DERBY CIVIC SOCIETY COUNCIL

PATRON: Her Worship the Mayor, Cllr. Mrs. Linda Winter PRERSIDENT: Don Amott, Esq.

VICE PRESIDENTS: Donald Armstrong, Maxwell Craven, Derek Limer, Robin Wood. CHAIRMAN: Cllr. Alan Grimadell [3, Netherwood Court, Allestree, Derby DE22 2NU]

VICE CHAIRMAN: Ashley Waterhouse [33, Byron Street, Derby DE23 6ZY] HON SECRETARY: David Ling [67, South Avenue, Darley Abbey, Derby DE22 1FB]

HON MEMBERSHIP SEC’Y: Cllr. Robin Wood [103 Whitaker Rd., Derby DE23 6AQ] HON TREASURER: Phil Lucas [26, St. Pancras Way, Little Chester, Derby DE1 3TH]

HON ACTIVITIES SUB-COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: David Parry [110, Kedleston Road, Derby DE22 1FW]

EDITOR & CASEWORKER: Maxwell Craven [19, Carlton Rd, Derby, DE23 6HB] REPRESENTATIVES:

Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust Council of Management: Cllr. Robin Wood Conservation Area Advisory Committee: Ian Goodwin

COUNCIL (in addition to those named above, who serve on the Council ex officio): Laurence Chell, Carole Craven, Richard Felix, Keith Hamilton, Roger Pegg, Emeritus Professor Jonathan Powers, John Sharpe & Thorsten Sjölin (on behalf of the Darley

Abbey Society). *

The opinions expressed herein are entirely those of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the Society, its council or its editor. All contributions submitted under noms-de-plume/pseudonyma must be accompanied by a bona fide name and address if such are to be accepted for publication.

The Newsletter of the Derby Civic Society is normally published twice a year by the Societyc/o 19, Carlton Road, Derby DE23 6HB and is printed by Glenwood Printing Ltd., of 2a Downing Road, West Meadows, Derby DE21 6HA. A limited number of back numbers of the Newsletter are available from the editor at the above address @ £2 per copy.

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Cover picture: St. Mary’s Bridge, north side, photographed from the garden of the Bridge Inn, Mansfield Road, February 2016. It was designed by Thomas Harrison of Chester and built under the auspices of the Second Improvement Commission 1789-1794 (the latter date is incised on the vermiculated rustication of the SW cutwater just above water level). The balustrade was originally of cast iron from Alderwasley Ironworks, but was replaced in stone by the Council in the 1970s after a lorry had damaged it. This view will soon be lost as the Environment Agency’s un-necessary and hugely expensive ‘once in a hundred year event’ anti-flood scheme (mockingly called ‘Our City Our River’)

will place a substantial wall between the pub and the river’s edge here.

C O N T E N T S

Editorial

Modernism versus Traditional

Chairman’s column

New Members

Clock on!

Derby’s Forgotten Buildings

No. 37, RowditchBarracks.

Derby’s Listed Grade II Buildings

No. 35, Wilderslow

Architsctural Curiosities

Lookalikes

The Field: a Note

Lincoln’s Waterside Shopping Centre

An Important Ruling: South Wingfield Manor

Another Important Ruling: Darley Abbey

Friends of Friar Gate Bridge

Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall

Lunar21 Symposium

A Discovery in Traffic Street

In Praise of the Mercury

Blue Plaquery

Pokémon Go! Comes to Derby

Kingsway Retail Park

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EDITORIAL

In 2015 a first rate architect belonging to an internationally rated firm produced a report into the best way to preserve the ambience of historic towns. The architect was Spencer de Grey and the firm Lord Foster’s, although the latter’s

eponymous founder is a practitioner whose work I invariably dismiss out of hand as a pretentious modernist who ought not to be let loose within 1,000 miles of the UK. That not wholly irrational prejudice, however, should not detract from the work of his noble colleague, whose report is exceedingly pertinent. The problem is that as cities and towns become increasingly in demand as places to live, the ambience which attracts people to them becomes rapidly degraded by formulaic development

around the periphery (permanently devaluing the setting) and by inappropriate development in the historic heart. Furthermore, such development is also driven by the imposition on local authorities of housing quotas, which have to be met in order to ensure the payment of various subventions. The report was commissioned by the Duke of Richmond’s heir the Earl of March & Kinrara

whose Goodwood estate is perilously close to Chichester, a historic town in West Sussex almost under siege from potential house-builders. The aristocratic de Grey argues that British planners need to look urgently at Continental practice as a way to resolve this conundrum.

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He compares the centres of a number of UK towns to their continental equivalents. In the UK the number of people living in a town centre has long been in serious decline, whereas on the Continent, it is increasing. He quotes King’s Lynn a former post-war ‘overspill’ town, with a

decaying town centre, currently lived in by 4,800 people. In contrast, Delft, a town of equivalent size with an equally unspoilt historic but very thriving centre, boasts over 12,000. The de Grey study demonstrates that almost all the housing proposed for various English towns and cities, currently being directed to greenfield sites, can be accommodated within the existing envelope of the settlement. This raises the population density which in turn supports shops, services and cafes whilst reducing dependency on the car, something Continental towns and cities have been doing for a long time, also using not only their brown field sites but also their sometimes rich stock of historic buildings. The piece (below) on the Lunar 21 symposium ids of relevance here. This eminently sensible approach to wholly sustainable town development is one that the present planning system is not geared up to deliver. For a start, many town centre sites are under multiple ownership. Two typical examples obtrude from Derby’s recent planning history. First, Duckworth Square, until recently multiply owned. When I was on the Board of Derby Cityscape, developing this site was considered a priority, but the five owners of various chunks of it all wanted unrealistically high prices for their portions and huge patience was needed to negotiate the sale of all the parts, only achieved five years later when the residuary post-Cityscape body, from 2010 part of the Council, managed to wrap up a deal last year.

Old Blacksmith’s YardL view of the blocked access into George Yard, March 2016. [M. Craven]

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Second, is the example of Old Blacksmith’s Yard, Sadler Gate. The reason why there is no exit

from Old Blacksmith’s Yard to George Yard, which would have improved usage, is that the ten feet from one to the other fell under three ownerships, each being used against the developer David M Adams as a ransom strip. Hence a blind archway where once there should have been a gateway.

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The developmental carcrash that is Duckworth Square, complete with derelict brutalist hotel, as seen from Becket Well Lane, 7/12/2015. [M. Craven]

Therefore this sort of problem (remarkably common) can deter developers and planners whilst picking off green field sites inevitably becomes the more easy option. With local authorities thinning out staff to save money, the time and effort are not seen as being worth the candle. Worse, our model for expansion is heavily developer-led, so picking off the easiest and cheapest options – green field sites - saves them money and keeps dividends up. The entire planning system needs radical overhaul if we are to have decent towns and cities in a generation or so. The system needs to be led by planning criteria not by developers, as on the Continent. Developers will still build, but the places where they will build will be subject to tighter control and scrutiny. As it is, we get developers, councillors, planners and non-accountable ‘fixers’ like John Forkin banging on about developments making the City ‘more

vibrant’, yet firms like Clowes Investments are still allowed to sit for decades on vast segments

of inner city land like the GNR station and goods yard, the land between Sadler Gate and St. James’s Street and other portions in the City centre, as land banks, occasionally getting planning consent for some grandiose scheme but never implementing them, usually for a variety of unconvincing reasons, whilst the land appreciates steadily in value on their balance sheets.

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This is not ‘developer led’ planning but ‘developer hindered’ and strikes one as completely

unacceptable and essentiually contemptuous of the community. Powers exist to force such land back into public use, but the Council, bereft of any vision or competence and frightened to commit resources which may be difficult to recover, never acts. After nearly 40 years the GNR site, despite three plans for its development, has never been touched, yet a repairs notice could have been served on the bonded warehouse 25 years ago when it was first vandalised, but nothing happened. Were one to be served now it might act as a wake-up call to the developers and remind them of their responsibilities to the community.

Friar Gate Station 12/5/2011: land for hundreds of houses going to waste for 32 years. View of the westernmost platforms looking east. [M. Craven] What Derby requires to become ‘vibrant’ (if that’s what people want: ‘commercially sustainable and attractive to live in’ would be a preferable way of describing it) is to stop fantasising about grandiose projects nobody wants to promote and build houses or apartments on Duckworth Square, Friar Gate Station, in the GNR bonded warehouse, in the St. James’s area, in the St.

George’s area (unless that really is going to be the Dean’s new school) and elsewhere

Another way of trying to implement this sort of fundamental change lies in the notional revival of the Michael Heseltine inspired ‘Living over the shops’ (LOTS) scheme of 1986, along with legislation to enable such a scheme to actually be attractive and to work. The idea is to adapt unused city centre upper floors to be opened up as places to live. In Derby more than 50% of unused upper floors are in historic buildings in desperate need of sustainable, viable use. There are inevitably problems: with insurance, access, car parking, VAT and administration, but none insuperable, albeit some requiring legislation. But even without the co-operation of those developers selfishly sitting on land banks, bringing back these unused spaces in the historic core of the city would go a long way to solving the problems which face most similar settlements. A typical area ripe for development in the core of the city is Canary Island but, thanks to the megalomaniac scheme called Our City Our River promoted by the Environment Agency (EA), an unaccountable quango, and its stooge, the City Council, most of this area is to be stripped of buildings to accommodate a run off channel to deal with a ‘once a century’ flooding possibility. Not only that, but a purpose-built block of over 120 social housing flats, Exeter House, which are

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also of considerable historic significance, is to be demolished to allow for it if you please - this at a time when we are being asked to find more and more housing, especially for those least able to afford it. Another planned casualty is the former Harwood’s building (now NatWest) on Derwent

Street, designed in best Art Deco style by Naylor & Sale in the mid-1930s. Should Natwest move on (a possibility, I understand) this would convert to very smart housing units.

