Woodgate is an area in Leicester

Leicester

Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

 in Fosse Ward. It lies west of the River Soar

River Soar

The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands.-Description:It rises near Hinckley in Leicestershire and is joined by the River Sence near Enderby before flowing through Leicester , Barrow-on-Soar, beside Loughborough and Kegworth, before joining the Trent near...

 and is an important entrance to the city leading on to Frog Island. A busy junction, its northern end lies at the intersection of Fosse Road North, Groby Road, Blackbird Road and Buckminster Road. To the south is the Rally Park, which was formerly the goods yard of the London Midland Railway, which was originally the Leicester to Swannington Railway built by Robert Stephenson in 1832. To the west is Fosse Road North. At its eastern end Woodgate terminates at the North Bridge over the old River Soar

River Soar

The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands.-Description:It rises near Hinckley in Leicestershire and is joined by the River Sence near Enderby before flowing through Leicester , Barrow-on-Soar, beside Loughborough and Kegworth, before joining the Trent near...

. The majority of the housing dates from the beginning of the 20th century, and like Newfoundpool

Newfoundpool

Newfoundpool is an area of Leicester lying south of the former Leicester-Swannington railway. The land was purchased by Isaac Harrison in 1830. Harrison intended to develop the area as a spa, using a spring as the source of water for a bathing establishment...

 was developed mainly by local builder Orson Wright. Before that time the area north of Woodgate, known as St Leonard's, was the principal residential area, and had been so for many centuries. Woodgate was a Housing Action Area in the late 1980s, when many properties were refurbished by Leicester City Council, and it forms part of the current regeneration plans for the city.

In the past Woodgate had a significant number of active factories, including hosiery, dyeworks, an iron foundry, light engineering and biscuit manufacture. The area has suffered from industrial decline with the closure of The Premier Screw and Repetition factory with over 100 redundancies. The site has often been vandalised. The former pubs, "The Friar Tuck" and "The Old Robin Hood" have long been derelict and been the scenes of crime including a murder. The former Nabisco factory site, home to a few small businesses and local Labour party offices was demolished in April 2008. This is the site of a new Aldi supermarket opened in November 2008. Other local businesses lie down Storey Street. The gothic Victorian St Leonard's Parish Church was demolished in the early 1990s and was replaced with a Kwikfit service station. St Leonard's Vicarage went at much the same time and was replaced by a car showroom. Woodgate itself remains a busy local shopping street with a bank, butcher, florist, hairdressers, optician, accountant, bakery (amongst others), Indian and Portuguese restaurants, a Chinese takeaway and traditional fish and chip shop. Woodgate has a primary school based on Balfour Street, and is also served by another on Slater Street.

The area is in Fosse Ward for local government purposes and part of the Leicester West parliamentary constituency at Westminster, the local MP from May 2010 is Liz Kendal. Previous MPs were Patricia Hewitt

Patricia Hewitt

Patricia Hope Hewitt is an Australian-born British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Leicester West from 1997 until 2010. She served in the Cabinet until 2007, most recently as Health Secretary....

, Greville Janner

Greville Janner

Greville Ewan Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone is a British Labour politician, lawyer and author. A QC since 1971, he was a Labour MP from 1970 to 1997...

 and Barnet Janner.

The Woodgate Resources Centre is used for local social gatherings: it was formerly a library.

Also near to Woodgate is the Woodgate Adventure Playground on the Rally Park which is used by local children for recreation. The former Midland railway line is now a cycle/foot path leading in the direction of Glenfield

Glenfield

Glenfield may refer to:*Glenfield, Leicestershire, the administrative base of Leicestershire County Council, Leicestershire in England.*Glenfield, New Zealand, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand.*Glenfield, New South Wales, is a suburb of Sydney, Australia....

 and Groby

Groby

Groby is a large English village in the county of Leicestershire, to the north west of the city of Leicester. The population at the time of the 2001 census was 7,301.-Description:...

to the north, and towards Leicester city centre to the south.