IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Leeds Place, DERBY, DE1 2RX

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.

Built for the North Midland Railway (in a block with North Street - now Calvert Street - and Railway Terrace), these have survived clearance schemes and were designated a conservation area in 1979.

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.

These cottages date from 1842 and were built by the North Midland Railway to house its workers. Midland Place forms one side of a triangle of streets whose names originally represented the railway company - North Street, Midland Place and Railway Terrace. North Street, however, was later renamed Calvert Street because there was already a North Street in Derby. The building is grade II listed and forms part of a conservation area.

Preserved cottages in Midland Place.

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.