Derwent St., Canary Island, Harwood’s (now NatWest), a locally listed Art-Deco building now threatened with demolition, seen here on 22/2/2005. [M. Craven] The rest of the area is prime building land, bearing in mind the EA would require ground floors to be garaging only in case of that ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ flood event. All that potential developers would have to do would be to stick to a brief imposed by an enlightened Council (well, one can dream!) to keep height down and adhere to a design brief that would avoid such hideous utilitarianism as the nearby Miller Homes blocks on Stuart Street, which were never intended to be built as they are, but which got the nod to be simplified after consent was granted. There is another tarantula in the woodpile too, upon which I touched in the last issue. The building of student flats has already disfigured parts of the town with great cheaply-built behemoths of buildings. So instead of getting permanent residents into the town centre we are getting seasonally occupied blocks built to the cheapest possible standards. I did wonder why, as most normal students, like my daughter Cornelia and her friends at the University of Nottingham and elsewhere, like to life off-campus in shared houses. Yet I gather these blocks are for foreign students to live in, a commodity upon which the University of Derby is apparently majoring in order to attract central funding. Whether the post-Brexit landscape will remain the same is another, rather pertinent, question in this context. I fear Spencer de Grey’s report failed to mention this strange intrusive and, one suspects,

ephemeral phenomenon. How the university cities on the Continent contend with the problem I do not know. Yet I hope his report gets wider circulation than just in the estate office at

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Goodwood, though, because our towns and cities desperately need to be taken seriously and not just used as vehicles for various governments’ essays in social engineering.

Herbert Aslin’s pioneering and humane Exeter House Flats, locally listed but now seriously

under threat. Photographed 1st November 2011. [M. Craven]

As it is, we have the annual MIPIM conference in Cannes where councillors junket off at the expense of the very firms whose planning applications on which they will later sit in judgement. It’s as near to open bribery as you can legally get, so the cynic might think. They’d be better

employed going to Delft or Osnabrück and seeing how to make their town centres truly ‘vibrant’

and sustainable. Otherwise in the longer term, those of us who live here will begin merely to suffer the place, as its genius loci becomes eroded, and few visitors will wish to come to it, due to its increasing ugliness and uniformity.

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MODERNISM vs TRADITIONAL ‘The school of thought personified by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner established a moral convention that one should only build in the style of one’s own time – that architectural progress was relentlessly and morally pure and that to revert back to the architecture of past civilisations or generations was automatically reactionary. For the [distinguished architect Professor] C. R. Cockerell (1788-1863)….the progressive and inventive use of, in his case, the language of Classical design was

not “anachronistic”….but a rational, visual and symbolic choice.’

(Matthew Saunders, review of Bordeleau, A, Charles Robert Cockerell, Architect in Time: Reflections around Anachronistic Drawings, Ashgate, 2016).

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CHAIRMAN’S COLUMN Hello everyone! As you read your latest Newsletter yet another Blue Plaque will have been launched by our Society. The site is the Marble Hall of the old Rolls-Royce factory administration block on Nightingale Road and the Plaque is to Sir Henry Royce Bt. (engineer and co-founder of Rolls-Royce) and Captain The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls (company co-founder, pioneer motorist and aviator). The partnership between Derby City Council and the Derby Civic Society continues and, as Chairman I’m very grateful

to Council officers Andy Hills and Chloe Oswald, and to Cllr Martin Rawson for their hard work and continued

support. We hope to launch many more Blue Plaques before the end of the year. A few months ago my wife Louise and I tavelled to our twin city of Osnabrück to celebrate 40 years of twinning with Derby. There are a number of photographs within this Newsletter depicting the architecture of some of the buildings. Other delegates attending twinning celebrations of their cities with Osnabrück included Hefei (China), Evansville (USA), and Tver (Russia). The City of Osnabrück is well worth a visit, and our party was well looked after, directed, guided by Derby envoy Daniel Hampton. Thank you, Daniel.

The medallion men! Osnabrück Oberburgomeister Wolfgang Griesert at a Civic Reception, flanked by Deputy Mayor of Derby, Cllr. Mark Tittley and Alan, our Chairman. [Louise Grimadell]

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We held our Annual ABCD Awards last February it was very well attended by many of our members, and of course the winners! Our President Don Amott and the then Mayor of Derby Paul Pegg presented a number of awards. The winner of the best building was awarded to the University of Derby for their amazing Sports Centre—well worth a visit! My thanks go to David Ling and the team for their selection of winners and runners up. A great deal of time is spent on visiting and selecting all those who are represented in the awards. It is always a pleasure to welcome new members to the Derby Civic Society and we all hope to meet you very soon at one of our social events. We can offer another varied programme of talks and visits for 2016/2017. To all existing members please remember to renew your membership from August 1st. I do believe that we are one of the best valued societies in the City in terms of membership fees. If you have an email address please email it to MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Robin Wood (DerbyCivicSociety@aol.com) as this will help reduce postage costs, always, it would seem, on the increase – many thanks I end my column by saying a BIG THANK YOU to our Activities Chairman Dave Parry who after many years in the role has decided to step down at the September AGM. On saying that Dave has organised our next schedule of events and has said that he ‘will not be disappearing!’ Dave, as you all know, has performed a sterling job for the Civic Society for well over twenty years. We are now looking for someone to take on that role therefore of you are interested please contact Secretary David Ling (Tel 01332 551484). If necessary, it could be done by more than one person collegiately. Whoever takes on the position is guaranteed help and support by the present members of the Civic Society Council – we look forward to hearing from you.

An Osnabrück street view; it looks strangely like Sadler Gate! [Louise Grimadell]

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An ornamental timber-framed and jettied façade, possibly 16th century. [Louise Grimadell]

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Another street view. [Louise Grimadell]

NEW MEMBERS

Corporate Amanda Strong, Mercia Image Ltd., The Sidings. Duffield Rd. Industrial Estate, Little Eaton,

Derby, DE21 5EG Individual

Guido Basile, Edlaston Hall, Edlaston, Derbyshire DE6 2DQ Margaret Daniels,73 Lime Grove, Chaddesden, Derby, DE21 6WL

James M. Dean, 1 Harringay Gardens, Derby, DE22 4DE Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa, 33 Breedon Avenue, Littleover, Derby, DE23 1LR

Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Fullarton, 356, Stenson Road, Derby DE23 1HF Mike Hudd, 32 White Street, Derby, DE22 1HA

Rachel Morris, c/o Derby Cathedral, 18-19 Iron Gate, Derby, DE1 3GP Mr. & Mrs. John MacDonald-Mackenzie, 24, White Street, Derby DE22 1HA

Kathleen Mosley, The Old Bakehouse, 4, Chestnut Avenue, Chellaston, Derby, DE73 6RW Lynn Pearson, 9, The Poplars, Gosforth, Northumberland NE3 4AE Peter J Seddon, Northworthy, 11 Louvain Road, Derby, DE23 6DA

Mr & Mrs. Brian & Diane Wilson, Apt. 4, The Hayes, Leek, Wootton, Warwick, CV35 7QU

Change of address Revd. Canon Paul Brett, 23, Stothert Avenue, Bath, Somerset BA2 3FF

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CLOCK ON!

The Spot saga gets worse. It was transformed from a notable road junction in 1906 when C B Birch’s statue of Queen Victoria was put there, paid for by super-rich refrigeration tycoon Sir Alfred Haslam and unveiled by King Edward VII and the then Mayor Sir Edwin Ann. She looked imperiously down St. Peter’s Street, a wholly appropriate, dignified and decorative addition to a very unremarkable part of Derby. Then, in 1927, it was decreed that public loos should be provided there – very necessary in an age when such basic necessities were considered a sine qua non of civilised life, unlike today, where we have our astonishingly negative council shutting them all down to save paltry sums of money, not to mention de-funding almost every aspect of our traditional culture. The unintended consequence was that it was realised that, with a modest amount of road widening to accommodate a ’bus stop, Her majesty would have to go on top of the loos, but it

was then pointed out by the City Surveyor that she was too heavy and that strengthening work would be prohibitively expensive for something as utilitarian as a loo. The compromise was that the statue was banished to the grounds of the DRI, then still under direct local control and funding. This was the first step in the decline of The Spot, despite the attractive seating area and Art-Deco iron railings provided in lieu of the Queen. This situation prevailed until the creation of the Derby Promenade in 1991. The pre-historic route way through Derby, or at least the St. Peter’s Street to Iron Gate part was pedestrianised and the Council wanted an ‘iconic’ (ghastly cliché) set-piece to end The Promenade at The Spot. Thus was conceived the clock tower and flanking pylons, done in Deco manner to chime in with the 1936 Thomas Bennett corner building opposite. Although we mockingly called it the ‘gun emplacement’ from its resemblance to parts of Hitler’s

Atlantic Wall, it wasn’t a bad solution, although the architectural fraternity fretted that it was too

rétardataire, too pastiche - a favourite term for architects to use when they feel something is insufficiently ‘cutting edge’ (i.e. ugly, difficult to maintain, badly built and oversized). We also mocked because the clock was electronically wound and the striking and chiming were recordings, not bells, and sounded it. If the City wanted to show the quality of what we produced, they should have gone the extra mile and had Smiths install a proper ring of bells and a carillon. But at least Nick Brown’s Council were prepared to take initiatives and make something of the City, The Promenade being an example. So The Spot regained its dignity – until three years ago, when the present council reckoned it was cheaper to de-commission the 90 year old loos than refurbish them. Then some bright spark though they could have a ‘performance space’ and so the Gun Emplacement was demolished and

the bulk of it tipped into the hole vacated by the loos. In the process, the clock, which it was proposed to erect elsewhere, has, it turns out (Derby Telegraph 12th April) been damaged beyond repair and will be scrapped. This is merely an excuse. First: the contractors who removed it are surely liable to make good any damage. Second, Smiths have the expertise and capacity to repair any clock, however badly

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damaged. The two facts leave absolutely no excuse for scrapping it. The only reason for that is to save money, despite the possibility of sponsorship, which is usually there if sought for determinedly enough

The Spot: the ‘Gun emplacement’ – a final view, taken August 2014. You can barely see it for a clutter of un-necessary street furniture! [M. Craven] So now Smiths are going to provide us with an ‘installation’ for The Spot (not sure about any ‘performance space’ any longer) which is fair enough, but one fears that it will look gimcrack

and tawdry, not through any fault of Smiths but because the concept looks all wrong. *

DERBY’S FORGOTTEN BUILDINGS

No. 37, Rowditch Barracks

In 1796, the wars against revolutionary France caused panic at government level. One of the results of this was the passing of an Act allowing a mounted militia to be called the Provisional Cavalry. Locally, Lord Vernon (Sudbury Hall) was appointed Colonel in 1797, but the unit was probably never embodied. Eventually, the local units which had actually come into being, the 95trh (Derbyshire) regiment and the Yeomanry Cavalry were gradually stood down. In the 1850s, with Napoleon III reigning in France as Emperor, further panic set in and a second volunteer movement arose. This led to the formation in 1855 of the 2nd Derbyshire Militia

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(Chatsworth Rifles) and in 1859 by the foundation of the Derbyshire Volunteer Rifle Corps. The North Midland Volunteers were established a little later with the Drill Hall, Becket Street as HQ. The Derbyshire Volunteer Rifle Corps (DVRC) were provided, at government expense, with a barracks built in a compact enclave at the Rowditch formed from a worked out brick pit, immediately NW of the alignment of Rykneild Street, which is aligned with the garden end plots of the houses on Uttoxeter Road at Rowditch. The buildings were designed by Derby architect Edwin Thompson, and were built in 1859, consisting of gatehouses, drill hall, stores and 8 warrant officers’ cottages. The entire ensemble, which was listed through this society’s efforts in

1998, is described by Historic England as ‘A very rare and well preserved example of a local volunteer barracks.’

