Continuing my walk around Derby last weekend, these are the two most obvious parts of the City Centre that are currently “asleep”.
First up is the former Police Headquarters on Full Street. Built in the mid-1960s, this building became redundant when the move to Chester Green was completed in 2002. It’s expected that the building will be demolished soon. The former Magistrate’s Court next to it is expected to be spared and renovated. At the time the “This is Derby” film was shot, Full Street Police Headquarters would have been open for just a few months. The view in 1966 can be seen for around 10 seconds at the 11:13 mark – below is the view today.
The Former Full Street Police Headquarters – June 2013
One other prominent feature of Derby’s 1960s landscape was the Duckworth Square shopping centre. There is only a fleeting glimpse of it in the “This is Derby” film, so a better idea of what it looked like towards the end of its life is available here. I never remember it as being particularly successful, but it has a special place in my memory as the first computer my brother and I owned came from a shop located on the square in the early 1980s. All that’s left today is a rather large fenced-off hole in the ground.
The site of the former Duckworth Square shopping centre, June 2013