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Victoria Dock & the Old Town – Hull 2017

Sunday, February 16th, 2025

Victoria Dock & the Old Town: We arrived in Hull for a visit during the the city’s Year of Culture on Thursday 16th February 2017, 8 years ago.

Victoria Dock & the Old Town - Hull 2017

We had come partly because I was hoping to have a show in the city – it would have been my first there since 1983 when ‘Still Occupied – A View of Hull‘ was in the Ferens Gallery. This one would have been on a rather less grand scale and fell through when the bailiffs evicted the group who had been squatting another city centre property.

But we had also come to celebrate Linda’s birthday in the city where she was born and grew up and for which we both have a particular affection, as well as to see some of the things that were happening for the special year.

And as always I had come to take photographs, in particular to revisit some of the many places around the city I had photographed back in the 1970s and 1980s. You can see many of those pictures on the Hull Photos web site where I posted a new photo every day throughout Hull’s year as City of Culture and beyond.

I wasn’t bent on a “re-photography” project. These often seem to me a rather lazy way for people who haven’t any real photographic ideas of their own to capitalise on those of other people – or even their own earlier work. Parasitical. Though I do have to admire a few projects that have been really well carried out.

For me photography has always been about my immediate response to the subject. If the scene has changed so too will I respond differently; and if it hasn’t why bother to photograph it again?

In particular I had moved over the years to seeing landscape and urban landscapes very much more in terms of panoramas. Forty or so years earlier had I worked almost entirely with tightly framed scenes using a 35mm shift lens. But now – with a few exceptions – I was working with the very different perspective of the wide sweeping view of a panorama. It forced me to think differently.

Victoria Dock, Hull’s timber dock had closed before I began making pictures there, although there were still a few small pockets of industry on and around the largely derelict site, as well as some remnants.

Now the dock has largely been filled in – the large timber ponds had already gone when I first visited. Much is now housing estates, leaving just the Outer Basin and Half Tide Basin and a slipway with water in them. And we were staying in a room of a house on one of the new estates. We arrived in early afternoon and after dumping our bags went out for a walk along the side of the Humber as the weather was fine for photography.

I had walked along this footpath years before, going on past the still open Alexandra and King George V Docks more or less to the city boundary. Now the path is cut off by the Siemens wind turbine site on the former Alexandra Dock.

We turned around and walked back towards the Old Town where a new footbridge took us across the River Hull and on to a drink and an early dinner at the Minerva. After the dramatic skies earlier the sunset was rather disappointing.

After a long rest in the pub we decided to wander around the Old Town. In 2017 the area was still pretty empty on a Thursday night in winter, cut in half by the A63, the busy road to the docks (or rather dock), a reminder that Hull is still a significant port. But the footbridge I was then very sceptical about in my account on My London Diary was eventually built. Still something of a barrier, but far less frustrating.

We walked as far as the city centre to admire (and photograph) the turbine blade on display there before turning round to walk back over the River Hull – this time we took the now seldom-lifting North Bridge.

We walked south beside the river along the deserted riverside path to Drypool Bridge where the path was then closed off after the needless demolition of Rank’s Mill for a hotel that didn’t arrive and through the streets – another long wait to cross the A63 – and back to the house we were staying in.

You can read more details of the walk and see more of the panoramas I made on My London Diary.
Victoria Dock Promenade
Night in the Old Town

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Tags:2017, A View of Hull, Alexandra Dock, City of Culture, February, Ferens gallery, Half Tide Basin, Hull, Hull Photos, Humber, Minerva, North Bridge, Old Town, panoramas, peter Marshall, promenade, River Hull, Siemens, Still Occupied, The Deep, timber dock, Victoria Dock, Victoria Dock Estate, wind turbines
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Holy Trinity, Pigs & Brewery, Hull 1989

Wednesday, May 29th, 2024

Holy Trinity, Pigs & Brewery: At the end of my walk in East Hull I spent a little time wandering around the Old Town and came back to the centre the following day before catching the train home.