Rowditch Barracks: the Drill Hall and store, April 2016, with Carole adding scale. [MC] One enters from Barracks Yard, a tree lined avenue from Rowditch, leading off the Uttoxeter Old Road beside the former Baptist Chapel. An iron overthrow (all that remains of the original iron gates) leads between a guard house and armoury, both three bays wide single storey buildings. In front of one opens out what was the drill square, all surrounded by a ten foot brick wall. At the far end the drill hall and store itself two storeys, seven bays under a hipped roof with central entrance and sack hoist aperture (for loading ammunition) above. To the left was a rifle range with privies and stores, which later became changing rooms and to the right a terrace of eight rather well-proportioned houses for warrant officers, all the work of Thompson.

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The DVRC became affiliated to the 95th Regiment in 1872, becoming the 3rd Battalion Sherwood Foresters from 1881. After the formation of the Sherwood Foresters, a large new barracks had been built on Sinfin Lane in 1874–77 and from 1881 the Rifle Volunteers therefore transferred to Sinfin Lane barracks. Miraculously, although decommissioned in 1881, Rowditch Barracks survived as a laundry, the drill square as a tennis club’s courts and the cottages, suitably

adapted as four reasonably spacious units instead of eight miniscule ones were for a long time let to Council employees

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Rowditch Barracks: the drill square (latterly tennis courts), the E end of the WOs’ cottages, gate,

guard house and store, April 2016. [M. Craven] The whole makes a splendid ensemble, latterly home to a tennis club with courts on the drill square but now all is piteously deserted, overgrown and only one cottage occupies, the others deserted boarded up and punctuated by abandoned rusting motor vehicles. The trouble is, if the Council allow their own buildings to get into this shocking state, then they have no moral basis for chasing up the owners of other listed buildings in equally shameful state, like Wilderslow (NHS) or the ex-GNR Bonded warehouse (Clowes). If they were to take any such backsliders to court under current legislation the plaintiffs would have a watertight defence. Nor is the barracks the only Council-owned building in dire straits, for Allestree Hall, listed II*, is also in near terminal decay. The Council needs to put its own house in order very quickly and the easiest was to do this is to sell the affected sites asap.

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DERBY’S LISTED GRADE II BUILDINGS

No. 35 WILDERSLOW

Derby was once ringed by elegant Regency villas, in the main erected by local grandees as town houses in order to get away from the increasingly noisesome and humantiy-stuffed town centre where most of them had hitherto lived whilst in town. Not a few were designed by Derby’s distinguished amateur architect Alderman Richard Leaper (1759-1838) a serial mayor, collector of customs and banker, whose achievements I recorded in the 2010 Journal of the Georgian Group and of whom Stephen Glover wrote that he was ‘a gentleman who has had great taste and much experience in building family mansions.’ Many of these interesting and in some cases architecturally wayward buildings have unfortunately been demolished, most recently Thornhill and Mill Hill House, both by Leaper, in 2006. Whilst Wilderslow is a survivor (and, unlike the two mentioned above, listed), it is at risk and in an increasingly parlous condition: its stone facing is falling off, at least one chimney has collapsed, it is boarded up, overgrown and there are distinct signs of serious water ingress. The house itself, on the east side of Osmaston Road, part of the DRI site, has a centre section and two wings, of which the southernmost is the earliest part. This is of three bays and two storeys under a hipped roof and contains the entrance, shielded by a portico supported on paired Roman Ionic columns. There is a band between the floors but the fenestration as elsewhere on the building, has had its original multi-pane sashes replaced with plate glass. The central section is taller, with two bays of tripartite windows topped by entablatures supported on console brackets and all topped by a balustrade parapet. The first floor windows rise from a sill band. The northernmost section matches this, but is lower with a hipped roof to match the southern wing, and the entire building is drawn together by panelled giant pilasters at the angles and defining the

central section, support-ing an entablature which is defined on all but the southern section. The east (once garden) front is generally similar and a service wing, now scarred by the removal of later extensions (without listed building consent, needless to say) ran off to the north. Wilderslow: photograph of 1986, when it was the NHS office and record archive. [M. Craven]

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Originally the house sat in a park bounded by London Road, Bradshaw Street and Osmaston Road, and the history of the site, according to the deeds, went back a long way.1 The land was originally part of a common field of the borough called Bradshaw Hay after a prominent family of goldsmiths in the town, and at the Dissolution had become part of the endowment of the Chantry of the Blessed Virgin Mary at St. Peter’s Church. This passed to the Borough and in

1547 was granted to the Allestrey family of Alvaston and was variously written Wildersley or Wilderlow. In 1648 it had passed to the Parkers and in 1660 was held by Joseph Parker who built St. Michael’s House, Queen Street at about this time. In 1718 part was sold to Alderman Isaac

Borough and the land was further sub-divided in 1721. By1736 one of the heirs of one portion was Joseph Wright’s uncle Edward Brooks, and the artist’s father was the solicitor administering

the relevant will. In 1808 the Duke of Devonshire acquired a portion as well although most of the rest had been acquired by Joseph Wright’s brother Dr. Richard Wright, but within a decade the

proprietors were Joseph and Thomas Bainbrigge, members of another ancient Derby family.

Wilderslow in December 2013, boarded up and in decay. [SAVE Britain’s Heritage] Thomas Bainbrigge died in 1820 and the entire estate was sold to Thomas and William Taylor and the first house had been erected on the site by autumn 1821 being mentioned on a deed as a ‘messuage, dwelling house or tenement.’

2 This would have been the southernmost portion of the present house, without doubt a modest affair in brick, possibly then without the portico. This would have been the home of the Taylors who were then the proprietors of the Derby silk mill. In 1821, however, the Derby Silk Mill burned down, leaving the Taylors to rebuild it, being the occasion that the engine house between the main mill and the three storey doubling shop was removed in favour of the present galleried tower. They had to borrow heavily from Evans’s Bank

1 The deeds in the mid-1980s, when I saw them, were Southern Derbyshire Area Health Authority Deed packet 73, especially deeds 10/68 A, B & C. 2 Bainbrigge had actually left the site to Robert Wood of Uttoxeter in his will, but Wood re-sold it immediately to the Taylors. Deeds of 18th September 1821. Bainbrigge also left his Queen Street house, No. 27 (originally built by Joseph Pickford for John Whitehurst FRS), then occupied by his brother Joseph [deed 10/68C of 17/8/1821]

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in St. Mary’s Gate and in 1823 were obliged to mortgage house and estate (which stretched into Litchurch and New Normanton) for £30,000. By this date too, a ‘capital stone built messuage house with stables, coach house and

outbuildings’ had been built for Thomas Taylor, being the house which survives opposite the end

of Charnwood Street. This plot was ‘...at or near a certain place called High Park Corner...late in the possession of Henry Pole and was bounded on the North by Fingal Street, also by Cuckolds’ Alley and by

the house [Wilderslow] lately belonging to Mr. Thomas Bainbrigge and by land sold to the Trustees of the Derbyshire general Infirmary’.

Fingal Street later was renamed Hill Street and Cuckolds’ Alley became Bourne Street, of which

a stub end survives. High Park Corner (roughly the upper Bradshaw Way roundabout) was recorded in some contemporary directories as Hyde Park Corner! This last deed establishes that although the house was in existence by September 1821, when William Taylor had it, it had been built by Bainbrigge at some earlier date, but after 1809. The Taylors’ mortgage with Evans was not however, paid off and the bank foreclosed, selling the

property to Major Richard Becher Leacroft (1795-1862). He had been a childhood friend of Byron when living with his grandmother’s family, the Bechers, who were amongst the leading dynasties at Southwell. The Leacrofts were originally from Wirksworth and had made a fortune from lead trading, later also acquiring land at South Wingfield, suggesting they were diversifying into coal. The Major himself lived as a tenant at East Bridgeford Hall near Nottingham but served in the Derbyshire Militia being commissioned Major in 1831 and Lieutenant-colonel in 1844. He married Mary Anne Colley of Chesterfield and they had four sons and four daughters. It would appear that he required somewhat more room than Taylor, so he resolved to enlarge the house. To facilitate this, he sold off the second Taylor house across the grounds of which the new owner pitched Bradshaw Street, along with a slum court running parallel, inappropriately called Spring Gardens Stylistic idiosyncracies strongly suggest that the man who designed Major Leacroft’s new villa

(to incorporate Thomas Bainbrigge’s original rather more modest affair) was Alderman Leaper, and work probably started in autumn 1823 and was without doubt completed by 1824. The new portion consisted of the balustrade centre and northern wing plus service accommodation attached to the NE angle. The Ionic portico was probably added to the original house which was faced in Keuper sandstone from Weston Cliff to match the newer part and the panelled pilasters sported by Leaper’s additions were added to the SW and SE angles to add unity to the design. Internally, a second stair case was inserted where the service wing met the extended facade, and the rooms in the central section, pleasantly lofty, were the more richly decorated, providing the dining room (facing West) and drawing room facing East across the gardens, whilst the original hall and staircase were retained, the ground floor rooms off providing Maj. Leacroft with a study and morning room. In 1847, with their family grown up, Leacroft (since 1844 promoted Lt.-Col.) and his wife decided to retire to The Cliff, a villa above Matlock Bath once owned by the Rawlinson family

