The tall lamp post and rather small roundabout in the middle of Crown Square replaced the tram shelter. The shelter had been removed with unseemly haste before the tramway up Bank Road had stopped running, albeit that it was only a few days beforehand. There were calls in the summer of 1933 for the lamp standard to be moved to a more suitable position. It was hoped that the County and District Councils would taken action after the holiday rush, "or, worse still, when some serious crash results from the present confusion^[1]." A roundabout was eventually created around it, but the lamp remained for about twenty years afterwards.

All signs of the tramway were removed from both Bank Road and Crown Square^[2] and the park head was cleared of shops, replaced by a pleasant area of seating next to the Hall Leys Park.

The bus that is on Causeway Lane was a Hands motor bus, registration number RA5031, designed to carry 35 people^[2]. The sign on the front shows it was going to Cromford. A charabanc was parked to the side of "Burgon's Supply Store" which was being studied by a small boy wearing a cap, long socks and short trousers - the clothing that most young boys wore at that time. The second bus in the picture, next to the roundabout, was not keeping to the left so was on the wrong side of the road.

Signs for W. H. Marriott's auctioneers are displayed on two of the Causeway Lane buildings. These were at various times known as the "Crown sale rooms" and the "Central sale rooms". In 1940, following his death, the sale rooms and his offices were for sale. They had a frontage of 46 feet 4 inches and covered approximately 434 square yards^[4]. Marchant Brooks used the same premises from 1941 onwards^[5].

Enlargement of part of the top image, showing Mr Marriott's sale rooms.

The former Ernest Bailey's School can be seen on the hillside behind the auctioneers.

Orme's Grocery & Provisions store was on the corner of Causeway Lane and Bank Road (see advertisement below). It had moved there a few years before, following the compulsory purchase of its shop next to the County Bridge. Above the awing on the Causeway Lane side of the shop is some very fine wrought ironwork, with the words "Groceries & Provisions" picked out in block capitals. It is not one the building today.

The first shop on Bank Road past Orme's was Boden's Pastrycooks, run by John William Boden^[6], which had a Cafe above and later became Rock Cafe. Further along the parade were The Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire Electric Power Company showrooms, Matlock & District Gas Company's showrooms (later the Sheffield Gas Company), Arthur William Gessey's stationers, Evan's cafe and confectioners (run by Miss H. Aspinall) and J. H. Dewhurst's butchers at the end of the row^[6]. The signs are almost impossible to read. Matlock's Post Office is set back from the road so cannot be seen, but is on the right hand corner of Lime Grove Walk. Quite what the store was on the opposite corner is uncertain, but the sign over the window reads "CASH" and the window dressing seems to be quite elaborate. The shop later became Greaves Furniture Stores and then Haydn Stanley's.

Behind the Crown Hotel was a small park called Imperial Road Gardens which is where the Lido was eventually built. The gardens were on land previously owned by Rev. Wolley Dod and had been purchased in three parts between 1900 and 1905^[7].

References:

^[2] Waite, Glynn (2012) "The Matlock Cable Tramway", Pynot Publishing, 50 Main Road, Holmesfield, Dronfield, Derbyshire. ISBN 978-0-9562706-5-8. He records that the cable and pulleys were removed, but the cast iron yokes that had been embedded in concrete had been left under the road and were rediscovered in the 1970s.

"Derbyshire Times"", 22 July 1933. From The Matlocks, Cromford, Darley Dale an Districts.

^[2] Glynn Waite extracted this information from an Omnibus Society publication about North Western buses, which gave details of the vehicles the company inherited from other firms (and the dates) and what subsequently happened to them, although not all were traced.

^[4] See Marchant Brooks Sale Rooms, Causeway Lane, 1946. Following Mr. Marriott's death, his Central salerooms were offered for sale in 1940 ("Derbyshire Times", 10 May 1940.

^[5] "Derbyshire Times", 7 November 1941.

^[6] Kelly's 1932 Directory.

^[7] "Derby Daily Telegraph", 18 March 1936.