Great Hall, now with a Queen Anne frontage, is the main standing remains of Leicester's medieval castle.

| mark-coord7 = {{coord| 52.634007|-1.136431}} | mark7=Black pog.svg | mark-size7=11 | label7 = Greyfriars |label-pos7=right | mark-title7= Leicester Greyfriars | mark-image7 =  | mark-description 7 = The Franciscan monastery of medieval Leicester.

| mark-coord8 = {{coord| 52.637159 | -1.142791}} | mark8=Black pog.svg | mark-size8=11 | label8 = Blackfriars |label-pos8=top | mark-title8= Leicester Blackfriars | mark-image8=  | mark-description 8 = The Franciscan monastery of medieval Leicester.

| mark-coord9 = {{coord| 52.637159 | -1.142791}} | mark9=Black pog.svg | mark-size9=11 | label9 = Blackfriars |label-pos9=top | mark-title9= Leicester Blackfriars | mark-image9=  | mark-description 9 = The Dominican monastery of medieval Leicester.

| mark-coord10 = {{coord| 52.634054 | -1.143242}} | mark10=Black pog.svg | mark-size10=11 | label10 = Austin Friars |label-pos10=bottom | mark-title10= Leicester Austin Friars | mark-image10=  | mark-description 10 = The Augustinian mendicant monastery of medieval Leicester.

| mark-coord11 = {{coord| 52.634607 |-1.13747}} | mark11=Blue pog.svg | mark-size11=11 | label11 = Guildhall |label-pos11=left | mark-title11= Leicester Guildhall | mark-image11=  | mark-description 11= The only surviving guildhall of medieval Leicester.

| mark-coord12 = {{coord| 52.63175 |-1.137886}} | mark12=Green pog.svg | mark-size12=17 | label12 = '''Magazine Gateway''' |label-pos12=right | mark-title12 = Magazine Gateway | mark-image12 = Leicester Magazine Gateway west.jpg | mark-description12 = A 15th-century gateway into the 'high status' area of the Newarke and Castle precincts.

| mark-coord13 = {{coord| 52.630593 | -1.140781}} | mark13=Black pog.svg | mark-size13=11 | label13 = Newarke Church |label-pos13=left | mark-title13 = Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of the Newarke | mark-image13 =  | mark-description13= The church of the college of canons who ran the Newarke.

| mark-coord14= {{coord| 52.635229 | -1.141175}} | mark14=Purple pog.svg | mark-size14=11 | label14 = Jewry Wall |label-pos14=left | mark-title14 = Jewry Wall | mark-image14 =  | mark-description14= The Roman Jewry Wall, a surviving piece of masonry from the main public thermae complex of Ratae Corieltauvorum.

| mark-coord15= {{coord| 52.634776 | -1.133107}} | mark15=Blue pog.svg | mark-size15=11 | label15 = Market |label-pos15=right | mark-title15 = Leicester Market | mark-image15 =  | mark-description15 = Ancient market of the city of Leicester.

| mark-coord16= {{coord| 52.631359 | -1.139176}} | mark16=Blue pog.svg | mark-size16=11 | label16 = Newarke Houses |label-pos16=left | mark-title16= Newarke Houses Museum | mark-image16 =  | mark-description16 = Newarke Houses Museum

}}

==Site== Leicester's South Gates were the entrance into the walled Roman and medieval town of Leicester. In medieval times an area just south of these, outside the walled town, was set aside as a religious precinct known as the Newarke (or New Work) and enclosed with a substantial wall and gatehouse. The only other gate into The Newarke gave access from Leicester Castle. The area of the Newarke is now substantially occupied by De Montfort University (DMU), and the Magazine Gateway stands at the eastern end of a pedestrianised area between the DMU Business and Law building and the Newarke Houses Museum. While the 'South Gates' now only exist as a street name, the Magazine Gateway stands as a prominent landmark where the carriageways of Leicester's inner ring-road diverge. On the north is the Southgates underpass, to the east is Newarke Street, while from the south traffic arrives along Oxford Street.

