The hotel was designed by Francis Thompson for the North Midland Railway and built by Thomas Jackson of Pimlico. It opened in 1841 as the Midland Hotel and Posting House and is today a grade II listed building. On Friday 28 September 1849, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and the Royal Family stayed overnight in the hotel whilst travelling back from Balmoral Castle to Osborne House. It was originally a separate enterprise until the Midland Railway purchased it in 1860. The Midland Railway was one of the largest railway companies in Britain. It established itself in Derby more comprehensively than any other railway company in any other town. Derby came to be dominated by railway-related buildings, and the Midland became the town's largest employer. Among its ventures were multiple railway hotels, of which Derby was one of the first. The original building is of red brick construction with a rectangular plan, three storeys high with seven bays at the front. The outer bay on either side protrudes slightly. A stone cornice runs beneath the second-floor windows. The windows are decorated with stone frames and balconets. The inner bays contain singular windows while on the outer bays the windows are arranged in pairs on the first floor and triplets on the top and bottom floors. A second building, designed by William Henry Hamlyn and built by Holliday and Greenwood was added behind the original between 1933 and 1938, linked to the main building by a single-storey block on the Midland Road side. The second building is also in red brick and of a rectangular plan, with a further three storeys of five bays. The hotel was at one time connected to the station by a glass-covered walkway, and its cellars were linked to the station's via an underground passage. The main entrance, originally on the Midland Road side, was moved to face the station during the 1930s expansion. The hotel was acquired by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway after the Midland was amalgamated as a result of the Railways Act 1921 and then by British Rail upon nationalisation. British Rail began disposing of its hotel estate and sold the Midland Hotel in 1982. After the demolition of the Euston Hotel in London, the Midland Hotel became the oldest surviving railway hotel in Britain. The hotel is a grade II listed building and part of Derby's Railway Conservation Area, which encompasses many railway-related buildings to the east of Derby city centre. The conservation area includes the station, multiple surrounding buildings, and the Midland Railway War Memorial, adjacent to the hotel on Midland Road.