*Holy Trinity, South Church Side, Hull, 1989 89-8p-42*

Grade I listed Holy Trinity (since 2017 Hull Minster) is a remarkable survival despite some later architectural vandalism large parts of its original building from 1285 to 1420 remain. It is said to be the largest parish church in England with a floor area of 20,056 square ft and has some of the finest medieval brick-work in the country. Wikpedia lists its vicars from Robert de Marton in 1326; Arthur Robinson was Vicar here when the infant William Wilberforce, Hull’s most famous son, was baptised here in 1759.

Surprisingly it escaped serious damage in the Second World War when much of central Hull was destroyed by bombing. This side of the church now looks rather different with recent building work although the church ant gates posts remain.

These Grade II listed buildings date from 1868 and 1874, designed by the architect to Trinity House William Foale in a Gothic Revival stye were the Department of Transport Marine Office in Hull.

A gated alley between the two blocks leads to Zebedee’s yard and has a label (not visible in my picture) SPACE FOR OFFICIAL CAR’. There is now a first floor bridge across the alley connecting the two buildings.

Somewhere in Hull I walked past these pig carcases hanging from hooks and took a picture. I think there are four of them. It was rather a gruesome sight, but has not yet put me off eating bacon.

*Hull Brewery, Silvester St, Hull, 1989 89-8p-45*

I think it was probably on the following day that I returned to the centre of Hull and photographed the Anchor Brewery Brewery on Silvester Street. I was standing close to Kingston House not far from the west end of the street. The former Hull Brewery site is Grade II listed and was largely built around 1867 to the designs of W Sissons. The extensive buildings were being converted to flats and offices as The Maltings when I made this picture.

Hull Brewery began in Dagger Lane in the Old Town as the John Ward Brewery in 1765 and in 1865 Ward’s grandson Robert Ward Gleadow joined with W T Dibb to form Gleadow Dibb & Co. They moved to the new brewery site in 1868, and in 1887 having taken over several other Hull brewers became The Hull Brewery Co. Ltd.

In 1972 having over the years taken over 13 smaller brewers and a bottlers in Hull, Cottingham, Beverley and elsewhere they were themselves taken over by Northern Dairies and became North Country Breweries. This was bought in 1985 by the Mansfield Brewery who closed down brewing in Hull.

New Garden Street runs from Sylvester Street and along the back of properties on George Street to Grimston Street. On George Street was one of Hull’s most famous stores, Carmichaels, now the Carmichael Hotel. The sign on the buildings at left is for Carmichael’s Goods Entrance.

Carmichaels was set up in 1902 as a small shop but was enlarged in 1914 and later extended to the premises now on George Street. It became Hull’s poshest (and priciest) store, sometimes called the ‘Harrods of the North’, paticularly known for the glass, china and jewelry it sold as well as its posh cafe. Apparently the family sold it to Woolworths in 1963, but was bought by its manager in 1989 who wanted to restore its high quality status, but it closed in 1991.

People who worked there say that behind the posh side that the public saw the place was something of a shambles. The actor Ian Carmichael was the son of one of the three brothers who founded the shop.

After this I returned to Holy Trinity to visit its interior, taking a couple of images I’ve not put online before taking the train back to London.

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Tags:Carmichaels, George Street, hanging pigs, Holy Trinity, Hull, Hull Brewery, Hull Minster, Hull Photos, Ian Carmichael, Marine Office, New Garden St, parish church, peter Marshall, pigs, Posterngate, Silvester St, South Church Side, The Maltings, Trinity House
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More from East Hull 1989

Monday, May 27th, 2024

More from East Hull: The final episode of my walk around East Hull in October 1989.

*The Fish House, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8p-65*

The Fish House I think sold decorative tropical fish to swim in your aquarium but I was mildly amused by the small house on the pavement in front of their sign. Certainly it was unsuitable for fish, but I couldn’t decide what it was for, perhaps a kennel for a Chihuahua. And further up on the house is a picture of dog of some sort.

Putting “the fish house holderness road hull” into Google brings up, apart from this picture, a large number of fish and chip shops and restaurants mainly around Hull. But I think the fish here would have generally been rather insubstantial as well as expensive to eat.

Bush, Opticians, 337 Holderness Road, Hull, 1989 89-8p-66 — *Bush, Opticians, 337, Holderness Road, Hull, 1989 89-8p-66*

Bush are still there on the corner of Durham Street, though its frontage now looks rather different with a front extension across the whole of it. Though I’m sure this gives a better working space it has lost the character of the ground floor with its fort as the left, angular bay windows and glasses sign.

