What lifestyles is like at the maximum divided side road in Britain’s maximum segregated town… the place only one Christian who used to be born there stays

It is essentially the most divided side road in Britain’s maximum segregated town.

Stanhope Street – an ordinary-looking street of pink brick Edwardian homes in Leicester – is sort of similarly divided between Muslims and Hindus.

But whilst their town has occasionally been marked by way of tensions between communities of south Asian heritage – which has once in a while spilled over into violence – the citizens right here inform an overly other tale.

They informed MailOnline what it’s in reality love to live to tell the tale the road with the absolute best focus of adherents to each religions of any deal with in the United Kingdom.

Government knowledge presentations that of the 393 individuals who live to tell the tale Stanhope Street, 48.9 in step with cent are Muslim whilst 34.1 in step with cent are Hindu, those two figures dwarfing the opposite 9.2 in step with cent who’re Sikh and the even smaller Christian group, which makes up simply 3.3 in step with cent.

The choice of Muslims and Hindus here’s so prime that, in occasions of hassle, it has jokingly been known as ‘Leicester’s Shankill Road’ – a connection with the road in Belfast which become a infamous frontline between warring Catholic and Protestant communities right through the Troubles.

Stanhope Street attained this difference after post-war Leicester skilled waves of immigration from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh over the past 60 years, with the suburb of North Evington being the place the 2 communities meet.

MailOnline exposed the streets with the starkest Muslim/Hindu divisions by way of trawling in the course of the 2021 Census.

No more energizing faith knowledge exists for output spaces (OAs) – geographical spaces made up of round 600 folks, with England and Wales divided into greater than 100,000 OAs.

To to find the wallet of the rustic with the largest Muslim/Hindu splits, our research appeared only on the OAs the place a minimum of a 3rd of citizens have been Muslim and any other 3rd have been Hindu.

The 5 with the absolute best stocks, the place as much as 85 in step with cent of citizens have been of both faith, have been all in Leicester.

Although the OA encompassing Stanhope Street, within the Spinney Hills neighbourhood, technically ranked fourth, not one of the ones that ranked above it straddled the whole thing of a built-up side road.

For instance, the OA that crowned the checklist used to be constructed round sections of the A47.

Roads to the east and west are predominantly Muslim whilst huge portions to the north-west are virtually solely Hindu.

And Stanhope Street is true the place the 2 meet.

Lined on each side by way of neat pink brick terraced homes and cluttered by way of parked automobiles, the 150-yard side road incorporates 47 principally three-bed properties.

There are 3 mosques inside of half of one mile of the road and inside of one mile are 3 Hindu temples.

But the nearest church is Saint Stephen’s Anglican, or North Evington Free Church a little bit additional, however congregations in each don’t seem to be huge.

Relations between the 2 communities in Leicester have historically been fraught, maximum notoriously 3 years in the past when sectarian riots tore town aside.

But citizens we spoke to are in all probability unusually sure about their side road – seeing it as a spot of atypical tolerance.

And whilst that ‘Shankill’ tag would possibly counsel simmering risk, in reality the ones we spoke to in the street really feel that it is in reality one of the vital least most probably puts for issues to erupt – as a result of each communities are so used to one another.

Painter and decorator Krushna Patel, 26, who has spent his lifestyles residing at the street, remembered the difficulty in 2022, however with a shrug of his shoulders stated: ‘Things were given dangerous a few years in the past, it were given out of hand… however no longer right here as a result of Muslim and Hindu children have grown up in combination.

‘There is not the segregation you get in different portions of Leicester and so there is not that kind of rigidity you get in puts like subsequent door in Highfields.

‘This side road is non violent, there aren’t any arguments, no bother. It’s a pleasant setting.

‘My absolute best good friend is Muslim. He used to be born right into a Christian circle of relatives however about 9 years in the past he transformed and we are nonetheless shut. He lives about six doorways up from me.’

The entrance door to Mr Patel’s house is adorned with stickers of the elephant-headed Hindu goddess, Vinayaki, along Hindu swastikas.

He added: ‘When Hindus have been celebrating Diwali, our Muslim neighbours have been out with us letting off fireworks in birthday celebration.

‘There’s a novel sense of group right here that you simply do not get in lots of different portions of North Evington.’

Mr Patel’s absolute best good friend – now referred to as Mohammed, 27 – informed how he transformed to Islam in 2016 after any other good friend took him to the native mosque.

