Matlock and Matlock Bath Images: Matlock Bath's South Parade

An early Edwardian coloured postcard of Matlock Bath, which shows both South Parade and the Heights of Abraham.

You can see The Pitchings rising steeply up the hillside next to Hodgkinson's Hotel. Hodgkinson's Hotel has a very large oval signboard. From Hodgkinson's and along the parade towards us, as far as the building with the long arched window, was originally all part of the Great Hotel where Queen Victoria - then Princess Victoria - visited in 1832. If you compare this postcard with the black and white image of South Parade in 1909 elsewhere on this website, you will notice that the long window was divided into two on the slightly later postcard.

South Parade, 1909 card

The large building with the sun blind on the right hand side is next to the fish pond (the pond isn't in this picture). It was used by the Bodens as a restaurant and dining rooms until the end of WW1 and then changed use - this was where the glove factory was. You can't see it, but on the left, with the cobbles in the entrance way, is The Fish Pond Hotel. There are also cobbles at the road edge.

The card is one of the Celesque Series of the Photochrom Co. There's neither a message nor a date of any kind on the reverse.
Postcard in the collection of, provided by and © Ann Andrews Intended for personal use only