This exhibition has been created by students on the Level 6 (3rd year) module ‘Exploring the Slum: The Politics of Poverty in Britain’, taught as part of the BA (Hons) History Programme at the University of Derby.

The exhibition draws on the excellent collections of Derby Local Studies and Family History Library and Derby Museum and Art Gallery to explore sources from the court housing and the wider urban landscape of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Derby. Starting with Edward Cresy’s 1849 General Board of Health report on conditions in Derby, students chose primary sources to reveal the stories behind the streets, especially those of Derby’s notorious ‘Old West End’.

Please use the menu above to navigate between topics. Click on the topic name to read a short introduction; hover over the topic name for a drop-down menu of individual exhibits and analysis within each section.