Opened as the (Cattle) Market Hotel in an attractive building with a curving facade built in very traditional style probably around 1840. It was then renamed the Smithfield in July 1982.

To let as 'A most complete beer house in the Smithfield Market, Derby' in 1855 and two years later described as an 'old licensed public house in Smithfield Market'. In 1863, the short-lived Convent of the sisters of Mercy on Nottingham Road - allegedly designed by A.W.N. Pugin - was taken down, and one of its gates incorporated into the inn. This survives rather incongruously as a gothic brick arch with stone dressings, bricked up and stuccoed over, the vast oak and iron furnished gates themselves surviving behind. I was let again in 1870 to John Meyer who was also a horse dealer. By this time the rather ad hoc beast market in the area outside the inn (intended to draw dealers away from the west end of Friar Gate), had been drastically remodelled for the Corporation by H.I. Stevens and Edwin Thompson to form the 'New Cattle Market', which survived until the coming of the Inner Ring Road. It was taken over by the first of a remarkable pub dynasty between 1926 and 1984. Martin Conneelly was landlord 1926 - 49; his brother Percy William Conneelly from 1953 - 78 and his son John from 1978 - 84. Percy's wife was from the Harrison family, long landlords of the Railway Tavern, Canal Street. Bass from 1965, previously Offiler. Clientele changed from farmers in 1968 to journalists from 1981, the new Evening Telegraph offices having opened nearby.

It is currently owned by the Headless Pub chain of John Evans since 1996 and managed by Roger and Penny Myring.

 

Above information obtained courtesy of The Illustrated History of Derby's Pubs (a must have and most informative book for enthusiasts and Derby people of all ages available from most good book stores)