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and probably designed by Leaper’s contemporary George Rawlinson. A chunk of land north of

Wilderslow (behind No. 119 and south of Spring Gardens) was therefore sold to the trustees of the Infirmary and the house was sold to silk throwster Joseph Lancelot Davenport (1808-1866), whose father Joseph (1779-1826) had built The Elms, a very severely square brick house on the corner at Five Lamps in 1800 and whose great grandfather, vicar successively of Crich, Alstonefield and Radcliffe on Trent had been a bosom pal of Wesley’s. The estate was sold as

building land, hence Becher Street, Leacroft Road, Holcombe Street (Col. Leacroft’s grandfather

had been Revd. Dr. George Holcombe) and several others. Wilderslow, the southern section, on 25th March 2016 showing the missing chunk of pilaster. [M. Craven]

J. L. Davenport married Mildred Octavia Mason from Winkburn (Notts.) and had a large family, of whom a homonymous son became a leading London architect, having trained under Sir Walter Tapper. Davenport lived there until his death and his widow sold the house and grounds in 1875 on her re-marriage to Arthur Wilson also a silk throwster, who lived in Ashborune Road. The purchaser was up-and-coming Irish-born lace and elastic web manufacturer James Patrick Doherty, later alderman and Mayor of Derby in 1893-1894. His mill was in Agard Street. Oddly the name of the house appears under several weird spellings in the mid-19th century, probably because they were compiled orally: ‘Willeslow’ and the rather more surreal ‘Wildersloose’ appearing in 1870 and 1893! On Alderman Doherty’s death, childless, in 1901, his widow (who was also Irish) Elizabeth (née Osborne) sold the house to yet another lace manufacturer, Thomas Fletcher, whose vast mill survives, divided as business units, just before the railway bridge further down the Osmaston Road. No doubt he wanted to live close to his works. Oddly, a great-great-aunt of his, Thirza Fletcher, had married J. L. Davenport’s uncle Francis. After the Great War Fletcher died and left

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the house occupied by his daughter but, on her moving away, it was let to the Midland Counties Coal Owners Association (MCCOA) who sublet part of it to their engineering subsidiary as well as the local branch of the miners’ union. Eventually MCCOA acquired the freehold from the Fletchers, but when the Coal industry was nationalised at the same time as the health provision, in 1948, some rationalisation took place and the newly fledged NHS acquired the building as offices and the coal offices moved out of the city completely. In May 1966 the house was damaged by fire, as a result of which many of its interiors lost their decorative features – plasterwork and chimneypieces especially, and from then on it was a tale of gradual decline until ‘rationalisation’ about a decade ago caused the building to be shut up

completely, little maintenance work having been done on it in the intervening period, despite it have been added to the statutory list in the 1950s. Its present condition is a disgrace; no private individual would be allowed to permit such a building get into such a state without action being taken against them. The arrogance of the NHS Foundation Trust in thinking they can is despicable. It’s time the building was placed on the market in the hope that, even now, a white

knight will come along keen to restore it and put it to beneficial use. But do not hold your breath.

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ARCHITECTURAL CURIOSITIES Noticed by the Hon. Editor whilst on his peregrinations around these islands (courtesy of Carole, tirelessly driving for miles on end) was a splendid new pair of loos at Tenbury Wells opened in 2010 and designed by architect Cllr. Tony Penn. They replaced loos swept away by the Teme in flood shortly after a major refurbishment the year before. Once one had recovered from the surprise that local authorities elsewhere in the UK are still actually building public loos rather than, as at Derby, de-commissioning them, one could not help admiring the joky way they had been designed to express the abundance of hops on the Herefordshire/Worcestershire border. The Public lavatories, Tenbury Wells of 2010. Seen in June 2016. [M. Craven]

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This is in stark contrast to Derby, where we may have lost most of our loos, but we still have our oast house, on the edge of the Foresters’ Retail

Park, Osmaston Park Road. Except ours, needless to say, is completely out of con-text, Derbyshire having no tradition of hop-drying. The turn-caps have been removed since it was built and recently taken over by a cheap hotel chain. Derby’s thoroughly eccentric Oast House Hotel, as built. [MC] At the Tenbury Wells loos, by the way, the ladies and disabled people have the Kentish round oast, the gents the square section, Hereford-shire style one, in case you were wondering.

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In Brecon we saw a splendid later Georgian house, divided from the day it was built c. 1790, as three homes, one at the back and two essentially semi-detached facing the street (photograph on previous page). What I loved was the tripartite entrance aedicule that defined the centre!

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LOOKALIKES

In Newsletter No. 101 we ran a story about a Frenchman who for many years ran a restaurant in Derby, based on information sent by a descendant now living in Canada. This included a photograph, apparently labelled upon the cabinet print as of M. Déqué. I have since received a letter from John Woodward of Littleover, who noticed a close resemblance to his own great-great-grandfather William W. Woodward, a professional musician and organist at the Catholic Chapel in Chapel Street and from 1838 at St. Marie’s. He believes that the Keene photograph asserted to be of M. Déqué is actually of Mr. Woodward and sent me a copy of an oil painting of his ancestor. I must say that I am entirely convinced and would place the photograph a few years earlier too, especially as the Keene reverse is typically early/mid 1870s. That leaves urs with the question: how did a cabinet photograph of W W Woodward by Richard Keene of c. 1868/72 get to be labelled Jean Déqué in his family’s possession? Or, to look at it another way, how does Mr.

Woodward have an oil painting of M. Déqué in his possession, held by family tradition to be of William Woodward?

Answers on a postcard, please – and don’t all rush.

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THE FIELD: A NOTE

I have on several occasions written about the house on Osmaston Road, which, when new, adjoined Wilderslow, but have never been able to say when this study looking Regency villas was built and for whom. By whom is easier, for it is attributable to Richard Leaper and in indeed, characteristic of his work. It is best known as the home of Railway engineer W H Barlow in the mid-19thcentury and as the Derby Fire Service HQ prior to its demolition.

The land, which lay by 1820 between Bateman and Bloomfield Streets was a close called the Field – hence the name of the house. It was acquired in 1822 by Francis Severne (1778-1832), a manufacturing jeweller of Derby and the house was built in 1823.

Severne himself was the son of Thomas Severne (d. 1809) originally of Abberley Worcs., later of Derby, a lapidiary and later manufacturing jeweller. Francis was trained by his father 1792-1799, but was later commissioned into the 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment being promoted Captain in 1813. On 27th November1810 he had married at St. Peter’s Louise (d. 16/4/1851), daughter of

Thomas and Sarah Wright of Derby and had a numerous family. *

LINCOLN WATERSIDE

SHOPPING CENTRE

Recently completed and described by Adrian Jones and Chris Matthews as

‘…Post Modern contextual.

Betjeman would have quite enjoyed its whimsy and pot pourri of references. The good thing is that it both fits into the street scene and is the right size and in the right location to strengthen the traditional shopping area unlike, say, Derby or Doncaster, with their destructive edge of centre chopping monsters’.

[From Towns in Britain by Jones the Planner Five Leaves Publications Nottingham, Mr. Jones being former Director of Planning for Nottingham]

And so say all of us! *

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AN IMPORTANT RULING

Last year a particularly aggressive firm of mass housebuilders, well known for their tactics of trying to overwhelm the resources of ever-shrinking local authority planning departments, lighted upon two fields immediately west of South Wingfield village (part of an important conservation area) as being a good place to erect 70 houses. The position was a south facing slope on Inns Lane with a clear view towards the ruined Medieval manor house, listed grade I and a scheduled ancient monument (SME). The development bore no relation to the way the late Medieval village had expanded previously and was harm full in almost every respect imaginable in such an important and fragile landscape. Amber Valley Borough Council (AVBC) turned the scheme down flat and the firm, Messrs. Gladmann appealed. They then filed a second application for two less houses on the same site and that too was turned down, being a manifestation of their usual tactic of trying to overwhelm a LPA of modest scope with paperwork. A local group, South Wingfield Action Group (SWAG) bravely mounted a separate defence. I had the honour of being asked to present a paper on the importance of the site. The Manor in its present form was built in the 1440s by Ralph Lord Cromwell as a hunting retreat to supplement his other houses at Tattersall and new London. It was well known that there were two deer parks contiguous to the manor, the Great Park to the S. and the Little Park to the NE. I was able to show that there had originally been a third park, laid out by the previous family to own the site, the de Heriz, which lay to the N. of the manor and that the village was then situated in the valley closer to the river and was re-founded in its present position due to the effects of the mid-14th century climatic event which ushered in the so-called ‘Little Ice Age’. This park, which I called ‘Heriz’s Park’ was given in soul alms to the Abbey of Darley and

rented back by the family with a proviso that wood and produce from it (because deer parks were still farmed during the close season) could be transported eastwards across the area by a track. The Abbey’s charters described the bounds of the parkland and the rout of the trackway, which

enabled us to define the extent of the park and to establish that Inns Lane or a track immediately to its north (both within the park) represented the way the Abbott’s wagons would take the

produce. The next matter was to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the manor had been designed architecturally to facilitate watching the hunt and that two of its towers were deliberately designed to enable the elderly and ladies to watch the progress of the chase in the three parks. We were also able to establish that these parks have survived more or less intact since falling into desuetude in the 17th century, with modern agricultural boundaries superimposed, but much topographical and place name evidence surviving on the ground to back up the proposition. The appeal was heard over eight days in early January and the parkland argument was an important pillar of the local pressure group’s case. AVBC also deployed other grounds for

objection. I was cross-examined by Gladmann’s very expensive counsel Mr. Carter and

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fortunately was not caught out. We managed to drive a coach and four through the appellant’s

Statement of Significance, which greatly helped.

Wingfield Manor from the NW, after Thomas Smith of Derby c. 1740 It took three months for the ruling to emerge, but the inspector dismissed the appeal to much rejoicing, although the cynic in me tells me that they’ll be back in due course and we’ll have to

grind through it all again. However, the important point was in the inspector’s ruling. He acknowledged that AVBC were

behind in meeting their housing targets, but referred to paragraph 49 of the NPPF which says that permission [for such developments] should be granted unless any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits (my italics). Paragraph 129 goes on to state that the impact of a proposal on the significance of a heritage asset should be taken into account.