*Bush, Opticians, 337 Holderness Road, Hull, 1989 89-8p-52*

Another view of Bush Opticians. The Bush family have been prominent opticians in Hull for many years, with Herman Bush being one of Hull’s first opticians in the mid-19th century.

The sign jutting out from the shop has the date 1865, and there have been branches run by members of the family around Hull and in surrounding areas where five generations of the Bush family have been testing eyes and making spectacles in Hull. Though one of the Bush opticians websites states that, it seems now to be at least six generations, as the obituary of the most controversial of the fifth generation, the late Sydney Bush, includes a quote by his son who worked with him for over 30 years.

*Country Butcher, Clip Joint, Newbridge Trophy Centre, 142-6, New Bridge Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8p-51*

Hairdressers seem often to have punning titles like The Clip Joint, though the scissors taking the lower part of the T was a nice touch. The years have been tough for small shops, particularly those a little off the main streets, and The Country Butcher with its curiously altered bay windows is now residential.

The hairdresser went though several name changes and has now become a shop selling “Eco-friendly, Handmade Products” and the Newbridge Trophy Centre at 142 has become a pizza place.

Mo's Cafe, Great Union St, East Hull, 1989 89-8p-54 — *Mo’s Cafe, Great Union St, East Hull, 1989 89-8p-54*

Mo’s Cafe in this picture was at the north end of Great Union St, at the rear of the Waterloo Hotel on the corner of Clarence Street. The buildings behind and at left were a part of the Rank Hovis mill site at Drypool Bridge and were demolished with the mill in 2015 for a hotel that was never built.

The sign on the window says Mo’s Cafe has moved to 18 Hedon Road, 2 minutes walk away.

*River Hull, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8p-56*

My walk in East Hull was at an end and I took a final picture before going to the Old Town as a walked across Drypool Bridge. The wharf at left is part of the Rank Hovis Mill. There were still a few vessels moored in the River Hull in what was Hull’s first harbour, with some fine warehouses on the right bank converted to flats.

The next post from Hull will be the last of my pictures there in October 1989 – and after that I will return to posting more pictures of London.

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Tags:142-6, Bush, Clip Joint, Country Butcher, Drypool Bridge, East Hull, Great Union St, Herman Bush, Holderness Rd, Hull, Hull Photos, Mo's Cafe, New Bridge Rd, Newbridge Trophy Centre, Opticians, peter Marshall, Rank Hovis, Rank Hovis Mill, River Hull, The Fish House
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More Holderness Road Hull 1989

Monday, May 20th, 2024

More Holderness Road Hull 1989: Holderness Road is one of Hull’s major road, leading as it’s name suggests to Holderness, a rich agricultural area, largely of drained marshland to the north-east of Hull, between the River Hull and the North Sea. The road doesn’t begin in the centre of Hull but is reached either over Drypool Bridge along Clarence Street or over North Bridge along Witham, and starts where these two roads meet in East Hull.

*Don Dixon, Family Butcher, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-13*

Certainly the display of posters with a large pig peering at me over it was impressive, and Don Dixon Family Butcher claimed to be ‘A CUT ABOVE THE BEST’ and the shop is still serving customers at 236 Holderness Road in a parade of shops between Victor St and Balfour Street. It now has a web site with a wide range of meats on sale and gets some very positive customer reviews.

*James Stuart, Statue, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-14*

Probably few in Hull and even fewer outside the city now know who James Stuart (1836-1922) was but he was very well known and respected there during his lifetime and played an important role in the improvements in education and welfare of the people, both as a politician and a philanthropist.

Born in Preston in Lancashire, his family moved to Hull when his father became a preacher at the George Street Baptist Chapel. James became a seed merchant and founded a seed crushing firm, Stuart & Grigson, which later became a part of British Oil and Cake Mills Ltd and he became a director of BOCM.

He retired from politics in 1893 following his attempt to negotiate between striking dockers and employers which failed to stop violence from both sides. But he continued to take an active interest in the welfare of the people of Hull and was made an Honoray Freeman of Kingston upon Hull in 1894.

