Friar Gate Bridge - What is the next stop for this iconic landmark?

I’ve been interested in our local history now for almost 30 years, but the other month a conversation I was having made me pause and ponder a question – what was it that first triggered the interest? Reaching back over the years I realised it was my memories of both Friar Gate and also Friar Gate Bridge.

As a young child we didn’t really venture far up Friar Gate that regularly. Pickford’s House Museum wasn’t opened until 1988 and our visits to the town centre were based around the Eagle Centre and its surrounds. It would be, for example, on the occasions that I had a doctor’s appointment on Vernon Street, that afterwards myself and my mother would stroll down Friar Gate into town.

Each time we did, three things would always stand out for me. The first was a childlike wonder at the, what seemed to me at the time, huge step-down kerbs. The second was the magnificence of many of the buildings on the street.

The third was Friar Gate Bridge and it was a combination of these things that first stirred my interest into what Derby had once been like.

For many people the bridge is one of the most iconic Derby landmarks. It appears in many paintings and pictures and it certainly has a very special place in our city’s legacy.

In just five years the bridge will be 150 years old. It was built in 1878 by Andrew Handyside and Company, a Derby-based iron foundry firm and was designated a Grade II listed structure in 1974. If you look around at the surrounds of Friar Gate and picture the elegant houses at the time of its erection, you won’t find it hard to imagine that a simple plate girder bridge would have been considered unsuitable for such a location. Instead, Friar Gate Bridge was designed with an elegant arch in cast iron, with moulded parapets and spandrels incorporating the town’s ‘buck-in-the-park’ emblem.

It was this bridge with its elegant arches that served as the inspiration for the 1932 song

‘Underneath the Arches’ - one of the most famous songs of the duo Flanagan and Allen. In 1957 Bud Flanagan told the story of how he had written the song in Derby in 1927, with its references to the arches of Derby's Friar Gate Railway Bridge and to the street homeless men who slept in the arches next to the bridge during the Great Depression.

The bridge became redundant in 1968 when, as part of the Beeching Report - a plan that intended to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain - the railway line closed. In the early 1970s the adjoining viaduct to the north-east was demolished and it seemed that the bridge itself might follow suit. It was passionate public support for the survival of the bridge that led to its Grade II listing.

In 1985 the bridge was purchased by Derby City Council from British Rail for the sum of £1 and alongside that purchase came the obligation to maintain it. Though sporadic painting has been carried out alongside some cosmetic restorations, the drainage of the bridge remains poor, it suffers from widespread corrosion and it is now covered in safety netting.

Thankfully for the citizens of Derby the bridge has an organisation fighting for its future –the Friends of Friar Gate Bridge (FFGB).

In 2015, The Friends of Friar Gate Bridge was established to provide a single, recognised organisation for the public to channel their concerns over the condition of the bridge. For decades successive Council administrations had failed to treat the restoration of the bridge as a priority, despite their legal obligation to maintain it, but The Friends now have an ongoing dialogue with councillors and officers which keeps the bridge in focus. The Council has many serious challenges in trying to meet its wide range of responsibilities and no one expects it to find all the funds required to restore the bridge properly. Nevertheless, there is now a constant awareness that the bridge needs to be dealt with and, among other things, the Council submitted an application to the Government's Levelling Up Fund for the bridge's restoration (the result being due in January 2023).

Financed by Heritage Lottery, in 2018, the Friends commissioned a report from Latham's Architects on the viability of various future uses for the bridge. While standalone developments were seen as possible, the likely most viable solution would involve any future economic activity being linked to developments on the adjacent Goods Yard site. Subsequently, the Friends organised a meeting with the Council, Clowes Developments (owners of the Goods Yard) and Derby University to discuss possibilities. Although set back by both the Covid pandemic and the current economic climate, dialogue has continued with these parties and a plan is steadily emerging. It may be a few more years before the bridge is restored but the Friends are confident it will be.