Derby's Heritage Part 18 - Corn Market to Victoria St
w/e 26 June 2011
All this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490

Our walk so far in central Derby has involved much toing and froing, down one street and up the next and the original mediaeval layout means that as we begin our route south of the Market Place in the street called Corn Market, we shall proceed along St James's St only to return via Victoria Street to the other end of the Corn Market in the next part. In this part however we shall also touch once more on The Strand and The Wardwick, two streets we have already set foot on previously. We'll begin though in the Corn Market at the Grade II listed arch into a yard that now also leads to the Market Hall, a place we shall see much later in the walk. Most of the east side (left) of the Corn Market was demolished in the 1960s together with a number of adjoining yards but the yard that leads through to the Market Hall survived the redevelopment. This yard is known as Lock-up Yard but was previously called Tiger Yard after the Tiger Inn that occupied the building at number 35 Corn Market. The building around the arch probably designed by Joseph Pickford at numbers 37 and 38 was built for Heath's Bank about 1768.

Passing through the archway into Lock-up Yard, we find that the whole of the right hand side, sandwiched between the Market Hall and the rear of the Istanbul Restaurant, is Derby's Fish Market. Maps from the early part of the last century label the far corner as the "Lock-up" but the "Tiger" connection survives today in the name of the Tiger Bar (left) and the inn sign (right) on the other side of the yard.

A more recent addition to the Lock-up Yard is a memorial to Steve Bloomer and the inscription reads as follows: "Steve Bloomer, the first king of English football goalscorers, entered the 20th century with his fame as Derby County's outstanding marksman already established. As the next century beckoned - when this monument was erected in 1996 - his Rams' all-games record of 332 goals was still unsurpassed. His 353 Football League goals for Derby County and Middlesbrough was a record until near his death in 1938 at 64. Bloomer's 28 goals in 23 England games gave him a then unique average of 1.21 per cap. The son of a Midlands' blacksmith, Bloomer was a pupil at St James' School in Derby. He was described as a 'Working Class Hero' by Nottingham Trent University student Jonathan Belshaw in his 1990's study of Victorian social changes. The monument erected through the auction of Bloomer's England caps, plus family contributions, has been presented to Derby City Council by his descendants."

Opposite Lock-up Yard is St James's Street and this too has yards (left and right) on each side. Recorded in 1250 as The Lane of St James after a church it evolved to St James's Lane before adopting its current name. A 1991 scheme to pedestrianise the town centre included the eastern half of the street. Over a hundred years earlier from 1869 to 1878 the whole street had been rebuilt and widened by the Derby Hotel and Improvement Company, hardwood setts being laid to reduce noise in 1874.

At the western end of St James's St a wooden bridge controlled by monks who charged a toll to cross it led over the Markeaton Brook into Brookside. Brookside was lost and incorporated into Victoria Street to the left of the junction when the brook was culverted in the 1830s. The two streets now seen to the right at the road junction are The Strand and The Wardwick.

The Strand which we saw earlier from the far end after leaving the museum was also built on the line of the culverted brook in the 1870s, the foundation stone for buildings on east side being laid in 1878 by Alderman Sir Henry Bemrose. The buildings were designed by Giles & Brookhouse.

The Wardwick is the earliest street name to be on record in Derby dating from 1085. Back then it was called Walwik Street which is thought to have been derived from "wic" meaning "market" and "Walda" the name of the possible founder of a Saxon church in the area. In the centre of this view is the Jacobean House that stands opposite the Central Library both of which we saw earlier when we approached from Friar Gate in the opposite direction. As I said earlier our route involves a lot of toing and froing! The corner building on the right of this image and also on the left of the previous image was originally occupied by piano and organ merchants Edgar Horn, but later it was the offices of the Refuge Assurance Company and is now the Revolution Bar.

Another bar, Coyote Wild, can be found in the impressive building on the corner of St James's Street and Victoria Street despite the name of "Post Office" to be seen high on the frontage. Until 1997 this was the main central post office in Derby but then it closed and moved to smaller offices in Victoria Street. The building was first erected in 1865, and still carries a cast iron nameplate for the street together with a similar one showing the road identifier "A52" beneath (right) despite the A52 now being rerouted around the city centre. Victoria Street was completed in 1839 and named after the Queen who ascended to the throne in 1837. In the next part we will follow Victoria Street back to Corn Market where it also meets Albert Street but suffice it here to say that Albert Street was completed in 1848 and named after Victoria's husband, Prince Albert.  Back to Part 17  The Derby Heritage Walk Index Continued in Part 19

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