The now Grade II listed statue by William Aumonier was erected by Thomas R Ferens in 1924; the inscription on the plinth with a quotation from Stuart is difficult to read in my picture but given in full on the Hull & District Local History Research Group web site:

JAMES STUART JP

BORN 1836

DIED 1922

A CITIZEN OF HULL WHO BY HIS INTEREST AND DEVOTION TO THE WELFARE OF THE CITY WON THE REGARD AND ESTEEM OF ALL THOSE WHO KNEW HIM

I ALSO REMEMBER THAT I HAD A FATHER TO CONVINCE ME THAT AS I BEGAN A MATURE LIFE I WAS A CITIZEN OF A NATION GOVERNED BY DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES AND THAT IT WAS MY DUTY AS IT IS THE DUTY OF EVERY MANACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY AND OPPORTUNITY TO DO SOMETHING IN THE TOWN IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD AND THE NATION TO PROMOTE THE WELL BEING OF ITS INHABITANTS JAMES STUART 1906

ERECTED BY THE RT HON THOS R FERENS AS A TRIBUTE TO HIS MEMORY

*East Hull Presbyterian Church, rear, 336, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-15*

There is still a driveway here between two shops, now with a larger notice for East Hull Presbyterian Church and without ‘PICTURE FRAMES AND POTTERY DOWN THIS YARD’ and its notice now covers the full width of the opening between Beds and Bookmakers.

The Church web site states it began in the 1970s when a group found “they could no longer sit under the liberal teachings of the church they had been attending for many years.” The church is part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of England and Wales and you can read a number of its sermons including those on Satan and Hell, on the web.

*East Hull Presbyterian Church, rear, 336, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-16*

Going into the yard I found both the church building and at left another notice for the FRAMES with a picture of a large pot.

*Shades, Southwells, Floggits, 359-363, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8p-62*

Opposite the church entrance on the corer of Jalland St is a parade of seven shops which are three storeys rather than the two of most along this part of the road. The two at left of my picture, Flair Ladies Fashons and Shades do not fit in and I saw they must be later rebuildings, perhaps after war damage to what is otherwise a late Victorian row.

The 2004 Holderness Road East Conservation Area Asssement states that Jalland St was laid out mid-1880s, named after Boswell Middleton Jalland, who died in 1880 and had been Mayor of Hull in 1836 and 1846. It also confirms that this and another group featuring alternating Dutch and pedimented gables dates from the 1890s and that “357 & 359, similarly gabled, were unfortunately destroyed by enemy air raids during WWII and rebuilt, unsympathetically, post-war.” And they two properties could not even agree on a common look.

I particularly like the picture of the Humber Bridge, opened in 1981, in the first floor window of Floggits with the message ‘We DELIVER ANYWHERE IN THE HUMBERSIDE area“. These windows have now been replaced without their posters and with rather unsympathetic modern windows.

*Humberside Majorettes, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8p-64*

The rather nice wide arched entrance at right has an attractive face over it, with a similar but rather annoyed looking head over the narrower door at left at Curtis House, 410 Holderness Road. This was a detached villa when it was built in the 1880s but in 1892 was extended ina vaguely Tudor style with further houses, Claremont, Elmhurst and Eastholme at 404-8, along with a two-storey mock-Tudor coach house.

The Irene Curtis School Of Dancing was created and run by Irene Curtis in 1950 and closed after she died in 1997. The school taught over 40,000 students many of whom gained medals in dance competitions. Humberside Majorettes or twirlers were apparently active from 1978-90 and were later continued by Alan Curtis after his mothers death as part of Arena Entertainments UK.

More on Holderness Road and East Hull in 1989 to follow.

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Tags:1989, August 1989, Curtis House, Dance School, Don Dixon, East Hull Presbyterian Church, Family Butcher, Floggits, Holderness Rd, Hull Photos, Humber Bridge, Humberside Majorettes, Irene Curtis School Of Dancing, Jalland St, James Stuart, peter Marshall, philanthropist, pig, politician, Shades, Southwells, statue, Thomas R Ferens, William Aumonier
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Around Holderness Road Hull – 1989

Saturday, May 11th, 2024

Around Holderness Road Hull: At the end of my walk on Monday 21st August 1989 (More from Hedon Road) I took a few pictures as I walked back into the centre of town to catch my bus back to North Hull. But I came back to East Hull the following day to walk along Holderness Road and some of the streets off it.