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With this in mind, the inspector refused the appeal by saying that ‘the benefits of the proposal do

not outweigh the less than substantial harm to heritage assets…identified... These adverse

impacts are too high a price to pay; they significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits.’

As with the Lyveden and Sevenoaks judgement, this ruling greatly strengthens the hand of local authorities and others against this sort of development where it clearly impinges upon a heritage asset, and is thus of immense value to those trying to pursue conservation of our heritage everywhere.

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ANOTHER IMPORTANT RULING

Darley Abbey Society team effort protects world heritage site

A Planning Inspector has refused Planning Permission for the development of land in Darley Abbey, because it is unnecessary, would harm the World Heritage Site, and is contrary to the site’s Green Wedge status. In June 2016, evidence was examined at a Planning Inquiry into an appeal by the developer for proposals to build new housing on land off North Avenue, Darley Abbey. The Inspector considered progress made by Derby City Council and neighbouring Councils to provide land for a 5 year supply of housing, and found that

“The proposed development of the appeal site is neither necessary nor desirable to

achieve housing delivery”. The Inspector also assessed the impact of the proposal on the World Heritage Site and the site’s

Green Wedge status, finding that

“The adverse impacts of granting permission would significantly and demonstrably

outweigh the benefits when assessed against the policies in the National Planning Policy Framework taken as a whole. The effect of the proposals on the Green Wedge is unacceptable…The proposals are not sustainable and both appeals are dismissed.”

It seems very unlikely that anyone would commit money to making further Planning Applications, as there must be virtually nil chance of securing consent at an Appeal. David Ling

URGENT NOTICE: If you are a member of this Society and not of the Friends of Derby Museum, why not consider joining both? Now that our hugely improved museums are run by an independent trust, they are free of local authority control (and increasingly of local authority funding) and need all the help that groups like the Friends can give. Our aims are entirely compatible. Subscription modest, monthly activities excellent. Apply to: The Membership Secretary Friends of Derby Museums The Museum & Art Gallery The Strand Derby DE1 1BS

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REPORT BY PROFESSOR JONATHAN POWERS OUR REPORESENTATIVE ON THE

FRIAR GATE BRIDGE TRUST There were a number other specialist officers from the Council present on 26th April, who have done a lot of detailed preparatory work on the state of the bridge and costing different levels of repair and restoration; Cllr. Martin Rawson was also present for a time. In addition we had the three most active Trustees of the Friends of Friar Gate Bridge (including Howard Thomas), a landscape architect from Lathams, a senior representative from Clowes (who own the Goods yard and the embankment as far as the first archway by the Bridge). A number of very positive things emerged from the meeting

There is universal agreement that the aim needs to include a high-end restoration of the Bridge itself (c.£1m) - cheaper in the long run!

There was also universal agreement that there needs to be a vision for the development

and use of the Bridge and the surrounding area (the Arches, the cut-off extension towards Agard Street – formerly Short Street – and as much of the old station platform area as can be made available) which will make a real difference to the area’s appearance and

amenities.

The project needs to aim to be self-sustaining and therefore there ought to be an imaginative combination of public amenities and commercial use. There will need to be a demonstration how the facility could wash its face in terms of maintenance costs.

I estimate the likely cost of a worthwhile enhancement of the area to be no less than £3m.

Funds need to be sought e.g. from HLF (50%), Section 106 money, the value of long peppercorn leases to the FGB Trust, Derby industries and businesses, the public, and HMRC (through Gift Aid). All this needs working out in detail, with proper costings and a fund-raising resources study completed before any bids or pitches are made, so that feasibility can be demonstrated.

Andy Hills is going to keep HLF in the loop, explaining the level of local support not only for rescue but also for enhancement to create an important, worthwhile and sustainable amenity. Meanwhile the Friends would really welcome having a member of the Civic Society Council as a Trustee. If we can help to push things forward it will assist in the regeneration of the area.

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LIVERPOOL’S PHILHARMONIC HALL

by Jon Tuner Having become a regular visitor to family in Liverpool over the past few years, I’ve long been

interested in visiting its attractive art deco Philharmonic Hall, tucked cosily midway between the City’s two cathedrals. Since the fire and closure of the Assembly Rooms here in Derby in March 2014, I’d been thinking about the sort of venue for musical performance which might supplant or

supplement it, and had suspected that the Philharmonic Hall with its relatively modest audience capacity (1800 seats) would be an excellent role model. My first opportunity to attend a live performance there occurred on the 21st May.

The original Philharmonic Hall, built by subscription 1846-1849 (well, why not?) and designed by Edinburgh-born John Cunningham (1799-1873), photographed immediately after the fire in 1932

Opened in 1939 (not the best time historically for a new venue) as a replacement for its 1849 predecessor (seating capacity 2,100) which burnt down in 1933 following a fire which started on its roof (Now, where have I heard that one before?) it has a welcoming and comfortable interior. Although the seating is set on 5 levels, when I explored all of them during the interval I never got that feeling of isolation from the performing action which I always feel in Nottingham Royal Concert Hall’s upper reaches; something to do, perhaps, with the fact the former place conforms

to the classic ‘shoebox’ shape of traditional concert venues. Although not visible because of

decorative hollow screening, the place has a decent pipe organ too, which Nottingham’s hall

hasn’t. Demolition of the original hall’s ruins began a few days after its destruction, so it took six

years to replace it. It might have been completed somewhat earlier had not Liverpool Corporation delayed it by insisting on its being a multi-purpose venue with provision for cinema and theatre use if it were to support the project financially. It took the intervention of Sir Henry Wood and other supporters to persuade it leave it as a concert hall. The lesson there for Derby is not to let its Council, not necessarily experts in concert halls, do the same. Other functions could easily be carried out by a different venue (e.g. The Hippodrome) as Liverpool twigged 80 years ago.

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The present Hall was designed in what contemporaries described as ‘streamline moderne’ by Herbert James Rowse (1887-1963) who was influenced here by Dutch architect Willem Dudok(1884-1974). It was built 1937-1939 and opened in June of the latter year. The interior boasts etched glass by Hector Whistler and sculpture/reliefs by J A Hodel and Edmund C. Thompson. The concert itself by the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Britain’s oldest orchestra), ably led

by its talented conductor Vasily Petrenko, consisted of Richard Strauss’s First Interlude from Intermezzo, part of a ‘conversational opera’ reflecting scenes from the composer’s domestic life.

Shostakovich too knew a thing or two about coping with the dangers of composing under a totalitarian regime, and we had his Eleven Songs from Jewish Folk Poetry, a work for orchestra plus a soprano, mezzo-soprano and tenor, whose simple but plaintive and tragic lyrics were emotionally very moving. We also enjoyed an early Mahler Song of Lamentation, a cantata with Wagnerian undertones for full orchestra, a choir of 80 singers and the aforementioned three singers. Not only was it the first concert I’ve ever attended where I’d never heard of any of the

works before, but it was also one which admirably demonstrated the Hall’s excellent acoustic

qualities for coping well with whatever types of works were played in it. The stage where all the performers were situated was huge and covered, I guess, about half of the ground floor space. Each side of the bottom three levels were rows four-seater boxes. Sat in the grand orchestra stalls my neighbour, about my age, came from the Wirral’s West

Kirby: a reminder that concert halls don’t just serve the cities where they’re situated but also the

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areas adjacent to it. What goes on (or not) in Derby can be significant for, say, Matlock, Belper or Ashbourne too. Afterwards, feelings of elation remained with me for the rest of the weekend until I remembered I was due to return to Derby where such experiences were currently virtually non-existent. I know we owe a debt of gratitude to the Cathedral Staff for making the building available for concerts (and it has an organ!), but those pews are not bottom-friendly for a two hour concert, but the only way to improve the acoustics would be to remove Bakewell’s wrought iron choir

screen and utilise the chancel space for musicians - a vandalistic act which would be a remedy too far. In fact, the only cathedral I know of where the acoustics are excellent is Coventry’s

which has the open, classical shoebox shape. If anyone wonders why I concentrate on classical performance it’s not that I’m not interested in

other forms of music but know, from experience, that if you get a premises right for the former then it will certainly be fine for everything else. If one checks the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall website for its future events, one finds a mouth-watering choice of popular music of all kinds including, predictably, the Bootleg Beatles, while one of its historic events was a comedy performance by Liverpudlians Arthur Askey and Tommy Handley together with the young Ken Dodd! The Hall generally doesn’t seem to ‘do’ ballet but the Empire Theatre near Lime Street

Station does. Obviously, any new premises here could never be moderne, but present architectural styles and technology are quite capable of producing a fitting premises reflecting what is needed in the Twenty First Century. I would also add it’s not illegal to have more than one concert hall or

theatre in Derby, which means that if a new concert hall is built from scratch here, the Assembly Rooms can still be repaired to fulfil any of its former functions. After all, almost every other British city has a variety of various venues so that the cultural wishes of everyone can be accommodated, so why not here too?

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LUNAR21 SYMPOSIUM How can housing help Derby thrive?

