This W & K Real Photograph view of Matlock Bank was taken in the mid 1920s from the vantage point of the War Memorial on the top of Pic Tor. It shows the recently built Ritz Cinema complex on Causeway Lane and the Hall Leys without the mature trees and shrubs of today. In those days the cinema wasn't called the Ritz, of course. The Cinema House, where George Woodman was manager in 1925, was opened around 1922. Cinema going had become increasingly popular and Matlock Cinema House was Matlock's second cinema - the Picture Palace on Dale Road had opened about 1916.

It wasn't until around the New Year of 1955 that Northern Cinemas, by then the cinema's owners, decided to change the name to The Ritz Cinema. The Council were in uproar about the new name. Anything would apparently have been acceptable but definitely NOT The Ritz! Whilst Northern Cinemas couldn't have been overduly bothered by the association, what upset the Council was that the same name had been used by "a fried fish shop" which had been somewhere adjacent to the cinema and which the Council had closed down not long before!

Amongst those trading on Causeway Lane in 1925, and whose shops and offices are probably shown, were:
Edward James Clayden, a bootmaker & dealer;
the offices of William Henry Furniss, whose Premier garage was on Bakewell road;
Derbyshire & Smith, printers;
Leigh & Sons, bootmakers;
and Wm. Thompson, shooeing & general smith.
(all the above extracted from Kelly's Directory, 1925)

The grounds of Matlock Sports Club Limited can also be seen.
Compare this picture with Matlock, General View