These Pictures of St Ann’s Taken Before Its Demolition Show the End of an Era

Photos: Peter Richardson
Thursday 18 March 2021
reading time: min, words

These pictures really do paint a thousand words...

In the late sixties and early seventies, much of St Ann’s was demolished. Most of the buildings had originally been built in the mid-1800s and were of very poor quality, with no internal toilets or bathrooms. It was easier to knock them all down and rebuild them than to keep up repairs. There was a wholesale clearance of houses, shops, pubs, churches and businesses and upwards of 30,000 people were re-housed in other parts of the city.

During this time Peter Richardson was studying photojournalism at Derby College of Art and decided to try and capture the demise of this community and the end of a way of life that was about to disappear forever. Fifty years later his photos have resurfaced in a new book from Five Leaves Publications.

St Ann’s, The End of an Era is available to buy for £20 (paperback) and £30 (hardback) from Five Leaves Bookshop

Five Leaves Bookshop website

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