20-26, Market Place

Nos 20-26 Market Place is a row of shops built in the late 18th century, with alterations made in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed from regularly-coursed squared gritstone blocks and features a hipped roof covered with Welsh slate laid in diminishing courses, along with lead ridge and hip ridges. Currently, it accommodates four shop units, although early photographs indicate a different arrangement. Three of the units have stone stall risers, with shop windows of varying designs above them. Notably, No. 26 retains a 10-pane window that matches the style shown in an early photograph of its shop front. The shop fronts are sheltered by a significant projection of the roof line, providing a continuous canopy. Above the shop windows, there is a space that housed ventilation louvres, which also appears to have been used for the vertical sash windows of the shop fronts. The end and rear elevations do not have any openings. Historically, these shops were part of the late 18th-century development of a market place to serve the community established by Sir Richard Arkwright in Cromford. They represent a rare example of purpose-built shops from the 18th century and are an important part of The Market Place, forming a significant group with the adjacent Greyhound Hotel.