*New Bridge Rd, Rosmead St, Hull, 1989 89-8o-35*

New Bridge Road runs through the centre of an area of late Victorian working class housing and this corner is in some ways typical. It seems only a little changed today. It isn’t quite a crossroads, as the corner of Sherburn Street is just a few yards to the north of that with Rosmead Street and the two are at an angle. But in my picture it seemed a fairly busy corner with a car turning into Rosmead Street, two women walking and a bicycle with a trailer and ladders parked at the right.

Back in the 1980s there were still many workmen – painters, decorators, handymen of all trades in areas like this who still relied on bicycles and even handcarts to carry to tools of their trade while most in more prosperous areas had turned to vans. There is also another bicycle – or at least a wheel at the left edge of the picture.

Those typically Hull lamp posts have now gone, replaces by a rather less elegant design and the taller post then I think simply more powerful lighting for the busier road has been replaced by one carrying a CCTV camera and there is a pedestrian crossing here.

*Bandbox, Dansom Lane, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-36*

This rounded building is still on the corner of Dansom Lane South and Holderness Road but became a shop selling kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms as is now shared by a café and barbers.

Dansom Lane got its name from the farmer who was there in the 19th century. The rounded house at 2-6 Dansom Lane South & 1 Holderness Road dates from around 1850.

*River Hull, North Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8o-21*

The view upstream from North Bridge with both sides of the river line with wharves and factories and a number of boats moored, resting on the mud at low tide. The silo of R & W Paul and some of the more distant buildings remain but the left hand bank is now empty.

*Malton St School, Malton St, Hull, 1989 89-8o-23*

Blenkin Street & Malton Street Board School was built by the Kingston upon Hull School Board in 1899 and closed shortly before World War Two. It later became an annex to the Art College and closed in 1997 and was sold off the following year. It has since been converted to residential use as Old School House.

*Ron Hedges Emporium, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-26*

Ron Hedges Emporium “Incorporating House Clearance Unlimited” sold a wide range of secondhand goods some of which including furniture, cookers and bicycles were on display on the pavement in front of the shop.

Abbey Industries, William Street School, Hull, 1989 89-8o-11 — *Abbey Industries, Williamson Street School, Hull, 1989 89-8o-11*

Williamson Street School was one of the first schools built by the Kingston upon Hull School Board established under the Education Act 1870 and constituted in 1871. This building has ‘1874 BOARD SCHOOL’ and the three crowns of the Hull coat of arms on its bell tower.

When I made this picture it was occupied by Abbey Industries. It has since been demolished.

*Cravens, 35-37, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-12*

This fine building was built in the late 1880s for the Public Benefit Boot Company, founded in Hull by William Henry Franklin (1848-1907) in 1875. From a small shop in Hull the business grew rapidly to own 200 boot stores, several repair shops and four modern factories, providing boots cheaply for working people and advertising them widely including by touring a giant boot on a horse-drawn cart around towns and villages in Yorkshire. The building is still there and is now occupied by an IT Consultancy.

Cravens Mini Market was another shop selling secondhand household appliances, furniture and other items.

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Tags:1989, 35-37, Abbey Industries, Art College, August 1989, Bandbox, Blenkin Street & Malton Street Board School, Cravens, Dansom Lane, East Hull, Holderness Rd, Hull, Kingston upon Hull School Board, Malton St, Malton St School, New Bridge Rd, North Bridge, Old School House, peter Marshall, Public Benefit Boot Company, R & W Paul, River Hull, Ron Hedges Emporium, Rosmead St, William Henry Franklin
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More from Hedon Rd, Hull – 1989

Wednesday, May 8th, 2024

More from Hedon Rd, Hull – More of my photographs on Hedon Road made in August 1989. The previous post on Hull was More Around Popple Street, Hull – 1989

This section of Hedon Road was bypassed by the building of Roger Millward Way and most of the buildings on it have been demolished, with just a few short sections of brick walls remaining. Back in 1989 much of it was lined with buildings which appeared to be disused. This section attracted me for its large entrances, probably built for horse-drawn wagons carrying timber to the saw mills and the smaller building on the road frontage with four boared up windows that seemed to have been rather crudely inserted into the tall wall at left. Little traffic used the road in 1989 and the no parking and no loading signs were by then superfluous. Old maps show this area as occupied by an Iron Works and Saw Mill.

