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Vintage Buxton: more photographs of the town’s past
A gallery of historic Buxton photographs supplied by Buxton Museum and Art Gallery.
Explore more historic photographs supplied by Buxton Museum and Art Gallery. Dates and descriptions below come from the original gallery unless otherwise noted. See also part one and A History of Buxton Online.
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Visitors relax in the Sun Lounge at Pavilion Gardens in a photograph by J. R. Board. The Derbyshire Record Office dates the photograph to around 1930.
Lawson’s Corner protruded from the corner of Spring Gardens and narrowed the entrance into Terrace Road. It was demolished under the Buxton Local Board Act of 1873, which gave compulsory purchasing powers. John Lawson’s claim for compensation went to arbitration. Lawson’s Wine Vaults can be seen here, before its demolition. Buxton Museum dates a different photograph of the wine merchants to 1860–1876.
The original gallery said R. B. Morten’s Buxton Creamery was established in 1887. It dated this photograph of the dairy and milk bar on Victoria Park Road, Fairfield, to the 1960s and noted the slogan ‘Drinka, pinta, milka, day’.
Inside Morten’s Dairy and milk bar on Victoria Park Road, Fairfield. Picture the Past has another view of the interior, dated around 1960.
The original caption dated this photograph of the fire brigade on Eagle Parade to 1896. Picture the Past identifies the same scene outside the Eagle Hotel and gives an approximate date range from the 1880s to the 1900s.
The original gallery dated this view of Buxton to 1876. It shows the Old Hall Hotel, St John’s Church and the Devonshire Hospital, with the Burlington Hotel at left. St Ann’s Cliff, later known as the Slopes, was probably landscaped by Jeffry Wyatville around 1818 and modified by Joseph Paxton around 1840. The original caption noted that the hospital did not yet have its dome and that the Union Club and Opera House had not yet been built. Buxton Museum dates the dome’s addition to 1881; the Union Club, now the Old Club House, was built in 1886 and the Opera House opened in 1903. These later dates do not establish the photograph’s exact year.
An interior at Pavilion Gardens, dated around 1920 in the original gallery.
View from The Slopes, c.1920.The lounge in the Grove Hotel in 1937 reflects its earlier ‘olde worlde’ charm.
The Spanish Bar at the Savoy Hotel, formerly the Burlington, at the bottom of Hall Bank. The original gallery dated this photograph to the 1940s.Lower Buxton, dated to the 1930s in the original gallery. A bus can be seen beside Turner’s Memorial in front of the Hot Baths.The original gallery dated this photograph of the Brunswick Hotel on Hardwick Square East to 1938 and identified the car as the hotel’s private taxi. It said the hotel was built in 1877–78.King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited Buxton on 7 January 1905, accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Picture the Past describes this photograph as the crowd watching the King leave the Devonshire Hospital by car.Broad Walk overlooks Pavilion Gardens. A council conservation appraisal says it was laid out between 1861 and 1876; the first villas at the east end were known as Cavendish Terrace.The Picture House on the corner of Spring Gardens and Holker Road, pictured in the 1920s according to the original gallery. It reopened as the Spa Cinema in 1937 and, according to Architects of Greater Manchester, was demolished in 1987. A 2014 local history account says the site later became a Jobcentre.
Photos: With thanks to Buxton Museum and Art Gallery for supplying the images.
The lounge in the Grove Hotel in 1937 reflects its earlier ‘olde worlde’ charm.
Lower Buxton, dated to the 1930s in the original gallery. A bus can be seen beside Turner’s Memorial in front of the Hot Baths.
The original gallery dated this photograph of the Brunswick Hotel on Hardwick Square East to 1938 and identified the car as the hotel’s private taxi. It said the hotel was built in 1877–78.
King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited Buxton on 7 January 1905, accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Picture the Past describes this photograph as the crowd watching the King leave the Devonshire Hospital by car.
Broad Walk overlooks Pavilion Gardens. A council conservation appraisal says it was laid out between 1861 and 1876; the first villas at the east end were known as Cavendish Terrace.
The Picture House on the corner of Spring Gardens and Holker Road, pictured in the 1920s according to the original gallery. It reopened as the Spa Cinema in 1937 and, according to Architects of Greater Manchester, was demolished in 1987. A 2014 local history account says the site later became a Jobcentre.
