It is the most divided street in Britain’s most segregated city.
Stanhope Street – an ordinary-looking road of red brick Edwardian houses in Leicester – is almost equally divided between Muslims and Hindus.
But while their city has sometimes been marked by tensions between communities of south Asian heritage – which has occasionally spilled over into violence – the residents here tell a very different story.
They told MailOnline what it is really like to live on the street with the highest concentration of adherents to both religions of any address in the UK.
Government data shows that of the 393 people who live on Stanhope Street, 48.9 per cent are Muslim while 34.1 per cent are Hindu, these two figures dwarfing the other 9.2 per cent who are Sikh and the even smaller Christian community, which makes up just 3.3 per cent.
The number of Muslims and Hindus here is so high that, in times of trouble, it has jokingly been referred to as ‘Leicester’s Shankill Road’ – a reference to the street in Belfast which became a notorious frontline between warring Catholic and Protestant communities during the Troubles.
Stanhope Street attained this distinction after post-war Leicester experienced waves of immigration from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh over the last 60 years, with the suburb of North Evington being where the two communities meet.
MailOnline uncovered the streets with the starkest Muslim/Hindu divisions by trawling through the 2021 Census.
Stanhope Street in Leicester has the highest concentration of adherents to both religions of any address in the UK
Azeem Arkate (left) was born and raised in Leicester and has lived in Stanhope Street since he was a ten-year old boy. Mohammed Ali-Jahon Chowdhury (right)
Nanji Raja, 57, moved from Wembley in North West London in 2016. He is part of a growing flow of people from Daman and Diu, two coastal territories next to the Indian state of Gujarat, who have moved to Leicester’s eastern suburbs over the last decade
MailOnline uncovered the streets with the starkest Muslim/Hindu divides by trawling through the 2021 Census
No fresher religion data exists for output areas (OAs) – geographical areas made up of around 600 people, with England and Wales divided into more than 100,000 OAs.
To find the pockets of the country with the biggest Muslim/Hindu splits, our analysis looked solely at the OAs where at least a third of residents were Muslim and another third were Hindu.
The five with the highest shares, where up to 85 per cent of residents were of either religion, were all in Leicester.
Although the OA encompassing Stanhope Street, in the Spinney Hills neighbourhood, technically ranked fourth, none of the ones that ranked above it straddled the entirety of a built-up street.
For example, the OA that topped the list was built around sections of the A47.
Roads to the east and west are predominantly Muslim while large parts to the north-west are almost exclusively Hindu.
And Stanhope Street is right where the two meet.
Lined on both sides by neat red brick terraced houses and cluttered by parked cars, the 150-yard street comprises 47 mainly three-bed homes.
There are three mosques within half a mile of the street and within one mile are three Hindu temples.
But the closest church is Saint Stephen’s Anglican, or North Evington Free Church a little further, but congregations in both are not vast.
Relations between the two communities in Leicester have traditionally been fraught, most notoriously three years ago when sectarian riots tore the city apart.
But residents we spoke to are perhaps surprisingly positive about their street – seeing it as a place of unusual tolerance.
And while that ‘Shankill’ tag may suggest simmering danger, in fact those we spoke to on the street feel that it’s in fact one of the least likely places for problems to erupt – because both communities are so used to each other.
Painter and decorator Krushna Patel, 26, who has spent his life living on the road, remembered the trouble in 2022, but with a shrug of his shoulders said: ‘Things got bad a couple of years ago, it got out of hand… but not here because Muslim and Hindu kids have grown up together.
‘There isn’t the segregation you get in other parts of Leicester and so there isn’t that sort of tension you get in places like next door in Highfields.
‘This street is peaceful, there are no arguments, no hassle. It’s a friendly environment.
‘My best friend is Muslim. He was born into a Christian family but about nine years ago he converted and we’re still close. He lives about six doors up from me.’
The front door to Mr Patel’s home is decorated with stickers of the elephant-headed Hindu goddess, Vinayaki, alongside Hindu swastikas.
He added: ‘When Hindus were celebrating Diwali, our Muslim neighbours were out with us letting off fireworks in celebration.
‘There’s a unique sense of community here that you just don’t get in many other parts of North Evington.’
Lined on both sides by neat red brick terraced houses and cluttered by parked cars, the 150-yard street comprises 47 mainly three-bed homes
Within half a mile there are three mosques, and three Hindu temples within one mile
Residents we spoke to are perhaps surprisingly positive about their street – seeing it as a place of unusual tolerance
Mr Patel’s best friend – now called Mohammed, 27 – told how he converted to Islam in 2016 after another friend took him to the local mosque.
