Derby has a gaming legacy that punches well above its weight, and this autumn the city is making sure it does not go unnoticed. The big one came and went on Saturday 24 October, when Derby Market Hall handed over to Lara Croft Day, a free family event marking 30 years of Tomb Raider and the city's role in creating one of gaming's most recognisable characters. Lara Croft was the brainchild of the Derby studio Core Design, which released the original game in 1996, and the day was built around that connection.
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The day was packed with things to do. Artcore ran free drop-in workshops from 11am to 2pm on the main floor, where people could make and decorate clay artefacts, fossils and amulets inspired by archaeology and adventure. Alongside that, the Derby Computer Museum set up a retro gaming zone that ran all day, with classic Tomb Raider titles on original hardware: a couple of 1990s and 2000s PCs, a PlayStation 1 loaded with the first three games, and a PlayStation 2 running Tomb Raider: Anniversary. The evening finished with Tomb Raver, a free retro dance party on the Market Stage from 5pm to 10pm, with DJ Rosco spinning 90s girl-power anthems and dance classics.
If you missed the day, the celebration is not over. Derby Museums has turned Pickford's House on Friar Gate into Croft Manor for an exhibition co-curated with collector Luke Earle, which runs until 28 November. It is built around original development materials on loan from former Core Design developers, plus memorabilia and collectables from private collections, and it includes the actual computer Core Design used to bring the character to life. Admission is free, on a give-what-you-think basis, and it is open to everyone, with themed cosplay days dotted across the run. The building sits just down the road from the old Core Design studio at 55 Ashbourne Road, which is a nice touch for anyone who likes the history behind the games.
For a bit of context on why Derby takes this so seriously: Core Design was founded in 1988 by ex-Gremlin Graphics staff and went on to make Rick Dangerous before Tomb Raider turned the studio into a household name. The series ran through to The Angel of Darkness in 2003 before the franchise moved elsewhere, and the studio eventually closed in 2010. A nearby street was named Lara Croft Way in honour of the studio's contribution to the creative industry, so the connection is literally built into the city.
If you want to keep playing the classics, the Derby Computer Museum is the place to go. It is a hands-on retro gaming and computing museum at 3-4 Iron Gate, run by volunteers as a registered charity, with around 60 machines from the 70s, 80s and 90s that you can actually use. It opens on Saturdays from 10am to 4pm, with adults at £7.50 and children aged 4 to 17 at £4.50, and it is a great way to see the kind of hardware that started it all. Between the exhibition at Pickford's House and the museum, there is still plenty of the city's gaming history to catch before the anniversary year winds down.
Published Date
27 October 2026
