City Centre Streets I - M
Iron Gate
Iron Gate is another of Derby's ancient roads, also following the line of the north-south trackway, and it's suffix probably indicates a link to the towns period under the Danelaw. It is likely that the street was laid out about 1100 and it's name took its present form about 1483 and simply meant 'street of the iron workers'. Originally a narrow medieval road it was widened in the 1860's and 70's when it's East side was demolished and new buildings created. This picture shows Irongate as seen from the Market Place, looking towards the Cathedral. The buildings on the right were erected following the widening of the road.
The Photograph on the left below shows the memorial to the cities most famous artist - Joseph Wright of Derby. Placed near to the site where he was born in 1734, the sculpture is representative of the subject featured in his most famous work - A Philosopher Lecturing On The Orrery, which can be seen in Derby Museum along with the world's largest collection of his paintings and drawingsThe unusual looking building on the right can be found on Irongate. Now an estate agents, it was once the home of celebrated 19th century photographer and printer, Richard Keene. The extensively glazed upper floor indicates that this served as his photographic studio. Keene was an early convert to photography and had established his own portrait studio by 1859. An associate of Fox Talbot, winner of numerous awards and a founding member of the Derby Photographic Society, Keene was also responsible for many of the 19th Century photographs of Derby and its surroundings.
Ornate detailing on the roof of the Standing Order Public House can be seen in the photo to the left below. This grand building was originally erected in 1870 for the Crompton and Evans Union Bank, later becoming a branch of the Nat West. The building is listed Grade II and, despite now being a pub it retains many of its period features and grandeur.
One of the few remaining original shop fronts in the city, however the council recently completed a wonderful scheme to encourage shop owners to remove modern shop fronts and reinstate historically accurate copies of the original frontages. Many of these were done and look incredibly impressive
Macklin Street
Macklin Street is a street that has definitely seen better days. Although there are still some residential properties along one side of the street, as a whole it has been blighted by repeated poor development, dereliction and neglect. This area was once a thriving residential district with the Summerhill area on one side. This area was cleared in the 1960s and replaced with the now defunct and cleared Duckworth Square shopping centre. Further along the street was built the extremely overbearing and ugly Pennine Hotel and the adjacent Pink Coconut nightclub and multi story care park - all now also cleared away to make way for a new 3500 capacity events arena, apartments, a hotel and green open space, all of which should hopefully be completed in the next couple of years. At the end of the street, at its corner with Green Lane is the now derelict Hippodrome and across from that the old Morgan’s Shoe and leather repairers which has been closed for decades. The other end of the street consists of Wathalls Funeral directors, who have been on the site since the turn of the 20th Century and across from them a more recently built doctor’s surgeryI have so far been able to find out very little about the history of this street, however Maxwell Craven, in Derby Street by Street, says that it was originally called Cross Street from the early 19th century as it ran across from Green Lane to Dayson Lane, Now Curzon Street. It acquired it’s current name sometime after 1846 and was named after the Reverend Roseingrave Macklin who lived on the nearby Wardwick, was the 1st vicar of Christ Church Normanton Road and owned land on the area that is now Macklin Street. A detailed biography of this fascinating man can be found at the Photo-Sleuth blog
Above was once the premises of Morgan shoe repairers, a wonderful little shop that closed decades ago. To the left of the photo is the entrance to what was once Summerhill Yard.
An example of the fine 19th century housing that remains on the street
Opened in the mid sixties the Pennine Hotel (above) was once a high quality and extremely popular hotel. Built as part of an entertainment complex which included a night club and casino, the venue hosted many large events from boxing to charity balls to Derby County FC's annual conference. Following a fire in 2002 the venue experienced a steady decline despite new owners, investment and various name changes. In 2015 it suffered scathing reviews on the internet and closed suddenly later that year. The building suffered significant decay ever since and has now been demolished along with its accompanying buildings and Duckworth Square and is being completely redeveloped over the next couple of years
Above is a photo of the entrance to G Wathall and sons who have occupied this site for well over a century and have been run by the same family since 1858. A wonderful history of the family and the company can be found at their website
Morledge
Maxwell Craven, in his excellent book Street by Street, states that the name Morledge has Anglo Saxon origins and comes from 'maere' meaning boundary and ;laec' meaning stream. This, he believes, could mean that the Markeaton Brook, which then flowed through this area, formed some form of boundary