He stated: ‘I used to be introduced up in a Christian family however I more or less misplaced my manner a little bit bit with faith.

‘A Muslim good friend of mine invited me to his mosque and I fell in love with Islam there after which. It used to be right through Ramadan and I take note breaking my rapid with him and his circle of relatives.

‘I went from a Christian who hardly attended church to a Muslim who now prays 5 occasions an afternoon.

‘But folks right here do not be disturbed about what faith you’re. You will also be Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Sikh. There are quite a lot of church buildings, mosques and temples round.

‘We simply take folks how we discover them.

‘I’ve grown up in this side road. The greatest exchange for me is that whilst we nonetheless have a core workforce who’ve lived right here for thirty-plus years, there is extra apartment homes now the place folks come and move.

‘I personally have lived far and wide Leicester however for me Stanhope Street is house. If you need to stay to your self right here, folks will go away you be, however if you wish to get to grasp your neighbours, they will be your pals for lifestyles.’

India and Pakistan proportion a 2,064-mile land border, which has been beneath consistent dispute because the latter used to be based as a part of the 1947 Partition of India in – with the primary Kashmir battle sparking only a few months after the department.

Their sour dispute over Kashmir dates again to the similar length, as each side declare the area all of the area however proportion it – that means it has remained a flashpoint.

The newest flare-up used to be on April 22 when an assault on vacationers in Indian-administered Kashmir left 25 Indians and one Nepali nationwide lifeless.

India retaliated with airstrikes two weeks later and each side fired artillery around the warfare zone with stories of 16 deaths at the Indian aspect and 40 at the Pakistani – making it the worst aggression in twenty years.

As smartly as global fears of a full-scale battle between the 2 nuclear powers, there were issues that it will spark unrest on UK soil, in cities akin to Leicester.

Tensions within the town boiled over following an Asia Cup cricket fit on August 28, 2022 between India and Pakistan in Dubai, which introduced participants of the native Hindu group out directly to the streets celebrating India’s win.

During the revelry, an Indian flag used to be reportedly stamped on with participants of the group blaming a Pakistan supporter.

Disorder broke out and whilst it used to be quickly quelled by way of police, it lit the blue contact paper and, fuelled by way of social media, each Hindu and Muslim communities clashed violently over the following couple of weeks.

The worst of the difficulty erupted on September 17 right through the weekend of the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, when a masked mob of 300 Hindu youths marched on Green Lane Road, simply east of Stanhope Street and intimidated and threatened Muslim shopkeepers and trade homeowners.

A big workforce of Muslim males adopted the marchers to Belgrave Road, a majority Hindu house, the place gangs armed with sticks and bats clashed, automobiles have been smashed and a flag used to be torn down from outdoor a temple and any other burned.

While the tit-for-tat violence – which noticed 47 arrests and 25 law enforcement officials injured – raged within the surrounding spaces, Stanhope Street remained calm.

And it has thus far remained so this 12 months regardless of escalating tensions between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

The contemporary fatal clashes between India and Pakistan within the disputed area of Kashmir and the specter of all-out battle between the 2 nuclear powers has sparked fears of additional unrest breaking out at the streets of Leicester.

Thankfully thus far the peace as held, no longer that Azeem Arkate, 44, is overly involved.

The father-of-two who works in admin for supply company DPD used to be born and raised in Leicester and has lived in Stanhope Street since he used to be a ten-year outdated boy.

Like himself, his quick neighbours are Muslim however he stated: ‘I grew up right here and there is at all times been a excellent mixture of households of all several types of religions.

‘Nowadays the general public who are living listed here are like me, Muslim, however there may be an overly giant Hindu group.

‘Whatever is occurring on the earth – such because the tensions between India and Pakistan – it’s not replicated right here.

‘For essentially the most phase everybody will get on smartly. A large number of households have lived in this side road for so long as mine and there is no longer been a lot of a pass phrase between us.

‘If there’s the atypical war of words, it is much more likely to be over cricket or soccer than politics or world affairs.’

The reasonable space value on Stanhope Street is £230,000 and the yearly crime stats for the native policing neighbourhood is 27.2 in step with thousand of the inhabitants which ranks as low in comparison to 136 in step with thousand for Leicester as a complete which is prime.

A low crime price and reasonably priced housing have been a few of the causes 57-year-old Nanji Raja moved from Wembley in North West London in 2016.

He is a part of a rising drift of folks from Daman and Diu, two coastal territories subsequent to the Indian state of Gujarat, who’ve moved to Leicester’s japanese suburbs over the past decade.

