The Golden Mile is a name given to a stretch of the Belgrave Road in Leicester, United Kingdom. The origin of the name is often, mistakenly attributed to the many shops selling gold jewellery. In fact, the name was first used in the late 1960s and early 1970s when a proliferation of yellow-amber traffic lights appeared along a short stretch of road (one mile to be exact). While commonplace now, at the time it was unique in Leicester. It is renowned for its authentic Indian restaurants, sari shops, and jewellers, and has been described as "the closest that Britain comes to an Indian bazaar". This area of the city is also famous for its seasonal lights which combine to celebrate winter festivals including Diwali and Christmas. The Diwali celebrations in Leicester are focused on this area and are the largest outside India.
Famous quotes containing the words golden and/or mile:
“But wishes breed not, neither
Can we fend off rock arrival,
Lie watching yellow until the golden weather
Breaks, O my heart’s blood, like a heart and hill.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“For half a mile from the shore it was one mass of white breakers, which, with the wind, made such a din that we could hardly hear ourselves speak.... This was the stormiest sea that we witnessed,—more tumultuous, my companion affirmed, than the rapids of Niagara, and, of course, on a far greater scale. It was the ocean in a gale, a clear, cold day, with only one sail in sight, which labored much, as if it were anxiously seeking a harbor.... It was the roaring sea, thalassa exeessa.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)