*Abram Transport, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-42*

Although the company names S P S and Abram Transport were still on these buildings I think none were still in use. These buildings probably dated from around the beginning of the 20th century for previous occupiers of the sites.

Another view of the row of buildings in the previous image with an empty road but a lorry in the foreground packed high with sawn timber, so apparently there were still some saw mills operating in the area. In the distance you can see the dust extractor for C B North’s saw mill.

*ONLY THIEVES USE THIS LINE, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-45*

I think this railway bridge will have carried lines into Victoria Dock across Hedon Road. No trace of it remains. There were some rail bridges roughly where the Mount Pleasant North Roundabout now is, with South Bridge Road leading into what is now Victoria Dock Village. But I think this was another rail bridge further east close to Hotham Street which led to both Victoria and Alexandra docks.

The lines had certainly become unused after both these docks closed in 1970, but presumably gave access to some commercial premises still in use after that date – hence the reward offered in this notice.

*Railway Bridge, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-46*

Under a railway bridge and looking east away from the city centre. The parked cars show that some of buildings along the street were still in business use. I think none of the buildings in this picture are sill standing

*Crowle House, Crowle St, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-32*

Crowle Street runs parallel to Hedon Road a short distance to the north and this house is still standing although much altered, visible from Hedon Road down Ferries Street. There is a rather more impressive Crowle House in High Street, Hull, a grade II listed how build in 1664 for wealthy Hull merchant George Crowle and his wife Eleanor.

Newtown Square, just off Hedon Rd and along Southcoates Lane opposite Hull Prison was developed for council housing in 1931-2 with a dozen or so blocks of three-story flats, I think around 150 in all. The 1950 OS map calls them Newtown Square and that was still the name when I photographed them in 1989, though they are now known as Newtown Court.

The flats built in 1931-2 were apparently improved in the 1980s and I think my picture may show some before and some after that improvement. They have been again modified recently.

More from Hull in 1989 in some later posts.

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Tags:Crowle House, Crowle St, Hedon Rd, Hull, Newtown Square, only theives, peter Marshall, railway bridge, saw mills, works
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More Around Popple Street, Hull – 1989

Wednesday, April 24th, 2024

More Around Popple Street – My walk on Monday 21st August 1989 continued up and down Popple Street. Popple Street still remains, but the area to the south had been changed by the building in 1979 of the Myton Swing Bridge over the River Hull and the building of the A63 Roger Millward Way which left it as a dead end. Formerly it had led to De La Pole Street and on to Great Union Street – and there is still a footpath leading to a pedestrian crossing at the roundabout on the junction with that street and the A63.

*Works entrance, Popple St, Hull, 1989 89-8o-52*

Popple Street is a short street leading south-east from Hedon Road and around a hundred yards down it turns at right angles toward A63 – and there are steps up to the pavement but no vehicle access. This picture is on the right-angle bend and the sheds at right are still there, the premises of Arronbrook Leisure Homes Ltd. Astablished in 1987 this company still makes static caravans and holiday homes on the site.

Almost all of the rest of the picutre has changed, except for a large shed which just peeps up above the brick wall, still there on the opposite side of Hedon Road. C B North’s saw mill has long gone, though the company remains as a timber merchants and manufacturer of root trusses on the Hedon Road, but the other sheds there were demolished around 2020.

*C M Railton & Son, Popple St, Hull, 1989 89-8o-53*

There was another photograph of C M Railton & Sons building in my previous post, I think taken from the footpath which replaced De La Pole St, but here I show it actually a little further down Popple Street looking towards Hedon Road. As I noted in the the previous post the site is now occupied by a medical supplies company, but this rather attractive building has been demolished and replaced by a larger but bland warehouse of First Aid Supplies

Walking towards Hedon Road I made this picture of the buildings at the left of the previous view which are still on the street as Selles Medical Goods Inwards. They have lost those pulleys for lifting goods in to the upper floor and the doorways there are now large windows, while the large ground floor window and wall below is now a wide metal-shuttered entrance to the building. The door at right is still there but also with a metal shutter.

