On Wednesday 11 September 2013, budget hotel chain Travelodge will officially mark its role in the King Richard III story, when the Mayor of Leicester Peter Soulsby unveils a plaque at Leicester Central Travelodge (pictured below) to mark the site of the Blue Boar Inn – where King Richard lll spent his last night before being killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
This plaque is one of ten that have been produced by Leicester City Council to mark a new medieval walking tour that retraces King Richard lll last steps before he became the last English King to be killed in battle – which subsequently became a decisive moment in the War of the Roses.
The walking tour starts at Leicester Central Travelodge on Highcross Street , the former location of the Blue Boar Inn, which then stood on a medieval high street. Built in the mid-15th century, the Blue Boar was one of Leicester’s principal coaching inns, a place where aristocrats and wealthy merchants would stay when moving around the country. Today, the site is occupied by a 94-room Travelodge hotel which opened more than 500 years after the battle, in 2004.
In addition to Leicester Central Travelodge being the starting point of the new walking tour, the hotel is also hosting a book signing event on Wednesday 11th September 2013. The book entitled ‘Richard III: The Leicester Connection’ has been penned by David Baldwin, a former academic tutor at the University of Leicester who had predicted the possibility of finding Richard III on the site of the Grey Friars. He wrote: ‘It is possible, (though perhaps now unlikely) that at some time in the 21st century, an excavator may yet reveal the slight remains of this famous monarch.’
Speaking ahead of the launch, David Baldwin said: “I was thrilled when my prediction proved to be accurate, because only rarely is a historical mystery genuinely solved. My interest in King Richard goes back more than half a century, and I’m so pleased that my contribution to the discovery has helped to put Leicester on the map.”
The room King Richard III stayed in?
Salman Mohammed, Leicester Central Travelodge Hotel Manager said: “We are very proud that our hotel has a place in Britain’s history. Since the remains of King Richard lll were discovered earlier this year, we have been inundated with enquiries from the public wanting to know what room King Richard lll stayed in and requesting information on the Blue Boar Inn. We have had many tourists turning up to take a picture of our hotel too.”