In this Derby then and now we are standing on The Morledge looking north west towards the Market hall. the Eagle Centre market is to my left.

This view has changed significantly in the 93 years between the two views, the only things that stay the same are the clock tower of the Guild hall and some of those buildings in front of it. If the River Lights building wasn't there today then you would see Derby Cathedral too.

In the 1931 view its a non-market day. The tall chimney you can see was the 180ft shot tower which was built in 1808 and was used to make lead shot by pouring molten lead through a sieve at the top and those drops would form into round balls as they fell to the bottom. It was demolished to make way for Derby’s 1932 Central Improvement Plan.

The old cattle market used to take place on the Morledge too before moving to the Holmes in the 1930s before finding its final home at Chequers Road which then closed down in 2016.

As a hub of both market and industry the Morledge was home to several pubs. Three of them – the White Horse, the Cossack (sometimes known as the Noah’s Ark) and the Old Noah’s Ark – stood side-by-side. Today’s White Horse was rebuilt and enlarged in 1920 to encompass the Cossack.

The opening of the new Council House by Princess Elizabeth in 1949 completed the Central Improvement Plan that had delivered clean-lined Art Deco elegance: a purpose-built police station and court, a well-ordered outdoor market beside the river, and the beautiful River Gardens beyond and of course Aslin’s bus station which closed in October 2005 and was demolished in July 2006. The present bus station (part of River Lights) was opened on 27 March 2010.

Do you have any memories of this area ?

Photo A taken : 1931
Photo B taken : 18th April 2024
Time elapsed : 93 years

"A truly unique way to see changes in time using two perfectly lined up images, one old & one new." Best viewed on a smart TV or large screen in full screen mode.

Derby Past & Present - in fading Photographs.
High quality resolution fading photos showing local scenes as they were and how they are today from exactly the same view point. Then and now, Now and then, Past and Present, Old and New, Before and After. Call it what you want, just try one and see the effect!

The presentations you can see here are the result of many hours of work put in by myself ensuring that the old and new photographs line up precisely, I don't publish any if I'm not 100% happy with the match.

http://www.derbyphotos.co.uk/thenandnow/

Please note that the Then & now section on my website is currently in need of a revamp as they were all created back in 2005 using Flash and this is no longer supported so I will have to recreate all of my work again using a different method. In the meantime Im publishing then on my YouTube channel like this one.

Best viewed on a large computer screen or smart TV as this is recorded in 4K resolution with great music so a real waste watching it on a small phone screen. Did you know you can cast it to your smart tv from the YouTube app?

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Music Credits :
'The Restoration' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
   • 'The Restoration' (from 'Monomyth') [...  
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Thanks
Andy