beside it, about the year 1575, The cross itself was never replaced, but at a Common Hall, held in 1600, it was agreed "that there shall be a cage presently made and to be set up in the old place," or "in the place called the Barrell Cross or near thereabouts."
In the middle of the 18th century. Assembly Rooms were built on the site. "The building," wrote Mrs. Fielding Johnson, in her "Glimpses of Ancient Leicester," "which had no architectural pretensions, consisted mainly of a large upper room, supported upon columns, and facing the Humberstonegate. The other end, looking towards High Street, was occupied by one or more shops."
Belgravegate is first mentioned in the published Records of the Borough in the year 1305, when a rent was granted from a messuage outside the East Gate in "Bellgravegate," lying between Richard Norman's land and "the lane which leads to the Earl of Leicester's bakehouse." Belgravegate does not seem to have been within the Bishop's Fee, as Churchgate and Humberstonegate were. The tenants there, in 1322, under the leadership of Richard of Belgrave, certainly made an attempt "to draw the street which is called Belgravegate to the county for making contributions and tallages." But they did not then succeed, for it remained attached to the borough, and was for a long time after included in the borough tallage rolls. In 1478 a messuage "in the East Suburbs of Leicester in the street called Belgravegate," which stretched from the King's highway to the lane called Barkby Lane, was granted to the Borough for an obit. In 1484 the thoroughfare was included in the fourth Ward of the town.
"The street which is called Humberstonegate" is mentioned in the Borough Records from 1286 onwards. It belonged to the Bishop's Fee, and the tenants paid taxes with Gartree Hundred, and not with the Borough. It was provided, in 1273, that no one living on the fee of the Bishop might be a Jurat of Leicester. It would appear that the great causeway in Humberstonegate was erected in 1344, when the Earl of Derby, the eldest son of Henry, Earl of Lancaster, sent his serjeant,
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