Description: Looking east from the Market Place with Exeter Bridge over the River Derwent in the far distance. At this date this was the main exit by road from Derby to Nottingham - the double track tramway prominent here took Derby Corporation trams out along Nottingham Road to terminate at the the town's main cemetery at the top of Chaddesden Hill. This was the last of Derby's tram routes to open, in 1908, and the first to close, in 1930.
Of the shops to the left, the first belongs to gunsmith Robert Lisle (the shop window is full of rifles), then there is Peacock and Wetton, 'Wholesale Haberdashers, Hosiers and Fancy Drapers', followed by Power's who sold sports goods and later relocated to premises in Green Lane, from where they continued to operate for many years. Their Derwent Street shop partly occupies the light-coloured gabled building, which was probably constructed in yellow brick with red brick dressings. The building in the right foreground, which was situated on the corner of Tenant Street was occupied by the Britannic Assurance Co Ltd.
Present day Derbeians would struggle to recognise this location as none of the buildings depicted still stand. All of those on the right were demolished about 1930 to permit road widening, while the Central Improvement Scheme of the same period duly resulted in a traffic island in the middle distance forming an intersection with the newly created Corporation Street and a realigned Full Street. Flanking this on the left was a new police station and magistrates court and on the right the Council House. Last to survive was the Britannic Assurance building, latterly a gardening shop, which was pulled down in the 1980s to make way for a new hotel. This particular scheme faltered and eventually the site was used to build Quad, a futuristic looking arts centre (see PTPD000008) that opened in 2008.
This photo was taken by Derby-based postcard producer F W Scarratt but its number in his series is unknown.