City Centre Streets E - H

The building to the rightstarted life as a furniture warehouse, however in the 1930s it was converted into an Art Deco inspired cinema. The facade is made of Portland Stone and features a carving of the Egyptian Winged Isis. For a number of years it was the premises of the Derbyshire Building Society until that company was taken over by Nationwide and many of it's branches, this one included, were closed down. It is now a retail unit

Below are two views of the old Co-operative Society building on the corner of East Street and Exchange Street.
The Derby Co-operative Society was established in 1850, making it only the third such group in the country, after the Rochdale Pioneers. Originally run from a small unassuming hayloft in George's Yard the Society gradually expanded, opening stores across the town. The success of the group led to them opening the first department store in the city, later moving to the two premises shown here. The imposing and ornate building in the two photos on the left was erected in 1913 to the designs of Alexander Macpherson. Begun in 1912, the building took five years to complete. It has some fine carved stone detailing and this was created by the stone masons of the Co-op funeral Service. The building is no longer occupied by the Co-op, instead providing premises for a number of other smaller retail units on the ground floor. The building on the right was for many years the Co-op department store. Situated on the opposite corner to the previous building it is now the premises of a large furniture retailer

Looking down Exchange Street towards the entrance to the Victorian Market Hall. The 1913 Co-op building can be seen on the right of the picture with the 1928, premises on the left.
Exchange Street, which runs at right angles to East Street, came into existence sometime between 1874 and 1878. It takes its name from the Corn Exchange building which stands at its junction with Albert Street

Friargate

The current Friargate is, historically, made up of two streets, Nuns green and Friargate, although the latter was originally known as Markeaton Lane. Nuns Green was originally land owned by the nunnery of St Mary De Pratis and included meadows, mills as well as the convent buildings themselves. Friargate takes its name from the friary which had been established there sometime in the 13th century by Augustinian monks.
At the dissolution in the 16th century the area around the Friary was sold off and redeveloped with some of the cities oldest surviving buildings to be found there. Nuns Green, on the other hand, was used variously as common land, quarries for brick making, a pinfold and beast markets. In 1768, an act was passed for parts of the land to be sold off to raise money for town improvements such as street lighting. It was this sale that gave us the wonderful Georgian street that today forms the top half of Friargate.

George Yard

George Yard is a particularly interesting cobbled street that runs parallel to the historic Sadlergate. Today it looks largely uninteresting seemingly only providing the back entrance to the shops and businesses on Sadlergate. However George yard, sometimes known also as George lane was itself once lined with houses, businesses and pubs.
It is thought that it takes its name from the historic George Inn which was originally at the top of the street and is recorded as being a coaching inn as far back as 1648. Maxwell Craven in his invaluable book Derby Streets states that the inn was itself named after the jewel of the Order of the Garter which was dedicated to St George, England's patron saint. Even more interesting, however, he goes on to say that a previously recorded name for the street was ‘Juddekynlone’ or Judkin Lane and this was first recorded in the 1343 although there is no record of who Jud may have been.
I’m not sure when the buildings that ran it’s length were cleared or why however interesting clues survive that there were indeed buildings there.

One other interesting fact is that George Yard was the original site of the Derby Cooperative Society in 1850. This can be seen in the first photo below
‘THE now imposing Albert Street Store with its 37 branches, was begun by a few capitalless carpenters and joiners in an inconvenient out-of-the way (from the point of view of business) unpromising hayloft in Sadler Gate, 1849-50. Too low in fortune for ambition to reach them, necessity led the early store makers to rent a hayloft only accessible by a rude flight of steps. On the left-hand side of the George Yard entrance may still be seen, bricked up now, the old doorway which led to the primitive store. Underneath it was a stable. On turning the corner into George Yard there is now a public lodging-house, with a balcony in the upper part. That is where the store was.’
Excerpt from the Jubilee history of the Derby Cooperative Society 1850 - 1900

Gower Street

Another of the streets that come off Babington Lane is the one now known as Gower Street. . Originally called Blood Alley the street was later renamed after William Leveson-Gower MP sometime around 1850. (This is according to Maxwell Craven, however I have been unable to find any information about Leveson-Gower). The street has a number of interesting buildings. At its corner with Babington Lane is the continuation of the Hunters buildingFurther along the street is a fine set set of houses and next to them a derelict Presbyterian church of 1868 more photos of which can be seen in the Green Lane section. On the opposite side of the road is an extremely large office block called Prosperity House - this is now in the process of being converted into 147 apartments.