The Markham Hostel was at the bottom of Hipper St, and was purchased by C P Markham and donated to the borough in April 1918 as a 'model lodging-house'. The photographer remembers people in his youth calling it a 'workhouse', and the inmates may well have had to work to earn their place. It was built with the idea of being run on Rowton lodging-house lines (Derbyshire Times, 6/4/1918). Rowton was a philanthropist who founded men's lodging-houses in London, 'a new form of poor man's hotel where lodging, catering, and the advantages of a club should be offered at the lowest price'. (Reginald Lucas 1912)