Leicester is a city located on the river Soar in Leicestershire in the East Midlands region of England. The city was a Parliamentarian stronghold during the English Civil War (1642–1651). The city was connected to a national transport network first by the Grand Union Canal in the 1790s and then by the railway in the nineteenth century; a direct rail link to London was established in the 1860s. Industrialization made the city a hub for textile and shoe production.