He said: ‘I was brought up in a Christian household but I kind of lost my way a little bit with religion.
‘A Muslim friend of mine invited me to his mosque and I fell in love with Islam there and then. It was during Ramadan and I remember breaking my fast with him and his family.
‘I went from a Christian who rarely attended church to a Muslim who now prays five times a day.
‘But people here don’t worry about what religion you are. You can be Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Sikh. There are plenty of churches, mosques and temples around.
‘We just take people how we find them.
‘I’ve grown up on this street. The biggest change for me is that while we still have a core group who have lived here for thirty-plus years, there’s more rental properties now where people come and go.
‘I myself have lived all over Leicester but for me Stanhope Street is home. If you want to keep to yourself here, people will leave you be, but if you want to get to know your neighbours, they’ll be your friends for life.’
India and Pakistan share a 2,064-mile land border, which has been under constant dispute since the latter was founded as part of the 1947 Partition of India in – with the first Kashmir war sparking just a few months after the division.
Their bitter dispute over Kashmir dates back to the same period, as both sides claim the region the entire region but share it – meaning it has remained a flashpoint.
The latest flare-up was on April 22 when an attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir left 25 Indians and one Nepali national dead.
India retaliated with airstrikes two weeks later and both sides fired artillery across the conflict zone with reports of 16 deaths on the Indian side and 40 on the Pakistani – making it the worst aggression in two decades.
As well as international fears of a full-scale war between the two nuclear powers, there have been concerns that it could spark unrest on UK soil, in towns such as Leicester.
Tensions in the city boiled over following an Asia Cup cricket match on August 28, 2022 between India and Pakistan in Dubai, which brought members of the local Hindu community out on to the streets celebrating India’s win.
Back in 2022, during tensions between India and Pakistan over an Asia Cup cricket match, masked men march through Leicester
Footage emerged showing hundreds of people congregating in eastern parts of Leicester
Leicestershire Police officers block a road to control people gathering in the city
Police try to contain people at a march on Green Lane Road
During the revelry, an Indian flag was reportedly stamped on with members of the crowd blaming a Pakistan supporter.
Disorder broke out and while it was soon quelled by police, it lit the blue touch paper and, fuelled by social media, both Hindu and Muslim communities clashed violently over the next few weeks.
The worst of the trouble erupted on September 17 during the weekend of the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, when a masked mob of 300 Hindu youths marched on Green Lane Road, just east of Stanhope Street and intimidated and threatened Muslim shopkeepers and business owners.
A large group of Muslim men followed the marchers to Belgrave Road, a majority Hindu area, where gangs armed with sticks and bats clashed, cars were smashed and a flag was torn down from outside a temple and another burned.
While the tit-for-tat violence – which saw 47 arrests and 25 police officers injured – raged in the surrounding areas, Stanhope Street remained calm.
And it has so far remained so this year despite escalating tensions between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
The recent deadly clashes between India and Pakistan in the disputed region of Kashmir and the threat of all-out war between the two nuclear powers has sparked fears of further unrest breaking out on the streets of Leicester.
Thankfully so far the peace as held, not that Azeem Arkate, 44, is overly concerned.
The father-of-two who works in admin for delivery firm DPD was born and raised in Leicester and has lived in Stanhope Street since he was a ten-year old boy.
Like himself, his immediate neighbours are Muslim but he said: ‘I grew up here and there’s always been a good mix of families of all different types of religions.
‘Nowadays most people who live here are like me, Muslim, but there is also a very big Hindu community.
Until a few weeks ago Leicester was held up as one of our most successful diverse communities, a shining example of multicultural Britain. Pictured: Belgrave in Leicester yesterday where a mural is painted on the side of a furniture shop
England’s 11th largest city, where some 70 languages were spoken and people of all faiths, be they Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Christian, had lived peacefully as neighbours
Pictured: Members of the public outside shop Aaliya’s Collection and Beauty in Green Lane Road in Leicester yesterday
‘Whatever is happening in the world – such as the tensions between India and Pakistan – it isn’t replicated here.
‘For the most part everyone gets on well. A lot of families have lived on this street for as long as mine and there’s not been much of a cross word between us.
‘If there is the odd disagreement, it’s more likely to be over cricket or football than politics or global affairs.’
