Description: Looking north-west towards The Spot with an unidentified Derby Corporation open-top electric tramcar approaching. Another such vehicle, this time with a top cover, can be seen in the far distance (beneath the lamp post) heading into town. Partly hidden by one of the trees, the classical building with the columns is the London Road Congregational Chapel. Designed by local architect Henry Isaac Stevens and erected in 1843 with seats for 950 worshippers, it became the Coliseum cinema in 1934 and was demolished to allow road widening in 1962.
To the right of this is the Telegraph Inn (rebuilt on this site in 1937) and in-between the two is Traffic Street. Opposite is Bradshaw Street, a narrow throughfare that climbed up to join Osmaston Road. Prominent on the corner is a large advertisement reading 'Ride Raleigh Cycles. Built Entirely of Steel in the Most Complete Cycle Factory in the World. Depot St Peter's Street ... Rapid, Reliable'. The wall on the extreme left forms the boundary of the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.
In due course tree-lined London Road was designated the A6 but does not seem particularly busy here, although a couple of motor cars (the nearest regisered R 291) herald things to come. The group of well-dressed small boys in the foreground face little danger from traffic and were probably under strict instructions from the photographer to stand very still while he took his picture.
Both Traffic Street and Bradshaw Street (renamed Bradshaw Way) later became dual carriageways and were incorporated into Derby's Inner Ringroad with an island at the intersection with London Road. The buildings beyond this fell victim to a piecemeal development of shopping centres - successively the Main Centre, the Eagle Centre, and the Coliseum Centre - all of which were duly incorporated into or replaced early in the 21st century by the Westfield Shopping Centre, itself renamed Intu Derby in 2014.
Derby-based postcard publisher F W Scarratt took this photo and allocated it the number 328 in his series.