Photographs | Memories | Map
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A 2021 view of the properties on Derby Road up near Canning Circus. On the left of the photograph is the entrance to Herman Street. |
This 2021 photograph focuses more on the old Drill Hall building with the entrance to Hermon Street on the right. |
Taken in 2006 this shows part of the Park West development built on the eastern side of Hermon Street - a recent development which stretches through to Ilkeston Road. |
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This 1938 map with the position of Hermon Street highlighted in pink shows the original layout of the buildings in this particular neck of the woods. |
Taken in 1949 this photograph shows the Drill Hall building, now used as the Northern Command headquarters, with the entrance to Hermon Street on the right. |
A 1958 view looking up Hermon Street. Looking back at the 1938 map it would appear that buildings at the rear end of Hermon Street have already been demolished and the vacant space possibly used as a car park. |
My memory of Hermon Street does not go quite as far back as some people's but...
Looking at the 1958 picture shown above, on side of the building immediately lying behind the property fronting on to Derby Road is a shutter door beneath the white horizontal beam. From the 1960s to the 1980s it was the workshop of one-man business of car mechanic Jim Davis. Immediately inside that shutter door was a sharp left turn into his workshop area. It always amazed me that he could get very large cars around that corner without any damage to the bodywork (and even more impressive was the fact that he had to reverse them all out again). The workshop itself was the area under the lower roof to the left of the white beam.
He told me that before he moved into the premises it had been a bakery, and you could still see the area where the ovens had been. The floor was still cobble stones, presumably from when the place was first built. There were no windows or natural light inside the building, which must have made it difficult to work under the bonnet of cars. And there was no heating in winter (and it was sweltering in summer).
These days many car service areas are almost as clean as operating theatres and I think Jim Davis's little black hole-in-the-wall must have been one of the last of its kind. I believe he retired from the business a number of years ago.
William (Bill) Pugsley - New York, USA
In the 1930s and 1940s my family used to live in a property on Hermon St. which can be found at the top of Derby Road next to what used to be the Drill Hall - a building much in use during the war. Later the Post Office took it over. The house on the other side of the old Drill Hall used to be the residence of Mrs. Woolard who had a greengrocery shop at the bottom of the Park Hill steps. I used to deliver newspapers in The Park and in the winter sometimes earned extra pocket money clearing snow with a friend. North Road led on to Tattershall Drive which was a great place for sledging in winter. Over on the other side of Derby Road was Derby House, owned by a Miss Wilkinson. This was an upper-class boarding house and I earned more pocket money by helping out in the kitchen on a Sunday. The chef's name was Mr. Bird. Later I think the property was used by The Lace Marketing Board. During the war I would sometimes swap some of our margarine for tinned fruit that Miss Wilkinson's sister had sent over from Australia. The building at the top of Arundel Street [now occupied by the Probation Service] served for many years as offices for The River Trent Catchment Board. Wellington Square had a little known and infrequently used passage that led down to Ilkeston Rd. During the war years many of the streets had water pipes laid along them which fed the emergency reservoirs established in this area.
Let us know your memories of Hermon Street
Do you have any historical information or other photographs of this street? If so, email us with the details or write to us.