Lunar21, founded by Graham Bennett, aims to be a thinking space for the people of Derby. Described as ‘Derby’s non-political think-tank’, Lunar21 is where

it is perfectly all right to ask questions that have no obvious answers, especially when these are difficult ones that need answers – the questions that we must ask if we are to shed light on the twenty first Century, and Derby’s place in it. The inspiration for the name was, of course, the original eighteenth century Lunar Society. Members

will be largely aware of that august but perpetually informal body, as I am always banging on

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about one of its founder members, John Whitehurst FRS, and my fellow member of the Society’s

Council, Professor Powers has published on all of them. It brought together an exceptional group of people who used their enquiring minds, their scientific and practical knowledge to expand drastically the scope and accumulation of knowledge in an age when one talented man could still understand most of what there was to know about any particular discipline. Their intellectual and practical achievements conclusions were accepted throughout Europe and America and are still with us today. Derby Silk Mill is on the site of the world’s first factory. But 18th Century manufacturing has grown and developed a long way from metal-bashing: by the application of the latest scientific knowledge, startling innovations have been achieved – perhaps already being taken for granted – so that Derby is now the UK’s number one hi-tech city. With a very high percentage of its workforce employed in advanced manufacturing – twice that of Cambridge and four times the national average – Derby is now home to global brands such as Rolls-Royce, Bombardier, and Toyota, and their extensive, local supply chains. With the growth and application of global electronic, analytical, information, and communications technology, Derby is able to lead the way into the 21st Century knowledge economy – but this could bring challenges for Derby’s local employment, as well as opportunities. What does all this mean for our city? What is needed to make the most of opportunities that exist within Derby and on our doorstep – especially for communities who have poor levels of academic attainment? What do we need to do now to meet the challenges and opportunities that we face? Lunar21 gives Derby a place where we can, together, consider these issues and more. These are the topics previously explored by Lunar21: March 2015: Food Waste, Food Poverty. November 2015: The Power of Co-creation. The most recent Lunar21 symposium on Monday April 11th was addressed by your editor, who spoke on the subject of Living Over The Shop (LOTS). There were four great inputs and forty people thinking collectively about housing in Derby! It generated insight and energy, but how can the momentum be increased? The bill of fare after a thoughtful introduction by Graham Bennett, consisted of Jeanne Booth FRSA, chairman of East Midlands group of the Royal Society of Arts on ‘Housing Market

Challenges’, Joanne Neville, City Council Regeneration Manager on ‘City Living is Happening in Derby!’ Your editor on LOTS and Daniel Lingham, a ‘social change advocate’ (question,

wasn’t Lenin one of those!!) on ‘Co-housing in Derby’, this last actually being the most interesting, despite the presenter’s off-putting handle. Each 15 minute presentation was accompanied by three illustrations and followed by discussion. Many insights emerged from the dialogue in just two hours, hinting at possible ways forward, but who will step forward to continue the journey begun on Monday April 11th?

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Lunar21 needs a ‘core team’ of 4-8 people who will use insights gained as a starting point to explore further thoughts on this issue, who will use the next Lunar21 event in November to share their learning and involve other key players to increase the possibility of making a real difference. Whoever steps forward will need to look again at the insights already generated and reconfigure them in a way that reflects what they care about. Editor’s Note: If memory serves, the original Lunar 21 was the second Soviet Russian lunar space probe launched in 1973. Derby’s version aims to reflect the values and enquiry of the

Lunar Society (presumably on this basis, Lunar18).

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A DISCOVERY IN TRAFFIC STREET

by Carole Craven

Early in June I was in the process of crossing the west end of Traffic Street where it meets London Road by the roundabout which Cllr. Pegg, when Mayor, caused to be named the Royal Lancers’ Island, after our locally recruited cavalry regiment the 9th/12th Royal Lancers. Whilst waiting for the traffic to subside to allow me to cross from the central reservation to the pavement by the Royal Telegraph inn, my attention was engaged by a bronze plaque, set into a stone reserve and raised on a couple of courses of thin stones. It was beyond the fenced part of the reservation, so if you were crossing in a hurry, or pre-occupied, you might very easily miss it.

The plaque commem-orated the opening, on 24th February 1938 of the first section of the Inner Ring Road. Traffic Street, bronze plaque marking the opening of the re-aligned thoroughfare, 24th Febru-ary 1938.[Carole Craven]

The important thing is, that, having begun the (outer) Ring Road in 1929, the Borough Council soon turned their attention to furnishing the town (as it then was) with an Inner Ring Road, the first manifestation of which was the dualling of Traffic Street, and re-aligning it from a straight,

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rather mean street connecting London and Siddalls Roads, to follow a sweeping arc from Cockpit Hill to the London Road Junction. This involved much demolition, including the removal of the original Regency Royal Telegraph beerhouse (but that time just called the Telegraph) and the building of a brand new one – still there today – to designs by Browning and Hayes in Art-Deco style.. Having discovered that this new facility was opened by Brettle’s chairman and ex-Lord Mayor of London Sir Harry Twyford, I reflected on the subsequent and rather depressing story of this blighted road.

Before and after: Traffic Street, looking East, left on 14th January 1937 and right after re-opening 3rd March 1938. These and the picture of the opening were taken by Hurst & Wallis at the behest of Assistant Borough Surveyor (later Borough Surveyor) William Penny, father of Graham. No sign of the plaque on the central reservation on the right hand view! [G. Penny] Thanks to the war of course, no more was then built. But in 1962-63 Bradshaw Way was created out of Bradshaw Street, thus providing the motorist with a dual carriageway all the way from Corporation Street to Leopold Street. Then the scheme stalled again, until 1966, when the next phase was announced. This was St. Alkmund’s Way, built in 1966-68 from Darwin Place to Ford Street. Now, had government been capable of joined-up thinking, of course, the then Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle, would have realised that the former Great Northern Railway’s Friar Gate Line

(by then part of the Nationalised BR network) was on the verge of carrying its last train (which occurred in 1967), and that the four track alignment of this railway would provide ample space for replacing rail with the inner ring road. But, of course, this signally (no pun intended) failed to happen, and the road went ahead on a new alignment, to be opened in 1968 alongside a derelict railway line running parallel. And, of course, in building the road, we lost the whole of Bridge Gate (including St. Anne’s Terrace), Exeter Street (along with Herbert Spencer’s birthplace),

Darwin Place – the latter both good Regency Streets – and our only Georgian Square, St. Alkmund’s Church Yard, not to mention the church itself, H I Stevens’s grandest, along with a

shedload of mural monuments to half the Midlands Enlightenment.

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Traffic Street: the opening ceremony, conducted by Sir Harry Twyford, 24th February 1938. The next phase was sensibly planned by the Council to leave Ford Street and cross Friar Gate using the ex-GNR bridge, by then a listed structure, to alleviate damage to the Friar Gate/Ford Street/Stafford Street crossing. Then Peter Walker’s Local Government Act of 1973 deprived our Council of most of its statutory powers in favour of the County Council and planning stopped. The County continued to plan for the scheme to continue, but in 1981 a drastic and long-lasting change of control came about. The new dominant party, probably realising that there were few votes to be had in Derby to keep them in perpetual authority, promptly put the whole scheme on the very furthest of back burners. In the meantime, the bridge over Agard Street was removed along with the arches leading to Friar Gate Bridge, and the land beyond, essential to the scheme, was sold to Clowes Investments to provide, so the City Council fondly hoped, much-needed housing, thus scuppering the enlightened plan to use the rest of the ex-GNR route. In 1996, much to everyone’s relief, Derby once more became a unitary authority and re-inherited its educational and transport assets (in a very poor state of neglect in the case of St. Helen’s

House and the County Hall). Work began soon afterwards to plan the completion of the Inner Ring Road. Financial constraints scuppered the idea of making the remainder dual carriageway, but, nevertheless, it was finished in 2011, being opened in 16th March that year, no less than 73 years after the optimistic opening of Traffic Street!

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Bradshaw Street, photo-graphed as a slide in September 1959 by the late Don Farnsworth. [M. Craven]

The Derby Telegraph ran a poll to choose names for the remaining sections. Winners were the fictional creation Lara Croft and the Mercian Regiment, chosen because it incorporates the Worcester and Sherwood Forests’ Regiment, itself incorporating the 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment. I suppose we should count ourselves lucky the winning choice wasn’t Ringy McRingroad.

St. Alkmund’s W\ay making its dest-ructive way past King Street, in summer 1967. [The late R G Hughes]

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IN PRAISE OF THE MERCURY

by Harry Butterton

The greatest treasure of the Derby Local Studies Library and its ever-helpful and courteous staff for me personally are the stoutly bound broadsheet copies of the Derby Mercury. When laid out on a study table, researchers with other concerns would have to arrange themselves around its ample boundaries.

The Derby Mercury masthead from September 1848 The Mercury was indeed a distinguished local journal, a weekly that was first appeared on Thursday 29 March 1733. By the 1820s it sold at 7d (3p), over three times the original cost. With wages commonly around £1 per week (probably the equivalent of well upwards of £50 today) it was clearly aimed at the local literate and professional classes. The Mercury had seen off an earlier rival, The British Spy or Derby Postman of 1726, and a later one, the Derby and Chesterfield Reporter from the 1820s. It finally itself went under to the dailies a full century later. Yet it was to hand for the big moments of the Borough’s story, as well

as reporting the fine detail of Derby weekly life. In its early years came the Bonnie Prince, Charles Edward Stuart: at dawn on Friday 6 December 1745 his highlanders’ drums ‘…beat to arms, and their bagpipes played about the town.’ One of their unwilling hosts told the then rather Whiggish and disapproving Mercury:

‘My hall (after these vagabond creatures began to be warm, by such numbers under the straw, and a great fire near them) stank so of their itch and other nastinesses as if they had been so many persons in a condemned hole.’

Fast forward to November 1833 when the Mercury reported in more matter-of-fact, though still in characteristically wordy mode by our standards, on another major disturbance of the community, this time from within, in the start of the so-called Silk Mill Lock-out. It was national news at the time for working folk, a memorial of great conflicts in a significant industrial past:

‘We regret to state, that during the last few days a very considerable number of the operatives of this town, members of the Trades Union, have left their employment in many cases, and been discharged by their masters in others. The number out of work is now believed to be little short of 700…The turn-out commenced in the first instance at the manufactory of Messrs. Frost and Stevenson [on City Road], yesterday week, the 19th instant, and the example has been pretty generally followed at most of the other mills in the town.’

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A major disturbance in December 1910 took the form of a catastrophic fire, but one of many disasters recorded through the years. It created the present appearance of the Old Derby Silk Mill (probably the world’s first factory in the modern sense of the term). The sight to the

Mercury reporter was ‘…one never to be forgotten…one mass of flames.’

No human needed saving but two cats did, one from adjoining Sowter Mill and another which was spotted at the height of the inferno crying pitifully, sitting for some hours at one of the windows on the mill’s third storey. The fireman who rescued it and was given an award by the RSPCA responded that

‘It would have been a pity to see a cat roasted alive if rescue was at all possible.’

Silk Mill, north end, interior of ground floor taken by C. B. Keene, 6th December 1910. The machinery, by then long out of use, is probably that installed by the Taylors after the 1821 fire. [Derby Museums Trust]

Prominent obituaries from time to time of course registered the achievements of major personalities. Artist Joseph Wright was placed firmly within the ambit of the art connoisseur’s

depiction of him as being ‘of Derby’: His attachment to his native town, added to his natural modesty, and his severe application to the theory and practice of painting, prevented him mixing with promiscuous society. His friends long urged him to reside in London, but his family attachments and love of retirement were invincible. His pictures have been so much in request that there is scarcely an instance of their ever having come into the hands

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of dealers; neither have his last works ever been seen in London, a strong proof of their intrinsic worth.

