Looking from the west at the crowd present for the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone of the Central Methodist Church. The ceremony took place on Wednesday 14 October 1896. The Architect was George Haslam of Ilkeston; and the builders were J H Vickers and Son of Nottingham. Mayor Charles Maltby, in his chain of office, who laid the first stone is right of centre. Behind the scaffold is the Queens Head Inn and to the left of this is the Queens Palace of Varieties. On the right is the Leeds and Leicester Boot Co. and J Moss, Clothier and Hatter.