Review of ‘Lost Buildings of the Peak District’, by Lindsey Porter

This review is by Julie Bunting, and was published originally in The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper, and is reproduced with Julie's kind permission.

The country seems to be suffering an unstoppable loss of distinctive buildings from the landscape - whether mills, chapels and pubs, or dwellings from industrial terraces to large country houses. Some simply passed out of use; many were demolished. Their demise has led author Lindsey Porter to compile this extensively illustrated record. He also includes structures which have been given a new life, such as the cinemas in Matlock and Buxton, former Youth Hostels, palatial hotels and hydros, railway stations and toll houses. We should be less surprised at the abandonment of open air swimming pools. Some of us recall sunning ourselves on the terraces around Matlock lido in summertime lunch-hours, leaving it to others to take a dip on days when ice was in the air.

The inevitable renovation of old buildings has brought changes beyond all recognition but at least they are still standing. Entire villages and hamlets have been lost in the Peak, often followed by their temporary replacements and notably in exchange for reservoirs, impounded to serve a far wider area of the country.

In compiling Lost Buildings of the Peak District, Lindsey Porter hopes to stimulate more research and focus our minds on what else we might lose if we are not careful. Extensively illustrated with some 230 photographs and drawings.

Review by Julie Bunting