Country Images Magazine North Edition October 2017 | Page 22

D e r b y s h i re -
Lost Houses
of A W Bellairs & Co., whose Derby Bank notes
are today notable collectors’ items. Unfortunately
the bank failed in spring 1814 and went into
liquidation, which is why most surviving notes
have the liquidator’s stamp on their reverses. Th e
house therefore became Lot 2 in the sale of the
assets of the company on 18th August 1814 and
was purchased by another lawyer, John Curzon
of Breedon Hall, Breedon-on-the-Hiill (1777-
1864) of a distant cadet branch of the Curzons of
Kedleston.
Th e Curzons used the house as an offi ce with a
member of the family living ‘over the shop’. John
was succeeded by Nathaniel Charles (1829-1897)
who also acquired Lockington Hall around
1870, which he promptly let to Charles Frederick
Borough of Castlefi elds, opting to live in a new
villa at Alvaston (hence Curzon Lane there).
However, the Curzons died out in 1919 the
Newtons of Mickleover Manor inheriting, and
they let the house to the Derby Conservative
Association’s Beaconsfi eld Club which remained
there until 1933 when it moved to Green Lane
and closed in 2013.
In 1933 Derby Council was busy implementing
their Central Improvement Plan, devised by
Borough architect Herbert Aslin CBE, and the
land occupied by the house was required for the
new magistrates’ court and police station, all duly
completed in 1934, and saved from demolition in
its turn by listing a decade ago (thanks to Derby
Civic Society) and which underwent complete
renovation to a high standard in 2013.
Darwin’s house was therefore demolished, and
the garden incorporated into the riverside walk,
but the little Gothick pavilion Erasmus Darwin
had built there was demolished in the 1950s. In
2002, on the bicentenary of the good doctor’s
death, a plaque was unveiled on the riverside walk
in his memory, placed as near as possible to the
site of the house.
Had it been suff ered to survive, of course, it
would without doubt have become a place of
pilgrimage, now the whole world has come to
appreciate the momentous changes brought
about by the Age of the Enlightenment, ushered
in by men like Darwin and his fellow Lunar
Society members. Aft er all, his Lichfi eld house
has become a fi ne Museum. Derby, on the other
hand, has not only destroyed his house, but also
both the birthplace and childhood home of his
grandson’s leading supporter, Herbert Spencer,
and the house of his closest collaborator, John
Whitehurst, is a decaying wreck.
Faced with such indiff erence to the possibilities
presented by an illustrious heritage, it is no
wonder why so many lost houses reviewed in this
series have been situated in Derby!
Th e site today: Herbert Aslin’s Magistrates’
Courts and Police Offi ces, built 1933-34 and
restored in 2013 [M. Craven]
Darwin’s ferry, as remembered by (Sir) Francis Darwin. In the background is the
present St. Mary’s Bridge, so the picture is aft er 1794 and before 1802.[Cambridge
University Library]
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A confusion on the stairs: the result of Darwin’s young son having
barked realistically like a dog, causing visitors to fall down stairs
watched by two of his daughters, c. 1790. Th is is the new staircase
inserted by Pickford; note the Whitehurst wall clock above Dr.
Darwin’s head. [Cambridge University Library]