Town Walk 2026 - Part 08 - Market Street to the Market
Place
w/e 11 January 2026
This part equates to part of Stage 13, all of
14 and part of 15 of the original Town Walk from 2003.
In 2003 the 1881 built factory at the top of Market Street had
"recently been cleaned and renovated" and was
"used by a number of different organisations."
The Rutland Garments factory had been renamed Rutland Mills but
since then it has been completely redeveloped and modernised
to become Rutland Mills Apartments. New properties have also
been built both behind this building and on Hallcroft Road to
complete the redevelopment.
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Across from the former factory on the corner of Coronation Street,
the two storey building that originally served as a warehouse
for the factory has also seen some modernisation including replacement
doors and windows. The diamond shaped brickwork however between
the two terraced properties on Coronation Street that once bore
the words "Cricket Terrace" - a reference to the
proximity to the town's old cricket ground - has now completely
weathered away.
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At the other end of Coronation Street is the Ritz. Originally
a cinema, in 2003 it was a Bingo Hall but now despite several
rumours about its sale and proposed redevelopment, it is standing
empty. Businesses do however operate from the shops in the building
facing South Street - and utilise the wide pavement as a car
park!
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The front of the Ritz still presents one of Ilkeston's iconic
facades but as I wrote in 2003, "there are two sides
to every story" and this image taken from the car park
off South Street tells a different tale. The footpath called
Weaver Row that runs between Market Street and South Street,
that we saw in the previous part, is between the car park and
the rear of the Ritz. I wonder though how many people using the
car park know the Ritz was "built on the
site of the weavers' pool."
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Another building with an iconic facade stands across from the
Ritz on the corner of Coronation Street. After years as the town's
main Post Office it has had a chequered history being a restaurant,
a Building Society and standing empty for a time before becoming
a public house. Another thing to notice when comparing this image
with the one from 2003 is the road realignment and removal of
the pedestrian crossing in front of Hogarths.
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New signage has been added to Hogarths but the stonework above
the door is still a pointer to the building's history.
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In 2003 I refereed to the buildings on South Street across from
Hogarths at an "architectural hotchpotch"
with a supermarket, "which stands on the site of an old
Methodist Chapel" and "a number of franchised
outlets". The hotchpotch still stands but now there's
a gym, different businesses and the upper stories are now mainly
apartments.
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On the original Town Walk, the three white panels above the windows
bore the words Ilkeston Co-Operative Society. The Co-Op has long
since ceased to trade from any part of this building but as in
2003 when many Ilkestonians still called it "The Co-Op"
it is still referred to that name by many. Another difference
from 2003 is the new position of the padestrian crossing.
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The next image on the original Town Walk was a view from a window
in the Reference Library on the upper floor. Since then there
have been some changes to the usage of the rooms in the library
but this is a similar view across the Market Place from the top
of the stairs in the library. In 2003 I wrote "Markets
are held here twice a week on Thursdays and Saturdays with a
Farmers' Market on the fourth Friday each month." Markets
are still held twice a week and sometimes on a Friday too but
there are far fewer traders attending and there has not been
a Farmers' Market for years.
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One trader selling meat who regularly turns up was there in the
aftermath of Storm Goretti on Saturday but customers were few
and far between in the icy conditions. He always parks in front
of the Carnegie Free Library built after the "gift of
£7500 by the Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie".
In 2003 "books, maps, videos, DVDs, music CDs and talking
books on both cassette tapes and CDs" could be borrowed.
Now the children's section has been relocated to the ground floor
and DVDs, CDs etc have been replaced by other services that allow
eBooks, eAudiobooks, eMagazines and eNewspapers to be borrowed.
Andrew Carnegie's legacy lives on in a form he would never have
dreamed about.
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