King Street 1905

Wildersley Farm, lying between Belper and Milford, produced considerable amounts of milk for selling in the town. The Harrison family held the farm for generations.

On the left, looking east, is the frontage of the Midland Hotel, built in 1887, selling Stretton’s Fine Derby Ales. Beyond it is the first-floor bay window of the Waverley Café which was still operating – as long as customers remembered their ration books – during the Second World War, over 30 years later.

On the far right is pork butcher John Ash’s shop, with the Imperial Vaults public house next to it. Working up the street, there is tobacconist Isabella Shenton, another butcher, the London Central Meat Company, then Lumley’s the draper. Further up, at the Strutt Street junction, is George Smith’s grocery store, with Peach’s temperance hotel above it. Peach’s closed during the First World War – in September 1916, struggling to maintain her stock and service, owner Mrs Scrivener shut up shop and auctioned off all the furnishings and utensils from the cafe, as no buyer could be found to take it on.