The average house price on Stanhope Street is £230,000 and the annual crime stats for the local policing neighbourhood is 27.2 per thousand of the population which ranks as low compared to 136 per thousand for Leicester as a whole which is high.
A low crime rate and affordable housing were among the reasons 57-year-old Nanji Raja moved from Wembley in North West London in 2016.
He is part of a growing flow of people from Daman and Diu, two coastal territories next to the Indian state of Gujarat, who have moved to Leicester’s eastern suburbs over the last decade.
Like many of his compatriots he celebrates his Hinduism proudly. Standing in the doorway of his home under a traditional Indian toran decoration, Mr Raja points to two Hindi symbols stuck to his front door.
On the left is written Shubh which means ‘goodness’. On the right is written ‘Labh’ which means ‘benefit’. Mr Raja, who lives in his three bedroom home with his wife, two sons and daughter-in-law says: ‘It’s supposed to bring good luck’.
He came to the UK in 2015 and spent a year living in Wembley before heading 100-miles north to Leicester and settling in Stanhope Street in February 2023.
He said: ‘The area where I lived in Wembley was among mostly other Indian people but when I came to Leicester it was much more diverse.
‘This street has many Hindu families but also Muslim, Sikh and Christian. There are all faiths living here peacefully.
‘I’ve not known of any disputes or social problems here. I can call on my Muslim neighbours as much as my Hindu friends.
‘Our children go to the same schools and people work in the same places. I think of us as one family on Stanhope Street
‘I much prefer living here than London, which is too big and busy, there’s more of a community feel in this part of Leicester.’
Five doors down from Mr Raja is Mohammed Ali-Jahon Chowdhury, 62, who moved to Stanhope Street in 1984 from his home town of Sylhet in Bangladesh.
Mr Chowdhury, a Muslim, worships at the Baitul Mukkaram mosque in neighbouring Highfields and owns the nearby Raj Mahal Indian restaurant.
He said: ‘The street has changed a lot from when I first arrived here. Back in the 1980s there were a lot more white British families living here.
‘A few years after I moved here, Sikh families moved in and more recently it’s been Hindu and Muslim families, particularly Indian Muslims.
‘I brought up three children here and they all played happily with youngsters from other faiths in the street. That’s still the case nowadays.
‘We don’t dwell on what’s going on outside our little community to be honest. I don’t talk to my Hindu neighbours about what Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Indian politicians are up to, I ask them how they are and how their families are and we talk about what’s going on locally.
‘This is a multicultural part of Leicester and relations on the street have only ever been good natured as far as I know.
‘The one big problem for me is the amount of litter that swirls around the streets – but we’re all to blame for that.’
Perhaps the resident who has seen the biggest changes is one of the few remaining Christians still residing in the street, although she is quick to point out that her father was a ‘tub-thumping atheist’.
Retired civil servant Mel Jones, 62 was born upstairs in her terraced home in 1963. Her parents were only the second owners of the property which was built in the early 1900s.
She grew up on Stanhope Street but moved away to London, where she still owns a flat in Hackney only to return five-years ago to care for her 94-year-old mother.
Ms Jones said: ‘When I was growing up, nearly everyone was white British but there were a few black families living close-by, including the lightweight boxer Tommy Tiger who came to Leicester from Nigeria in the late 1960s.
‘I went to school with a few Sikh kids too so we’ve always had diversity but the street has changed hugely over the years. There’s been a massive influx of Muslim and Hindu families since then but even though I’m now one of the few white faces on the street that sense of community has remained the same.
‘My Muslim neighbours invite me round to their house for food. So do my Hindu friends. Where else would you know neighbours who live at the top end of the street?
‘Certainly not Hackney. I know both next door neighbours in my block in London but that’s it. It’s a whole different world down there.
‘On Stanhope Street people just get on and mix well. It’s full of families.
‘When I came up here again after years of living mainly in London, I was struck with how kids were playing in the street like they did when I grew up and how neighbours had time for each other.
‘My Muslim and Hindu friends always ask after mum and ask how she is. In the evenings there are groups of lads standing around on the street when I take my chihuahua for a walk but I’ve never felt intimated in the slightest because I know the men they are and know that they pose no threat whatsoever, in fact they always look out for me.
‘Stanhope Street may now be filled with people from different faiths and backgrounds but it’s as friendly as it’s always been and in these turbulent times that is something which should be celebrated.’
