IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Calvert Street, DERBY, DE1 2RQ

On a damp windy morning Sheffield Place looks rather grim. It is however in the middle of some old Victorian terraced houses that are now part of a conservation area close to the railway station. For a full history of the area see: https://www.derby.gov.uk/media/derbycitycouncil/contentassets/documents/conservationareas/DerbyCityCouncil-RailwayConservationArea.pdf

These cottages just off Railway Terrace look so picture perfect - especially in the autumn sunshine - that it would be easy to imagine that they are part of a museum display, although perhaps the satellite dish and television aerial are give-aways. Sheffield Terrace and the nearby Leeds Terrace were named after destinations served by the North Midland Railway who built them in the 1840s.

An acutely angled building on the corner of Calvert Street, part of the Railway Conservation Area.

With Derby Station car park behind the photographer on the opposite side of the B6000 road, this is the view down Sheffield Place. These houses, along with ninety others, were designed by Francis Thompson for The North Midland Railway Company and once built, between 1841-43, they were rented out to railway employees. By 1982, having been saved from demolition, all ninety properties, ranging from four-bedroomed houses to two-bedroomed terraced cottages, had been restored and sold to private buyers as had been previously agreed.

A continuous run of two dozen or so Grade-II listed former railway-workers' cottages on the east side of Calvert Street one block to the west of Railway Terrace, i.e. the main approach road to the railway station. These two-storey brick cottages have paired doors and sash windows. They were built in 1842 to a design by Francis Thompson and were restored in 1981.

These houses, designed by Francis Thompson, were built shortly after the completion of Derby Tri-Junct station in 1840 and were fully occupied by 1843. This is believed to be one of the earliest examples of a settlement built for railway workers.

Opposite the Merry Widows pub where Midland Place empties pedestrians out onto Railway Terrace is “Waterfall”, a party and function venue in the former Midland Railway Institute. This cultural and social centre for railway employees opened in 1896 and originally comprised a reading room, a billiards room, a dining room and coffee rooms, a library containing over 1,000 volumes and a large hall for public meetings and entertainments. “Waterfall” have occupied it for the past 15 years. The railway station lies behind the photographer.