Town Walk 2026 - Part 20 -
Up Bath Street To Wilmot Street
w/e 14 June 2026
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Nikon D3300 camera.
This part equates to Stage 32 and part of 33 from
the original Town
Walk from 2005.
We'll now continue this repeat of the Town Walk up Bath Street
from the lower end to just beyond "the start of the pedestrianised
section near the junction with Chapel Street. This general view
above is looking back down the hill and below we will look at
some of the buildings in a little more detail."
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In 2005 names "like Home & Colonial, Rowell, Hudson,
Hedges Boot & Shoe Co. and Singer's" had been confined
to history and replacements like "Ilkeston Furniture
Company and Falcon Bags" have now also disappeared from
the street but "Taylor's Corn Shop, Spellbound (Tattoo
and Body Piercing)" and others still remain on this
part of Bath Street. I also commented in 2005 alongside
a small photo from 1900 that the "shop fronts and the
businesses have changed but the upper storeys remain virtually
the same, many with ornate brick and terracotta decorations such
as those seen on the Cromwell Buildings to the right of the image
above." That remains true today even if the shop frontages
at ground level have changed.
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"On the opposite side of the road tucked away between
the insurance brokers and fast food outlets (now gone)
and next to another establishments offering tattoos (also
gone)" was The Poplar Inn, a "fine arts and crafts
style building by local architect Harry Tatham Sudbury."
The inn was demolished and replaced by a new apartment block
with two shops at ground level currently occupied by a Nails
Studio and Hairdresser. The land behind was also redeveloped
and now has houses built on it.
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Bath Street was once "graced with the presence of national
chain stores such as British Home Stores, Marks and Spencer's
and Woolworth's" but in 2005 only the latter remained.
Now with the demise of Woolworth's on the High Street, the building
has become The Project, part of the Arena Church Community selling
restored and upcycled furniture, ‘pre-loved’ clothing
and soft furnishings and also operating as a coffee shop.
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The shoe shop on the corner of Station Road had recently closed
in 2005 but the name 'Rose' was still in place. That too has
now gone and "WeFixFeet" replaced it but the old painted
sign above, a nod to history, has been repainted on the wall
even though the pointer to N0. 1 for enquiries is obsolete.
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Back in 2005 Bath Street was "dominated by
financial institutions (banks, building societies, mortgage advisors,
insurance brokers), fast food outlets, charity shops and mobile
phone companies". Many of those have now disappeared
although charity shops still remain and have been joined by a
plethora of barbers, hairdressers and nail bars. New shops open
and close or relocate on a regular basis but like those further
down Bath Street, despite the new occupants and shop names, the
upper storeys remain the same. The shop that traded as a butcher's
for over 100 years under various owners opposite Station Road,
is now trading as Let It Be Gin but the building still features
the unusual upper storey bay windows.
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On the corner of Providence Place, "just above Station
Road is the second of the two public houses altered by Harry
Tatham Sudbury." This too, like The Poplar, has now
closed and for months the building has been shrouded with scaffolding
as work has been carried out to transform it to residential accommodation.
I'd be surprised if any of Harry's alterations have survived.
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We have now reached on our Town Walk the "pedestrian
zone between the end of Chapel Street and the Market Place. The
perceived benefit of the zone was the revitalisation of the shopping
street but the results have not been as successful as hoped".
Furthermore there have often been calls for traffic to be allowed
to 'increase footfall' although how allowing vehicles to drive
past the shops increases footfall escapes me and the restrictions
are rarely enforced anyway.
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"Diagonally across from Chapel Street" is St
Andrew's Methodist Church which was created when "the
old Bath Street Methodist Church" which stood here,
was demolished and the congregation amalgamated their fellow
Methodists from "the Central Methodist Church which stood
only a few yards further up Bath Street" in this new
building.
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"The new church and schoolrooms straddle the corner between
Bath Street and Wilmot Street , the main entrance to the church
now being off the latter.
  In 2005 I
included this image (left) scanned from an old newspaper and
showing the inside of the old church "when the BBC recorded
"Sunday Half Hour". The image of interior of the
new church (right) was taken at Easter in 2024 but recently some
major work has been carried out both inside and out so it may
not look exactly the same today.
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