# Derby, princes store,july 08



## Drama Queen (Jul 13, 2008)

We paid a visit to an old workplace of mine which closed down in 2005 and awaits redevelopment.The team consisted of Myself,Johno23 and Timewarp.It is a former supermarket which has been known locally as"PRINCES"for many years.In latter years until it closed it just sold mainly clearance lines of food,toys,fancy goods etc.The buildings are currently in the first stages of demolition and are being stripped of recyclables and asbestos.Usual asbestos caution advised

The site is earmarked for regeneration and the £16 million plans include 40,000 sq ft of office space,17,000sq ft of retail area,restaurants,cafe bars and 25 eco friendly homes with roof gardens and will be approx 4 storeys in height.It is to be called Sadler Square following the results of a public competiition.Anyway here are some pictures of the current site.





Front View.




Large old storage shed at rear.




General rear yard area.




Side view of buildings.




Interior view of large storage shed,




Main warehouse of shop,c/w asbestos removers equipment&caravan




Clean area on main shopfloor area,I have mopped that a few times




Area towards tills/front of shop.




Retired drinks cooler,I have filled this many a time.




Close up of till area and customer doors.




I thought they only had ACME things in cartoons




Contractors stash of reclaimed metal.




Derelictions eye view on old Derby.




View from upper floor onto street area.




Boss`s office.




Staff telly,right outside the boss`s office,I never did see it switched on




Fridge engine for chiller,boy did that bloody thing make a racket




Reclaimed/stripped out timber collection.




General wide area view of upper floor.




Obligatory random chair shot in silly pose.




Loading bay and substation.




Boilerhouse chimney against old Derby backdrop.




Retired and abandoned forklift truck.




Weird old oven thing




Name plate on electric hand dryer.




Heath Robinson roof repair with wire basket etc.omg!!




moody old window shot.




They made sure the staff coudnt get out


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## The Pirate (Jul 13, 2008)

Nice one...Me and Thompski went here this morning but as my pics are almost identicle to yours i won`t bother posting them...


Good pics.


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## thompski (Jul 13, 2008)

Yeah mine are pretty much the same, though I do love the lighting inside there 

Nice little mooch, but not the most exciting place...


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## johno23 (Jul 14, 2008)

A pleasant amble around the place ably guided by Drama Queen as she used to work there,been in the shop many times myself over the years.I cant believe they have just abandoned that forklift truck though.


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## natalion (Jul 15, 2008)

Hey! =]

Orangeacid and I went around there a few hours ago and its getting pretty flooded due to a broken toilet.

But it was kinda of what made it interesting.

Did you see that squished pigeon..? yuk =p


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## Foxylady (Jul 15, 2008)

I wasn't really expecting to like this explore...  ...but the old brickwork in the back part of the building is great...and especially like the chimney. Love that photo of the window with the metal amassed outside it, Drama.


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## orangeacid (Jul 16, 2008)

*Detail of Prince's store, derby, July 2008*

Natalion and I followed in the steps of Drama Queen, Saigon and Thompski to bring you this report of little details of the site 

Name the famous Cartier-Bresson photo 









some keys:









And finally some officey stuff. The recipits were interesting to read, and there was a manual for the till system that I'm reading in one of the pics I guess natalion will post.













I guess natalions photos will be up between tonight and a day or two?


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## thompski (Jul 16, 2008)

Some nice artsy shots from you as always Orangeacid, love it  What's with the graininess?


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## orangeacid (Jul 16, 2008)

johno23 said:


> A pleasant amble around the place ably guided by Drama Queen as she used to work there,been in the shop many times myself over the years.I cant believe they have just abandoned that forklift truck though.



Me neither, surely that could be sold?

I went there earlier and it was strange, the site looks active and a broken toilet had flooded and it sounded like workmen were doing the pots or something, it was eerie.

Great explore anyway, glad you managed to do such a thorough explore.


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## orangeacid (Jul 16, 2008)

thompski said:


> Some nice artsy shots from you as always Orangeacid, love it  What's with the graininess?



Ty  It's called not having a tripod and having to underexpose at ISO 3200 and then push even further in lightroom.

To the admins - sorry if posting that in a different thread was the wrong thing to do, I read the rules and it sounded like each separate explore date should have its own thread. My bad, now I know for next time


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## natalion (Jul 16, 2008)

Here are some of the photos taken today with Orangeacid:





Probably not the best photograph to start with as Orangeacids is very similar...





Taken in what we believed to be the room where the camera screens used to be.










Reading the till manual and on an old phone found in that room.


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## orangeacid (Jul 16, 2008)

Cool pics natalion, that last one is really freaky


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## The_Revolution (Jul 16, 2008)

orangeacid said:


> Name the famous Cartier-Bresson photo



Behind the Gare St. Lazare 

What do I win? Some leftover own-brand food from Princes Nice pictures; btw.


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## natalion (Jul 16, 2008)

How about a squished pigeon and a trolley full of ceiling tiles? =]


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## thompski (Jul 16, 2008)

Doing a bit of research on the North East Midland Photographic Record it was known as Allsops in 1970, here is a photo of the place from 1975 - it looks to me like it was a garage and has a sheltered forecourt (most likely glazed in later on to become the supermarket). This sounds about right considering the warehouse type buildings to the rear.


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## johno23 (Jul 17, 2008)

Yes you are correct it was a garage in the 60`s and early 70`s.Well done Thompski for finding that colour photo,its mint.I have some in my archives but they are grainy black&white 60`s shots from when they strengthened the culvert and Sadler gate bridge and had the road up.

Interesting angle on the place with it going from a garage to a supermarket


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## natalion (Jul 17, 2008)

johno23 said:


> Yes you are correct it was a garage in the 60`s and early 70`s.Well done Thompski for finding that colour photo,its mint.I have some in my archives but they are grainy black&white 60`s shots from when they strengthened the culvert and Sadler gate bridge and had the road up.
> 
> Interesting angle on the place with it going from a garage to a supermarket



I always thought the place looked like a car garage, well i was assuming those windows werent just for my friends and i too see what we looked like each saturday morning =]

Is a weird thing though to go from garage to cheap shop selling random things


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## mainframe444 (Jul 17, 2008)

*princes*

I remember this being a garage known as Bristol Street Motors in the late 70's/early 80's, selling Datsuns!

My dad bought a new Datsun Cherry from there in 1980.....

MainFrame


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## ashless (Aug 19, 2008)

Another nice local one ticked off, as usual it didn't take long before a fire was started in it!

Good pics boys and girls


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## thompski (Aug 19, 2008)

ashless said:


> Another nice local one ticked off, as usual it didn't take long before a fire was started in it!
> 
> Good pics boys and girls



A fire? Or am I missing something here? 

(I miss the land of nod)


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## ashless (Aug 19, 2008)

thompski said:


> A fire? Or am I missing something here?
> 
> (I miss the land of nod)



Just a little one! Its still standing!


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## mineme (Aug 19, 2008)

well they do say you learn something new every day i did not no this was a car place and you woundent of nown and i can remember going in hear alot when i was younger prob about 15 - 20 years ago it had prob just become princes i would imagine as i only no it as that well done and boy hasent it changed alot from when i used to go hear with my mum .


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## thompski (Aug 19, 2008)

I got a message on Facebook from a fellow by the name of Chris Harris (whom has posted several anecdotes regarding other explores I've done).



> My father fitted this place out as a supermarket after it closed as a car showroom. It used to have an old Mail Coach on the roof (a horse drawn, real Dick Turpin type coach).


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## The Pirate (Aug 21, 2008)

wow that would have cool to see.


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