In entire contrast to Wright’s devotion to his home town, circumstances led to Herbert Spencer to live most of his life away from Derby and die in Brighton in December 1903. The Mercury echoed the national Morning Post in hailing him England’s greatest philosopher. The paper noted the founding of the Derby Spencer Society in July 1906 to raise the profile of the thinker who applied Darwin’s theory of evolution to broader fields, stressing the unity of all living

things. Whilst the Society aimed to bring together those who wished to talk about ‘…something more valuable than the insane inanities and the inane insanities which are the common topics of conversation.’

The Mercury gave prominence to his more social tendencies. He was a ‘hard-headed chess player’ but couldn’t manage whist. as he couldn’t remember what card had been played! He was

also famous for wearing ear pads because, though he liked company, his hearing didn’t allow

him to follow the conversation and this device allowed him the luxury of wallowing in other people’s expressions without distraction. His Wimshurst machine and the casts of his hands and face are now in our Museum. However, the chief star in the firmament of the ordinary Derbeian in Edwardian times was surely footballer Steve Bloomer, who had scored 292 goals for the Rams by March 1906, when he was transferred to Middlesborough for a record £740. The Mercury got this one wrong in opining it wouldn’t matter: a year later Derby County had been relegated and in serious debt. The question had to be put: was the club worth continuing or not? It was surely good business for the town, bringing in thousands of visitors who spent much money and the very idea of Derby without first-class football on a Saturday afternoon was unthinkable. The Mercury was also a crusading paper: its editor occasionally espoused worthy causes. For 20 years from 1837 he championed the conditions of boy chimney sweeps in the town. John Claudius Loudon, a Scots-born designer who had a huge influence on the appearance of parks

and houses and, as the creator of the Arboretum opened in 1840, is remembered in the name of Loudon Street nearby, advised builders to make a feature of proud tall chimney stacks. The trouble was that they had to be cleaned and maintained and many had a bend in them that made it convenient for them to be swept by hand. The hands involved were those of young ‘climbing boys’ small enough

to crawl up the narrow vertical and twisting passages with brushes, scraping tender knees in doing so. Rose Hill House, Wilfred Street: a villa based on a J C Loudon design, crowded with impossible chimneys! [M. Craven]

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In Edwardian times the paper gave prominence to the efforts of the formidable Fr. McKenna of St. Mary’s Catholic Church to improve the dire housing and environment for the town’s

working-class people. In October 1907 he confronted the Council with a resolution unanimously passed at a Friday evening meeting:

‘That in consideration of the importance of preventing the industrial suburbs of our town degenerating into slums, this meeting desires to urge the Derby Corporation to give its earnest attention to the adoption of practical measures for the laying out of all new housing areas along garden suburb lines.’

The Mercury backed Fr. McKenna: It is easy to see how our forefathers, had they been able to imagine what Derby would grow to, might have given us a town much more beautiful than it is.

The paper copiously reported on the town’s leisure activities. Before the permanent dominance of Soccer in later Victorian times the Races were the biggest attraction, held on bleak Sinfin Moor till 1803. At the first ever event on August Monday 1733:

‘There was very good sport and the concourse of people was very great; there were abundance of coaches, several of them drawn by six horses, and ’twas thought to be as large a meeting as was at the last Nottingham Races.’

To be phased out in 1835, cock-fighting was a speciality of the Punch Bowl, Nottingham Road and of the Angel, Cornmarket, the subject of another fascinating Mercury feature – the advertisement. One in January 1768 was for

‘A Main of Cocks to be fought at the Angel, near the Gaol-Bridge in Derby between the Gents. of Derbys. and Staffs., 31 cocks each side, four guineas a battle and ten for the main battle on first two days of Feb. (Mon. & Tues.).’

Over the succeeding two centuries the Mercury reported on far more salubrious evenings and matinees at the theatre, circus, Derby Choral Union, opera and art exhibitions. The painter whose works it had occasion to note most frequently in the Edwardian era was George Turner of Barrow-on-Trent, with his titles surely eloquent of the true non-postcard artist’s love of the

idyllically quiet secret places close to home and in October 1910 the paper had particular praise for artist Miss Anna Airy’s The Scandalmongers3 which

‘…shows seven women, presumably in a church vestry, and obviously making reputations as soiled as the brasses they are about to clean.’

Outdoors again and from the 1880s there was cricket to report on and in 1900 revenge at the Racecourse ground on the formidable Dr. W. G. Grace for earlier flogging Derbyshire down in London. In Derby he was twice given out lbw for a miserable two, then six. He got taken to task by the Mercury - not that he’d care, for making it quite plain that he disagreed with umpire

Sherwin’s decisions in each case. This apparently was no surprise, since the good Doctor’s

response to being bowled out at any time was to put on an extremely mystified expression and mutter audibly ‘Where did that one come from?’ On the open road there was the end-of-century cycling craze to liberate the ladies in particular, succeeded by the far more male-dominated motor fixation. On a Saturday afternoon in November 1910, outside the entrance to Nottingham Road Cemetery, Derby’s first fatal car

accident took place and was duly reported. The Edwardian era, indeed, spawned a plethora of 3 1882-1964

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reportable activity indoors and out, with rowing, baseball, golf (Littleover 1901), swimming (Reginal Street Baths 1904), skating (Alexandra rink 1909), athletics, billiards, even pigeons. And, to top all this motion, the arrival of those electric trams in May 1904. There were fifteen brand-new ones from Loughborough sporting the Derby Borough coat of arms on the side and with a spiral staircase to the seats on the upper floor. The Mercury was not uncritical and commented:

‘The beginning of the end of the prolonged period of road disturbance which Derby has endured is now in view.’

Finally, for lack of space (and very possible reader patience) in leaving out the innumerable pages of report on such worthy topics as Education, Health, Parks, Churches, Railways, Industry, Weather and so on, we come to the glorious Mercury correspondence. Taking our cue from the trams, a letter signed ‘A Friend of Derby’ pointed out that the trams had come

‘…at the very moment when the new motor-buses, at one-tenth of the cost, are being brought to the last degree of perfection.’ A Derby tramcar, Midland Station, c. 1906. [M. Craven]

At all times the letter-writers reveal something of life as it really was then. Back in December 1776 ‘A Constant Reader’ complained

‘How dreary and uncomfortable our streets appear in long and moonless nights; scarce a glimmering of light to guide the bewildered passenger on his way; and only now and then a lamp scattered so thinly as to make darkness still more visible and uncomfortable.’

To end on a Mercury architectural impression, from Edwardian times two is of glorious All Saints’, its dominant tower still reaching to most parts of the town. The editor quoted Derby’s

first historian William Hutton, who in 1791 had written in its praise: ‘It is the chief excellence of the town, the pride of the place; it stands as a prince among its subjects, and a giant among dwarfs’

to which the editor added: ‘We have come to regard the venerable pile as the chief link with our past which remains to us in this strenuous twentieth century.’

Surely he also speaks for us, over a century later!

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BLUE PLAQUERY

Just before your editor took himself off on holiday, on 14th July, to be exact, the Society’s latest

blue plaque was unveiled. On this occasion the long awaited one honouring Sir Henry Royce and Hon., Charles Rolls, on the exterior of the former RR HQ in Nightingale Road.

Cllr. Sara Bolton on behalf of the City Council inaugurates the latest Civic Society/City Council blue commemorative plaque of the wall of the marble hall part of the former Rolls-Royce HQ in Nightingale Road. Left to Right: Alan Grimadell, Cllr. Bolton, three ladies representing the building’s sponsors, member Mark Tittley, Cllr .for the area, Robin Turner and Patrick Fullarton. [Derby Civic Society]

The Portland stone-clad Marble Hall, designed by Derby architect George Morley Eaton PRIBA and built 1937-38, has recently reopened following a £4 million restoration project, and received the plaque to commemorate Henry Royce and Charles Rolls and their decision to manufacture

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Rolls-Royce engines in Derby, to which the firm moved from Manchester min 1907. The interior, with its imperial staircase and Doric columns all clad in Derbyshire Hopton Wood polished limestone (so technically not a ‘marble’

hall at all!), has been carefully restored, with a replica of the Rolls-Royce Battle of Britain memorial window on the stairs. Why the company’s management

couldn’t have replaced the original here

(as the Conservation Area Advisory Committee some time ago emphatically suggested they should) is not clear. Instead they set up the original, framed, in a meaningless position in a large shed-like training building off Wilmore Road in Sinfin, unveiled last October. Removing, storing and replacing the

original would have saved money by the shed-load.

The restored Marble Hall with part of the memorial window replica visible. [Carole Craven] The unveiling of the blue plaque follows the recent visit by HRH The Duke of Gloucester, who carried out the official opening of the grade-two listed building, which has been the subject of a

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major refurbishment to transform it into a community hub, with a well thought out managed rkspace and a range of complementary facilities that are in high demand from the local community.

Left: Nightingale Road, RR HQ, the marble hall, frontispiece; right: view of Sir Henry Royce’s

1910-1912 façade through the arch of the 1921 portico. both 14th July 2016. [Carole Craven] It is now the centrepiece of Derby City Council’s Osmaston Regeneration Partnership in the heart of the Osmaston transformational Regeneration Zone. The accommodation includes 42 high specification offices, ranging in size from 100ft2 to 800ft2 and including a penthouse suite. The facility also includes an on-site kitchen, restaurant and training provision, provided by YMCA Derbyshire. Commenting on the award of the blue plaque, Derby City Council Cabinet Member Councillor Sara Bolton, said:

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‘We look forward to welcoming members of the Derby Civic Society to Marble Hall for the unveiling of the latest blue plaque. On behalf of the City Council I very much support this project which recognises and celebrates our rich heritage and the people behind making Derby what it is today.’

Alan Grimadell, Chairman of the Derby Civic Society, added:

‘Everyone connected with Derby Civic Society is delighted that a blue plaque has now been launched at Marble Hall in memory of Sir Henry Royce and Charles Rolls. They were men whose decision to base their new business in Derby brought massive benefits for the wider economy in terms of jobs and prestige as well as playing a pivotal role in our country’s victory in the Second World War.’

