Derby's Heritage Part 05 - St Mary's Gate
w/e 30 May 2010
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
During my working life I had cause to occasionally
visit an office in St Mary's Gate but in those days it always
seemed to be overcast and intent on finding somewhere to park,
I never really took much notice of any of the buildings in the
street. That was my loss as I have discovered on this latest
excursion.
Exiting the Cathedral and having approached from Irongate on
the left, our route will eventually head off to the right but
this fifth part in the walk will take us straight ahead into
St Mary's Gate. Two right turns later will return us almost to
this same spot but this is the view from the Cathedral entrance.
The building on the left on the corner with Irongate is the Cathedral
Centre that we explored in Part 3.
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If you can exclude the street furniture, the road markings and
the vehicles you can almost feel the street oozing with history
and heritage. The modern trappings though tend to detract from
the street's past but I soon began to wish I had conducted more
research into the street before taking the photos. I am sure
I walked past buildings that were worthy of a second glance although
the impressive doorway on the left immediately caught my eye.
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The coat of arms and the words "Court of Probate" left
no doubt as to the former use of the building and the plaque
saying "Probate House" reinforced the fact but now
it just houses a solicitor's business. The building became the
Court of Probate in 1857 and remained as the District Probate
Registry until 1928. It was also an accountant's office before
assuming its present role.
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A little further down St Mary's Gate is an impressive looking
building that dates from 1911. Built at a cost of £30,000
the New County Offices housed the Derbyshire County Council until
it left for its new headquarters in Matlock in 1955 when this
building was then occupied by the South East Derbyshire Rural
District Council.
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A similar looking building on the opposite side of the road designed
in 1893 by John Somes Story of Derby, the County's architect,
was the old Derbyshire County Council office built in 1885/6
at a cost of £26,000. It was intended as administrative
offices and a police station and in 1996 was taken over by the
Derbyshire Police as offices and the Police Museum. Its more
recent history records that it was purchased in 2006 and after
a sympathetic conversion opened in May 2008 as the Cathedral
Quarter Hotel. To bring the story right up to date the hotel
has enjoyed royal patronage as this is where the Queen dined
on Maundy Thursday this year after the morning service in Derby
Cathedral.
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I formulated this route around Derby after consulting several
leaflets but none of them featured anything about St Mary's Gate
except for one particular building. That building designed by
George Eaton of Etwall and built in 1659 is the Grade 1 listed
County or Shire Hall which, with a cobbled and enclosed courtyard
flanked by late Georgian buildings, was converted in 2003 and
is now the Magistrates' Court. The stone facade and the twin
entrance doors are particularly noteworthy although they did
not look quite so pristine when Andy Savage captured them for
his www.derbyphotos.co.uk in 2001 prior to the
renovation.
The Grade II
building to the left of the courtyard and now used as offices
for the Magistrates' Court was formerly the King's Arms Hotel
of 1798 and later a Police Station. On the wall fronting St Mary's
Gate the coat of arms (left) of King George III can still be
seen. To the right of the courtyard (right) were the Judges'
Lodgings (also Grade II listed) designed by John Welch and built
in 1809/10.
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Standing beneath the coat of arms and with the Shire Hall on
the left, I can only contemplate the history of this street and
am grateful to Mike Smith and his Pictures of Derby website which has proved
an invaluable source of information for the images on this page
and which also includes details of some of the other interesting
buildings. Both Andy Savage's and Mike's sites are worth exploring
in greater depth.
Looking back to the cathedral, another story I found during my
research is briefly worth retelling here. If we had been standing
in this vicinity in August 1734 we would have been among a crowd
of townspeople looking at a rope attached to the top of All Saints
Church (now the cathedral) and running the length of St Mary's
Gate. A vagrant attached himself to the rope via a groove in
a wooden breastplate with a 13 year old boy in a wheelbarrow
attached in a similar fashion behind. They were launched down
the rope, the friction causing smoke to follow close behind.
Although they landed safely, the next spectacle involved an ass
with lead weights attached to its feet. This was also attached
to the rope to perform a similar exercise but the combined weight
caused the rope to break about half way through the ass's descent
and it fell into the crowd with several being injured. The ass
however had its fall cushioned by the bodies below and was unhurt.
The rope brought down chimneys as well as a number of people.
The vagrant meanwhile made good his escape giving up all thoughts
of taking a collection.
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Continuing on our route and turning right at the bottom of St
Mary's Gate into Jury Street, I noticed this building. I had
no idea what it was but took this photo as it looked as though
it had an interesting past. It turns out that it was originally
the Corporation stables built in 1879 by Thomas Colthurst. It
became the headquarters of the Fire Service being used extensively
during World War 2 and later a City Museum storeroom.
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