Friar Gate Bridge, Derby

General information

Derby's finest Georgian street, Friar Gate, is spanned by the graceful arch of Friar Gate Bridge, richly decorated with ornamental cast ironwork. The Bridge was built in the 1870s when the Great Northern Railway was extended through Derby. It was designed and cast locally, by Andrew Handyside's world renowned Brittania Ironworks.

In recent years the Bridge has fallen into a state of disrepair. Friends of Friar Gate Bridge is a charity committed to the conserving this lovely structure and securing its future.

Why is this Bridge worth saving?
Friar Gate Bridge is intrinsically beautiful, and a much loved part of Derby's townscape. Generations of Derby people remember the adjoining Friargate Station as the point of departure for trips to Skegness and other destinations.

The Bridge was created by Andrew Handyside, an iron founder of world-wide importance and a major employer in Derby at the time. Around the world examples of Handyside's work are respected and well-maintained, but Friar Gate Bridge is faded and rusting less than two miles from the site of the foundry that cast it.
Derby is rightly proud of its engineering heritage, and is still the home of many railway engineering and other innovative engineering companies. The renovated Friar Gate Bridge will stand as a proud symbol of that heritage and of confidence in Derby's future.

The Bridge has recently been surveyed and found to be basically structurally sound, but it is in a very shabby condition, swathed in safety netting, and with corrosion taking hold in many areas. NOW, before it gets any worse, is the time to act to preserve the structure and beauty of this lovely Bridge for the future.

Please demonstrate your support for Friar Gate Bridge so that we can secure funding and energise Derby City Council to complete a full conservation project. With the intention to have it put to a good use, which would include allowing public access to it.