Belper Railway Station Entrance

For 95 years this was the entrance to Belper Station. The parades of shops on either side were built in 1914. All but the shop on the left (Whitaker’s the Greengrocer) were demolished in 1973.

From 1878, picket fencing funnelled people to the ticket office and courtyard at Belper Station. In September 1914, a month into the First World War and despite the loss of trained builders in the town, two parades of colonnaded shops were completed on either side of the entrance to the Railway Station Yard. They were welcomed for being very different in style and design to the older King Street shops.

In November 1914, Dicks, the old established Belper boot firm based on Bridge Street, moved into one of the most prominent of these new shops (on the right) and stayed for over 50 years. By 1973, when that parade was demolished, it was Belper Coal Supplies. The other parade (on the left) still stands today, next to the Poundland store. Whitaker’s greengrocers (pictured) was another fixture for many years after the Second World War.