*Robbies, pub, Popple St, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-55*

Robbies Pub was Grade II listed five years after I made this photograph, and the listing text begins “Formerly known as: Victoria Hotel HEDON ROAD. Public house. c1850, altered c1875 and later C19.” A fairly lengthy description follows. This picture shows some of the fine detail which justifies its listing.

This used to be a popular pub for Hull’s dockers and was known by them as the ‘Monkey House’. Probably the name came from J. F. Mitchell’s “That’s The Way To The Zoo” written in 1883 which includes the verse:
‘That’s the way to the zoo!
That’s the way to the zoo!
The monkey house is nearly full
But there’s room enough for you.’
This became both a skipping rhyme for girls and a popular insult.

The picture also shows the view down Popple Street with the former building of N R Burnett Ltd, still a Hull timber merchant but now in West Carr Lane. I’d photographed this view from the opposite side of the road in 1985, and the caption to that photograph has more about the company: “N R Burnett is a timber company founded in Hull in 1935 by Norman Rutherford Burnett and became a private limited company in 1941. During the war it was based in York, but returned to Hull in 1945, and was based at the Albert Mill here in Popple St until 1960 when it moved to larger premises in Great Union St. It was one of the first suppliers for caravan builders. They still operate from sites in Sutton Fields Industrial Estate, Hull and Ossett as an importer and merchant of panel products, softwood and hardwood timbers.”

*C B North, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-56*

On Hedon Road I photographed the offices for C B North as well as the end of the yard stretching from Popple Street of Arronbrook Lt, Mobile Home Manufacturers. The C B North building, across the road from their saw mill, became home to Paragon Joinery and Soper Plastics who relocated and the building was demolished around 2013. I rather liked the two rows of glass bricks inserted in the side wall, one at an angle presumably lighting a stairway. The building was on the corner of the what was I think the entrance to a saw mill (and earlier also a coal wharf) and is now one of the entrances to the South Orbital Trading Park.

Great Union St, Hedon Rd & Popple Street

Friday, April 19th, 2024

Great Union St, Hedon Rd & Popple Street: The River Hull divides the city in two, and although there are around a dozen bridges linking the two sides, they remain very separate. Perhaps the most obvious aspect of this are the two league sides, Hull FC and Hull KR, facing each other in bitter rivalry from West and East. The river may not quite be an iron curtain but at least when I first went to Hull it was a very tangible divide.

I stayed in North Hull, on the west side of the river, and was surprised to find my wife who had grown up there was almost completely ignorant of anything on the other side. Of course some people worked on the other side of the river, and back in the sixties and seventies were often delayed on on their way to work or coming home as the bridges opened for river traffic. Now those openings are infrequent as few vessels make passages upriver.

Mo's Cafe, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8n-15 — *Mo’s Cafe, Great Union St, Hull, 1989 89-8n-15*

I photographed Mo’s Cafe on two different days in August 1989 and the notice in this picture tells me it had recently closed and “MOVED TO DRYPOOL GARGE 18 HEDON RD 2 MIN’S AWAY”. My second picture a day or two later is from across the road and shows some of the surrounding buildings which were still there on Great Union Street until 2015, but are now demolished.

On the north corner of St Peter Street, those buildings were part of the Rank Hovis Clarence Mill site, and Mo’s Cafe was at the rear of the Waterloo Tavern on Great Union Street at its junction with Clarence Street. The pub closed around 2010 and is now an an antiques salvage yard.

*As You Like It, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8n-16*

This doorway presents a mystery I have been unable to solve in its plate fixed on the wall. At the top is a helmet of sorts, perhaps a link to diving though it could be just heraldic fantasy. Below is a shield with its three crowns, the emblem of the City of Kingston upon Hull since the 1400’s and the text ‘AS YOU LIKE IT’, presumably a trademark as underneath in smaller letters it states ‘REGISTERED’.

Finally at the bottom is one of those lettermarks of combined letters, always unreadable unless you know what they are. I can see a ‘J’, ‘F’ and ‘R’ with an ‘L’ that is possibly for Limited as there is a small ‘D’ to the right. Perhaps some local historian will know more and comment.