==Original purpose== The original purpose of the gateway was to provide a grand imposing entrance into the religious collegiate precinct of The Newarke. In 1330 the Trinity Hospital had been established by Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster in an area along the south side the castle wall. His son rose to be Duke of Lancaster and further aggrandised the area by founding a new collegiate Church of the Annunciation of St Mary which housed a holy relic claimed to be a thorn from Christ's crown of thorns.<ref name=info2012>{{cite web|url=http://www.storyofleicester.info/media/1052/the_magazine-revised-june-13.pdf|title=Information Leaflet: The Magazine (Newarke)|publisher=Leicester City Council|year=2012|website=The Story of Leicester}}</ref> The Gateway was completed soon after 1400, at the same time as substantial walls which enclosed the college precinct. In 1967 The area was built over by the James Went building, and photographs suggest that until then, some of the walls remained up to a height of {{convert|3|m|ft}}. In 2006, following demolition of the James Went building, excavations on the DMU PACE Building site found buried walls surviving to a height of {{convert|1.5|m|ft}}.<ref name=ulas>{{cite web|url=https://www.le.ac.uk/ulas/projects/DMUbusinessandlaw.html|title=Examining Leicester's Southern Suburb: Excavations beneath De Montfort University's PACE and Hugh Aston Buildings (2006-2008)|first=Mathew|last=Morris|publisher=University of Leicester Archaeological Services|year=2008|website=ULAS Projects|access-date=2016-12-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141201200502/http://www.le.ac.uk/ulas/projects/DMUbusinessandlaw.html|archive-date=2014-12-01|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The gatehouse itself has two archways, used to give pedestrian and carriage access from just outside the south gates of the town, into the walled precinct. Inside the Gatehouse are rooms on three storeys. These provided living accommodation for a porter and, on the first floor over the archways, guest accommodation for visitors to the college precinct.<ref name=info2012/> On at least two occasions, in 1440 and 1525, official visitations found, among a range of serious lapses within the college, concern over the porter allowing access to the precinct by 'unseemly people including women of late hours', and banned the selling food and drink from the precinct and gatehouse.<ref name=info2012/> The collegiate system was finally ended in 1548 as part of the English reformation. The College of canons was disbanded and the Church of the Annunciation destroyed. However the walled enclosure and gatehouse survived, as did the Trinity Hospital. The area became an exclusive residential tax haven, resulting in smart town houses such as Skeffington House, now the main part of Newarke Houses Museum.<ref name=info2012/>

==Military== thumb|The Magazine in 1920 when it was still used by the local militia.<ref>{{cite wikisource |last=Billson |first=C. J. |author-link1=Charles J. Billson |date=1920 |wslink=Mediaeval Leicester |title=Mediaeval Leicester |publisher=Edgar Backus |location=Leicester |page=200}}</ref> The Magazine acquired its present name during the English Civil War when, in 1642, it was first used by Parliamentarian Leicester for the storage of munitions. Attempts by the Royalists to disperse the weapons had little effect, and the area saw military action when, on 30/31 May 1645, the main Royalist Field Army from Oxford under Prince Rupert besieged then stormed Leicester taking possession of the Castle and The Newarke along with the rest of the Town. The area again saw military action when the Parliamentarians re-took the Town on 18 June 1645 after their own short siege of Leicester following their victory at the Battle of Naseby.<ref name=info2012/> By the 19th century it was used by the local militia, and also at times as a prison. Graffiti scratched on the walls suggest both prisoners and military occupants left their marks, including in 1809 and the 1940s.<ref name=info2012/> The 4th Battalion, the Leicestershire Regiment, created when the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment was split in 1908, was formed at the Magazine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gommecourt.co.uk/138bde.htm|title=138th Brigade|publisher=Gommecourt|access-date=12 August 2017}}</ref> The battalion was mobilised at the Magazine in August 1914 before being deployed to the Western Front.<ref name=trail>{{cite web |first=Chris |last=Baker |title=The Leicestershire Regiment |url=http://www.1914-1918.net/leicesters.htm |work=The Long, Long Trail |access-date=21 March 2014 }}</ref> The Magazine was also used as the headquarters of the Leicestershire Yeomanry during the First World War.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.drillhalls.org/Counties/Leicestershire/TownLeicester.htm|title=Leicester|publisher=The Drill Hall Project |access-date=24 December 2017}}</ref>

==Museum and road schemes== thumb|The Magazine in 2009 with road alterations and repairs to the building underway The 1960s inner ring road scheme resulted in the Magazine being stranded with busy carriageways running both sides of it, with the only access being via pedestrian underpasses. In 1969 it was made available to the Royal Leicestershire Regiment for use as the regimental museum. It continued in this purpose until 1996 when repair work and the limited accessibility of the three-storey building brought that use to an end. The regimental museum subsequently re-opened on the upper floor of the Newarke Houses Museum.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.royalleicestershireregiment.org.uk/the-regimental-museum| title= Museum of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment|website=The Royal Leicestershire Regiment|access-date=20 December 2016}}</ref>

The unsatisfactory treatment of a Grade I listed medieval building, set below the road level with traffic pounding past both sides, was finally addressed in 2007 with the filling in of the underpass. This allowed the street level on the west side to be brought back down to the same as the Magazine. The road was also shifted entirely to the east side of the gateway, and the area to the west pedestrianised, reuniting the gateway with the Newarke<ref name=info2012/> and creating a new open space for students at De Montfort University alongside the nearby Business and Law School.

==See also== {{Map of Leicester Castle precinct| float=left}} {{clear}} Leicester's other museums: *Jewry Wall Museum *New Walk Museum *Abbey Pumping Station *Leicester Guildhall *Also, List of museums in Leicestershire

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links== {{Commons category|Leicester Magazine}}

*[http://www.crosbyheritage.co.uk/location/leicester/magazine-gateway/ Magazine Gateway (Leicester), Crosby Heritage] *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/leicester/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8988000/8988671.stm Magazine Gateway tour - photo gallery] from BBC Radio Leicester

Category:Buildings and structures in Leicester Leicester, Magazine Category:Grade I listed gates Category:History of Leicester Category:Scheduled monuments in Leicestershire Category:Tourist attractions in Leicestershire Category:Drill halls in England