[RSWB]

I was in Derby earlier today and was interested in seeing it's city centre as I've never been there before - here are the pics:

Derby Station -

Advertisement for the screening of Jaws on Brighton beach - in Derby! nowhere near! (I have seen this in Wolverhampton, Leicester and Nottingham too)

Shopping centre undergoing expansion -

Various street scenes -

Market Place -

Council HQ

Riverside Walk

Derby Cathedral

Derby central library

German Market and the ugly assembly rooms behind it

I quite liked Derby it has some gorgeous old buildings although I felt something was missing, I couldn't quite work out what it was, maybe it just needs that something extra to improve it's appeal to visitors, I also found the city centre to be quite small - smaller than I was expecting.
What are everyone's thoughts on Derby?

 

[sjwmoore]

I would agree with you about there being something missing- its a county town but dosent come across as one (if that makes sense), more of a midlands industrial town. The thing I liked best when I went there was the elevated inner ring road

 

[Accura4Matalan]

What a horrible place!

 

[RSWB]

What a horrible place!

aww now that's a bit harsh, there are some lovely buildings there, and I didn't see any ugly buildings apart from that assembly rooms complex, it's just lacking that something extra.
Btw - the place looks a bit deserted as it was around 9 am when I took the photos.
It is still better than Wolverhampton anyway!

 

[Bim]

I think it's got elements of Wigan and York mixed together.
Some parts same-town (i.e. Pedestrian paved streets, high street stores), then there are prettier more individual parts with one off shops and nic churches and buildings.
The good outweighs the bad me thinks!

 

[ranny fash]

I think it's got elements of Wigan and York mixed together.
Some parts same-town (i.e. Pedestrian paved streets, high street stores), then there are prettier more individual parts with one off shops and nic churches and buildings.
The good outweighs the bad me thinks!

thats extremely switzerland........

 

[ranny fash]

What a horrible place!

that's more like it!

 

[ranny fash]

derby's just a short bus trip away from my area of nottingham but i don't know it very well - i never need to go there except to the station sometimes. its a bit bigger than most people realise tho, certainly too big to be called a town really. i don't really have an opinion on the place but i hate the fucking rams.

 

[ranny fash]

^that's not to say i hate derby though, or derby people.

 

[as cities burn]

crazy - my home town! never thought i'd see it on here. derby's not bad but i think that's precisely its problem. it's got nothing to especially appeal about it, but little of the post-industrial grit in the city centre areas (there are rank bits just outside though) that attracts large-scale regeneration projects in other cities. it's small for a city (<220,000) and actually isn't a county town - that goes to matlock for some bizarre reason - i guess matlockshire doesn't roll off the tongue so well. anyways, thanks for sticking photos of my old home up!

 

[ranny fash]

^what's the relevance of a county town anyway?

 

[as cities burn]

who knows? derbyshire county council may be based there, i don't know. it's probably just a tag for the sake of it

p.s. if you've never been to matlock and matlock bath then go! they're beautiful little towns - especially matlock bath - at the bottom of quite a steep valley. v. picturesque - tho a bit dull when empty of tourists

 

[Awayo]

Handsome town. Much better than I remembered it as being from my one afternoon visit there 10+ years ago.

Accy has sucked too many mintballs. It's far from horrible and better than many places its size in England (judging from those photos, at least).

 

[JDRS]

Looks like quite a nice place..a fairly typical small British city

Does anyone have any renders of the shopping centre expansion for us?

 

[RSWB]

yep, here are some renders of the shopping centre expansion.

Looks quite good in my opinion, although I'm not a big fan of shopping centre's.

 

[Llanfairpwllgwy-ngyllgogerychwy-rndrobwllllanty-si]

I had a girlfriend from Derby, she was nice,nicer than her town
Although it is not too bad(compared to Northampton or Coventry)

 

[Rigadon]

Ive often thought about visting because the train journey is so short but wasnt sure if there was anything worth seeing. Worth a look round or not?

 

[jeremai]

It may not be the best British town but I have to say that after 4.5 years in the US I would love to step into those photos and go shopping on real streets instead of in a soulless mall, and be surrounded by old buildings. It looks great from this perspective. Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[as cities burn]

Rigadon - it's worth a try, if just to satisfy your curiosity (everyone's 'been through' derby), but don't expect a hidden gem. derby's fine, just doesn't have the buzz that makes a city a city imo. it's pretty sizeable - population wise - but that's just suburbs full of people who go to nottingham/sheffield/birmingham/manchester etc to shop. at least we're not too far away from other major centres.

i was glad to leave and am bored as when i go back, but still worth a trip methinks. it's not bad

 

[Blindfold]

Thanks. I'm pleasantly suprised as I haven't ventured to Derby before. It seems to have retained a lot of its 19th century charachter and isn't blighted by nasty 60/70's monstrosities like the majority of provincial cities.

Looks very pedestrian friendly too which is a bonus in my books.