Three reasons suggest that this view dates from the mid 1880's.
Firstly, the Pavilion on the hillside above the Royal Hotel
was newly built; secondly, there was very little landscaping
both around the pavilion itself and beside the Pavilion's long
carriage drive; thirdly, the cluster of properties we can see
at the top of Clifton Road in the centre of the picture show
us that at this time not all the road's Victorian houses had
been built. Barton Villa, for example, is not shown but was
occupied by 1888[1]. The
Royal Hotel, bottom right, had eventually opened in 1878[2].
It had fairly extensive grounds, with a large cultivated area
behind the church which was where much of the hotel's fruit
and vegetables would have been grown.
In 1882 a lengthy article about Matlock Bath was published in
a Nottingham newspaper. "There seems
to have been a regrettable stagnation of local enterprise [in
Matlock Bath], and it has not been an unfrequent
thing to hear the remark, 'Oh, Matlock Bath has gone down'. We
should not be doing our duty in this article if we did not hasten
to say that things now show a decided tendency to "go up" and...
the resort will not very long have to bear the reproach of being
at a standstill"[3]. The
article was referring to the length of time it had taken to complete
the Royal Hotel building, and the resultant slump in trade[4].
A report in the same paper a few day's before had given details
of an "undertaking which promises to put Matlock Bath
much better footing than it has hitherto been for some years
past. There is now a stimulus to be given to local public life,
and not before it was needed. Matlock Bath has entered the arena
to compete with other places of like character. ... In "a
short space of time the new Matlock Bath pavilion and pleasure
grounds will be an accomplished fact. There can be little doubt
that this new enterprise will mark the era of a new state of
things in this lovely dale. ... When completed it cannot fail
to be a constant source of attraction, and pleasure seekers will
no doubt begin to go there in large numbers ..."[3]
By early 1883 most of the preliminary work on the site had
been finished or was being concluded. Workmen were excavating
the hillside to construct the pavilion and the pleasure grounds
were being laid out. Roads leading from both Temple Road and
from Clifton Road were approaching completion[5].
The Pavilion, later known as the Royal Pavilion or Palais Royal,
opened the following year.
In 1891 William Jordan, the Local Board's Surveyor, invited
Tenders for levelling, paving, metalling and flagging and channelling
Clifton Road[6], though
none of the first four submitted tenders were accepted[7].
Some displeasure was voiced at a subsequent Local Board meeting,
when it was stated that the owners of properties on Clifton Road
had ignored notices "to put that thoroughfare into a proper
state of repair" before it was taken over by the Board[8].
This had been resolved by 1893 when Mr. Lennox, who was the Chairman
of the outgoing Local Board, said that £274 had been spent
on Clifton Road[9.
The church is discussed elsewhere.
 Read a poem about the first
sod being laid at the Royal Pavilion on Matlock
and Matlock Bath: Inspiration of Poets
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