This is the 14th of 18 blue plaques to be unveiled across the city and this is a fitting tribute to the legacy that Rolls and Royce left in Derby.

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POKÉMON GO! COMES TO DERBY

The above headline will mean little to most readers, I expect, so I have to offer some definitions. At the beginning of the `1990s a Japanese designer came up with 150 imaginative ‘pocket

monsters’ (Pokémon) which could be deployed on a computer game, then usually in conjunction with a Game Boy. Players had to catch them in a red and white ball (a pokéball), and train them, using them to battle with other people’s captured Pokémon. There were also books and stickers, TV cartoons and a host of other spin-offs. Our daughter Cornelia became hooked at the age of about four. Since then the creatures have spawned hundreds of further types, all with exotic names, clever, some clunky and some distinctly odd. After a period of relative quietitude on the Pokémon front along came Pokémon Go! early in July. This is a mobile ‘phone/tablet app which allows players to find virtual Pokémon in augmented reality through the use of GPS as the player walks around towns, cities, buildings, and so on. It became an overnight sensation and millions are playing it world-wide. There are pokéstops and gyms, usually situated in real-life landmarks. In the former, players may visit to obtain certain items needed to continue playing. The gyms are places over which control can be won and in which Pokémon can be battled with each other. If you have noticed young (well, mainly young) people and children wandering around looking intently at their mobile phones or tablets, then they are probably playing Pokémon Go! and are likely to be harmless, although they may conceivably look up at you and say, ’Stop a minute

please, there’s a bulbasaur on your head that I wish to catch!’ or some such unlikely plea. The media has been full of pious rubbish written by the usual suspects of those who invariably know what’s best for us (and usually live in fashionable North London) about the psychological dangers it all poses: the dangers of addiction and the corrupting influence of such things, but in fact it’s the best thing since sliced bread in the sense that it has got an entire generation of

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computer addicted young people off their bottoms and out into the streets taking exercise. Indeed, to play the game successfully it is necessary to walk as far as possible in order to hatch Pokémon eggs and various other tasks. As I see it, the only danger lies in perhaps being inadvertently run over, but that was a danger when young people last wandered the streets with their minds on something else. After all, we have to take responsibility for ourselves, even in the age of the nanny state! Derby, inevitably, it full of Pokémon, and the Cathedral, no less, is a gym (as is the Islamic Centre in Sitwell Street!). Indeed, apart from one or two fundamentalist churches which have condemned the entire business as the work of the devil, the religious communities are absolutely delighted with the game, as it gets the most unlikely people into their churches. The more on the ball clergy have, therefore, arrangements in place to try and retain their unwitting visitors: coffee, smiley welcomes and offers of assistance, ranging from the silly to the spiritual. If it boosts congregations it will have been a deal more successful than modern liturgies, happy

clappies, ritualised kissing and other self-inflicted indignities! Meanwhile, whilst the sun shines, download the app and see where it leads you. I conclude with a picture of me sitting on my Handyside garden seat with a spearow on my shoulder, fancying myself as Long John Silver. Readers will notice that it is quite harmless (unless you are another Pokémon, that is, when it will undoubtedly battle you). It reminded me of the famous Latin motto Dum spiro spero (‘Whilst I breathe, I hope’). I may adopt a

variant of it: Cum spearow spero (‘With a spearow I hope’). Happy hunting! MC The editor and friend.

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KINGSWAY RETAIL PARK

Not everyone who reads this newsletter will be visitors to Kingsway Retail Park in Derby’s

California, and some of you may never even had heard of it. It was established in the 1980s in a former brick pit on the NE side of Kingsway with an entrance opposite what until 2006 was Thornhill and is now a vast housing development. It was established in the 1980s in a former brick pit on the NE side of Kingsway with an entrance opposite what until 2006 was the NHS owned Regency villa called Thornhill and is now a vast housing development.

The access road is off a roundabout on the A5111, recently improved, probably as part of a section 106 agreement by Kier, the developers of the former Thornhill site. The access belongs to TH Real Estate, the freeholder of the retail park, and has just one ‘in’ lane and one ‘out’ lane

and descends steeply to a small roundabout from which runs, on the left the access for Sainsbury’s and Homebase and, to the right, to a complex out large outlets, including Marks & Spencer Food, Next, Boots, TK Maxx. Argos, Hobbycraft, Smyth’s Toys, Halfords, Poundland, ScS, Harveys, Pets at Home, Costa, Greggs and Subway. Half way down on the south side of this exceedingly awkward access is a turning to Curry’s/PC World. Over the past decade, outlets have increased and the traffic requiring access has also increased pro rata.

There can be no doubt that the site as present constituted presents serious problems.

There are several traffic issues. Kingsway (A5111) is part of the outer ring road and is always busy. Traffic moving north has to negotiate not only the roundabout from which the Kingsway Retail Park access road runs (not normally a problem) but 150 yards further the much larger roundabout junction with the A38, which at busy times causes a tailback as far as the first roundabout. Conversely, traffic going south from the A38 at busy times tails back onto the A38 roundabout due to congestion at the Retail Park Roundabout.

The building of the housing estate on the site of Thornhill will clearly exacerbate these problems, which at present are fairly moderate, but being residential, not perhaps as much as might be imagined. However, Kier, presumably in consultation with the Council’s Traffic Department, installed traffic lights on their enlarged roundabout (the enlargement has, on the other hand, helped), activating them on 10th July.

This resulted in the formalization of traffic movement into an inflexible pattern which mainly worked to the advantage of traffic on the ring road (A5111) and to the complete disadvantage of shoppers in the retail park which has spaces for nearly 1,000 cars and was perennially popular. It therefore took some desperate people, with cars full of hungry children and frozen food, up to three hours to extricate themselves from the park.

Nothing much happened at first, despite much publicity in the Derby Telegraph, until the people who ran the prestigious national outlets in the park complained that their regular customers were vowing never to return. They and presumably TH Real Estate, made representations to the Council, who ‘re-phased’ the lights - but to absolutely no avail.

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After nearly three weeks of the retail park losing custom on an industrial scale, Cllr. Afzal, the responsible cabinet member sensibly (if a trifle belatedly) ordered the lights to be turned off on the evening of Thursday July 28th. Suddenly, everything returned to normal; even over the weekend following there were no hold-ups; people could gain egress from the area and traffic flowed happily, as it has done for some years. Derby Council acts: Kingsway Island, 1st August, 2016. Hoods on the lights and few cars.

There is, however, another problem, the solution to which would alleviate these difficulties.

About five years ago an elderly man driving a small Ford up the access road expired at the wheel by the entrance to Curry’s. This reduced access to one lane. But once arrived, the ambulance

unhelpfully parked alongside the stricken man’s vehicle, thus locking both lanes; as a

consequence, it took two hours for shoppers to get out and led to immense tailbacks on the A5111, impacting also on the A38 and Uttoxeter Road. Had the ambulance parked in front or behind the car, traffic could have mopved, albeit slowly, and getting out would have taken less than an hour.

The point is, that with only one point of access and egress for both customers and suppliers, the circulation is slow and the potential for trouble if there was to be an incident down there is worryingly high.

Kingsway Park Drive, looking E. The car park beyond the gates in the background aligns with the Sainsbury’s roundabout The space beyond connects with a blocked lane to Slack Lane.

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There is an obvious solution and why it was not implemented in the first place one cannot imagine – probably the original developer going for maximum return, heedless of the problems being laid up for those who came after him. At the north of the site, is a small industrial estate (with at least two units long empty) served by Kingsway Park Drive, off Brackensdale Avenue/Cheviot Street. It is separated from the back of Homebase and the roundabout by a bank 14ft high and ten yards wide. Connecting this road by a sloping approach ramp to the existing roundabout would be simple. This would create a way in and a way out, which would be separate, and would solve the problem at a stroke.

Furthermore, off Slack Lane, just beside the waste plant which caused such uncouth problems in the spring, is another metalled road, anciently Parcel Fields Lane, leading to the rear of TKMaxx, from which it is separated by a low bank presently covered with bocage. The road currently runs beside a small recreation ground, over the course of the former railway and brook before heading west; it has recently been sealed off at the Slack Lane end with heavy duty fencing and gates. This, too, could be adapted as an access road, if not for customers, for services and emergency vehicles. There may even be scope to lay an exit road to Parcel Terrace

Parcel Fields Lane, as currently blocked off, seen from the junction between Slack Lane and Cheviot Street, 1st August 2016. [M. Craven] These two possible solutions were probably ruled out because they debouched into residential areas, but that may be a price worth paying. The Council could say to the freeholder that as the park has greatly expanded, under revised regulations, it is no longer fit for purpose due to the poor access and that there is no other way out, even for pedestrians. They could add, quite reasonably, that in the circumstances they would have no option but to give notice of the site’s

closure on health and safety grounds. To stay in business, the freeholder would be obliged rapidly to fund an extra junction with the A38 to make a second exit via Kingsway Park Drive viable or widen the A5111 approach road to a dual carriageway, which would require considerable engineering works. As it is, I would be interested to hear the view of the Chief Fire Office and/or a senior Police officer of the safety of the site, were there to be a serious fire, explosion or other incident down there especially if it resulted in the access road being blocked.

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A third shortcoming is the present roundabout at the foot of the access road. This is clearly too small. Furthermore, some joker has marked it with a box junction, the drawback being that, if one approaches from Sainsbury’s, the bocage in the middle prevents one from knowing if one’s

exit is clear and anyway, if everyone took heed of it, no-one would move at all: it would have a similarly costive effect as the traffic lights at the top.

All in all, the Kingsway Retail Park is an incident waiting to happen; it is far too intensively used for the infrastructure surrounding it, and the current answer to the costive potential at the Kingsway junction seems to be unworkable unless Cllr. Afzal keeps them from re-activating the lights. The Council, as enabler, needs to get some safety reports and then call Mike Sales, chief of TH Real Estate in for some tough discussions. A serious emergency could, as things stand, result in their facing the potential for legal action. A final, perhaps less serious, point: the existing access road could do with a name. Maxwell Craven

MAP OF THE KINGSWAY RETAIL PARK AREA ◄Egress to A38 ◄Parcel Fields Lane ◄This part closed off A38 island ◄Bank/fence dividing retail park from estate Kingsway Retail Park ◄access to Curry’s ◄access road ◄King’s Highway pub

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