Some of the sights of Derby in December 2024. All photographs by Graham Soult
On Wednesday this week I had a productive day of Christmas shopping in Derby, a city that combines a busy mall (Derbion – the latest name for the former Eagle, Westfield and Intu Centre) with an interesting indie-focused area, the Cathedral Quarter.
When I was a child, my gran in nearby Ripley would take us to Nottingham as a treat, though Derby is arguably on a par in terms of the quality and breadth of its offer these days!
Woolworths lens
Looking at Derby through a Woolworths lens, the city is quite unusual for a place of its size in that it has six former Woolworths locations, including the original 1914 to 1975 site at 28-33 Victoria Street, and the former C&A premises in Derbion – now Poundland – that Woolworths occupied from about 2001 until its demise (both pictured).
The others are the original 1975 Eagle Centre location (closed in 1988), two small Eagle Centre stores opened in the late 1980s, and a 2000s store at Southgate Retail Park.
Love Sadler Gate
Love Sadler Gate sounds like a brilliant example of proactive traders working together.
Graham Soult
Needless to say, I can never visit any high street, even for fun, without engaging in conversation with the local businesses!
I chatted to the owner of lovely gift shop Tubo, and the proprietor of next-door business, Mr Shaw’s House, which both opened on Sadler Gate in the Cathedral Quarter in May 2023, after previously trading elsewhere in the city.
Set up by local indies as a CIC, Love Sadler Gate sounds like a brilliant example of proactive traders working together to benefit each other and the place as a whole.
Derby clearly has its challenges – there are still more vacant shops than anyone would like, and too many occupied ones are in poor condition – but I was heartened to see creative, dynamic indies taking a positive lead, amid a determination to keep doing more of what is already great.
