TIRATH YATRA WALK, STAGE 3: ISKCON CENTRE

Stage three of the Tirath Yatra Sponsored Walk with Leicester Friends of Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies: ISKCON Centre, Granby Street. The goal is to visit 16 Hindu places of worship (mandirs) in Leicester on foot in a single day.

Tirath Yatra (Hindi: तीर्थयात्रा) is a journey undertaken as a pilgrimage.

The ISKCON Centre is housed in one of the most admired and respected building in the city centre, which was previously in use as an HSBC bank, then sat empty and unused for a few years. The local ISKCON community bought the building as a new home after its former temple was destroyed in a gas explosion (in which no one was hurt). There are ambitious plans for this place and when they are accomplished, it will be a marvellous place to see. It wasn't on the Holi Yatra Walk last year.

While the building is still undergoing renovation, and has not yet been fully kitted out as intended, it is in active use already for devotional purposes. I have only been inside the building once, during the Rathayatra festival last year. I don't get in today, as by the time I've snapped half a dozen photos from across the street, our group is on the move again! Next stop is another building with a distinguished past, dedicated to a new and unexpected use, which wasn't on the programme in 2012.