"Nearly opposite Saxton's hotel, a broken rock, fringed with light foliage, rises majestically out of a group of trees that adorns its base : its topmost pinnacle is denominated Wild Cat Tor, and from its craggy summit a noble landscape is displayed". Ebenezer Rhodes, writing in "Peak Scenery"^[1] nearly one hundred years before this photograph was taken, thus describes the magnificent limestone Tor in the southern part of Matlock Bath. Wild Cat Tor is now known as Cat Tor and Saxton's Hotel has become The New Bath.

Bottom left can be seen the Royal Hotel; it stood on land where the Old Bath Hotel had been in Rhodes' time. The Royal Hotel was to function as an hotel for a further sixteen years, and for part of that time it was a hospital for Canadian Army Officers. The front of the hotel was destroyed by a disastrous fire on 1st April 1929, although the section with the three dormer windows in the roof lasted until the 1950's. By then it had become very dilapidated.

Behind the Royal Hotel is Holy Trinity Church and tucked up amongst the trees on the hillside on the right is the Old Pavilion.
Postcard of the Old Pavilion & Royal Hotel

Portland House and the mews behind are almost mid picture, with what was Walker's Hotel just behind it. This building is now part of the New Bath Hotel. The New Bath is the furthest building away from the photographer, visible just above the Old Pavilion.

There is more on site information about Cat Tor:
Gem of the Peak, 1840. See The Southern end of the Dale

There are pictures of the Old Bath Hotel, which preceded the Royal Hotel, in the 19th century section of images