Like lots of his compatriots he celebrates his Hinduism proudly. Standing within the doorway of his house beneath a standard Indian toran ornament, Mr Raja issues to 2 Hindi symbols caught to his entrance door.

On the left is written Shubh because of this ‘goodness’. On the fitting is written ‘Labh’ because of this ‘receive advantages’. Mr Raja, who lives in his 3 bed room house along with his spouse, two sons and daughter-in-law says: ‘It’s intended to deliver excellent success’.

He got here to the United Kingdom in 2015 and spent a 12 months residing in Wembley earlier than heading 100-miles north to Leicester and settling in Stanhope Street in February 2023.

He stated: ‘The house the place I lived in Wembley used to be amongst most commonly different Indian folks but if I got here to Leicester it used to be a lot more various.

‘This side road has many Hindu households but additionally Muslim, Sikh and Christian. There are all faiths residing right here peacefully.

‘I’ve no longer recognized of any disputes or social issues right here. I will be able to name on my Muslim neighbours up to my Hindu pals.

‘Our youngsters move to the similar faculties and folks paintings in the similar puts. I call to mind us as one circle of relatives on Stanhope Street

‘I a lot choose residing right here than London, which is simply too giant and busy, there is extra of a group really feel on this a part of Leicester.’

Five doorways down from Mr Raja is Mohammed Ali-Jahon Chowdhury, 62, who moved to Stanhope Street in 1984 from his house the city of Sylhet in Bangladesh.

Mr Chowdhury, a Muslim, worships on the Baitul Mukkaram mosque in neighbouring Highfields and owns the within sight Raj Mahal Indian eating place.

He stated: ‘The side road has modified so much from once I first arrived right here. Back within the 1980s there have been much more white British households residing right here.

‘A couple of years once I moved right here, Sikh households moved in and extra just lately it is been Hindu and Muslim households, specifically Indian Muslims.

‘I introduced up 3 youngsters right here they usually all performed luckily with kids from different faiths on the street. That’s nonetheless the case this present day.

‘We do not live on what is going on outdoor our little group to be fair. I do not communicate to my Hindu neighbours about what Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Indian politicians are as much as, I ask them how they’re and the way their households are and we speak about what is going on in the neighborhood.

‘This is a multicultural a part of Leicester and family members in the street have simplest ever been excellent natured so far as I do know.

‘The one giant downside for me is the quantity of clutter that swirls across the streets – however we are all accountable for that.’

Perhaps the resident who has observed the largest adjustments is likely one of the few last Christians nonetheless dwelling on the street, even if she is fast to show that her father used to be a ‘tub-thumping atheist’.

Retired civil servant Mel Jones, 62 used to be born upstairs in her terraced house in 1963. Her folks have been simplest the second one homeowners of the valuables which used to be constructed within the early 1900s.

She grew up on Stanhope Street however moved away to London, the place she nonetheless owns a flat in Hackney simplest to go back five-years in the past to deal with her 94-year-old mom.

Ms Jones stated: ‘When I used to be rising up, just about everybody used to be white British however there have been a couple of black households residing close-by, together with the light-weight boxer Tommy Tiger who got here to Leicester from Nigeria within the overdue 1960s.

‘I went to university with a couple of Sikh children too so we’ve got at all times had range however the side road has modified vastly over time. There’s been an enormous inflow of Muslim and Hindu households since then however despite the fact that I’m now one of the vital few white faces in the street that sense of group has remained the similar.

‘My Muslim neighbours invite me spherical to their space for meals. So do my Hindu pals. Where else would you recognize neighbours who are living on the best finish of the road?

‘Certainly no longer Hackney. I do know each subsequent door neighbours in my block in London however that is it. It’s a complete other global down there.

‘On Stanhope Street folks simply get on and blend smartly. It’s filled with households.

‘When I got here up right here once more after years of residing principally in London, I used to be struck with how children have been enjoying on the street like they did once I grew up and the way neighbours had time for every different.

‘My Muslim and Hindu pals at all times ask after mum and ask how she is. In the evenings there are teams of lads status round in the street once I take my chihuahua for a stroll however I’ve by no means felt intimated within the slightest as a result of I do know the lads they’re and know that they pose no risk in any respect, in reality they at all times glance out for me.

‘Stanhope Street would possibly now be full of folks from other faiths and backgrounds however it is as pleasant as it is at all times been and in those turbulent occasions this is one thing which must be celebrated.’