*Gravestone, Great Union St, Hull, 1989 89-8o-62*

I think the small graveyard area is part of the churchyard of the former St. Peter’s Church, which was destroyed in a wartime bombing raid in 1941. Since the Covid lockdown this area has been cleaned up by a group of local residents and is now a small park now known as ‘Thinkers Corner’ after a sculpture by Kevin Storch was placed in it on the 59th anniversary of the start of the Second World War in 1989.

Unfortunately I could not read the inscription on the stone but I thought he had probably been the captain of the vessel shown.

*Herald, Storage tanks, Hedon Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8o-63*

I don’t know what was in these tanks if anything, but the 1928 OS Map shows some molasses tanks in this area to the south of Hedon Road. The large building with HERALD on it has its frontage on Popple Street, just off Hedon Road, and the name N R Burnett Ltd large on the other side. The company is still listed as a timber merchant in Hull, now in West Carr Lane. HERALD seems to have been painted over their name at a later date. It was also on the side of the building followed by a second line already illegible, but could have read TIMBER [HULL] LTD.

This area is immediately to the north of Hull’s timber dock, Victoria Dock, which opened in 1850 and closed to shipping in 1970 and has been redeveloped for residential use. Hull remains the UK’s leading importer of softwood mainly from Russia and the Baltic states.

*C M Railton & Son, Popple St, Hull, 1989 89-8o-66*

C M Railton & Son were as their sign states Joinery Manufacturers and the property in the centre of the picture is still on Popple Street, backing on to Hedon Road next to Robbies pub (aka Victoria Hotel/Monkey House.) The site is currently a medical supplies company.

C M Railton moved out and are now registered in Beverley as a non-trading company, due to be struck of the register and deemed to be bona vacantia – without owner.

Behind at right is a sawmill, one of a number on the Hedon Road. You can read an extensive article by Paul Gibson, The timber industry in Hull, on his Hull and Eat Yorkshire History site.

*National Dock Labour Board, Popple St, Hull, 1989 89-8o-51*

The National Dock Labour Board was set up by the Labour government following the 1945 Dock Strike in 1947 to adminster the Dock Workers’ (Regulation of Employment) Scheme. It combined the trade unions and employers and controlled wages, hiring of labour and discipline of workers and was financed by a levy on employers.

It gave dock workers security, guaranteeing them with work on the docks, finding employment for them if they were laid off by an employer – or if no work was available a £25,000 payoff. The scheme was abolished by Thatcher in 1989 as being an anachronism that prevented the industry exploiting its workers. Dockers went out on strike in July 1989 but most voted to go back to work in August.

This building remains on Popple Street though rather difficult to recognise except by the distinctive brickwork. It was used for some time by St John Ambulance but is now a charity providing activities and education for vulnerable adults.

More from East Hull in later posts. As always you can click on the pictures to see a larger version on Flickr.

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Tags:As You Like It, C M Railton & Son, Drypool, East Hull, gravestone, Great Union St, Hedon Rd, Herald, Hull, Hull Photos, Mo's Cafe, N R Burnett Ltd, National Dock Labour Board, Paul Gibson, peter Marshall, Popple St, saw mill, St Peter's church, Storage tanks, Thatcher, timber, timber merchant
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Kenfig, Hedon Sand & River Hull – 1989

Sunday, April 7th, 2024

Kenfig, Hedon Sand & River Hull – these pictures I made on Monday 21st August 1989 on a short section of the River Hull. I had hoped to walk along the footpath beside the river between Drypool Bridge and North Bridge.

*Boats, River Hull, downstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8n-35*

The small tug Felix-Tow has got around a bit since it was built in the Netherlands in 1955. After working in Rotterdam the Ijssel came to Felixtowe in 1967 where it was renamed FELIX-TOW. I think it was fairly new to Hull where it was owned by Dean’s Tugs Ltd – and was still in service in 2008 – perhaps still now.

*Boats, River Hull, upstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8n-36*

The vessel in the foreground is a coastal tanker belonging to the Hull based petroleum company RIX which still operates a fleet of coastal oil tankers, estuarial barges and crew transfer vehicles. Rix have oil storage tanks around a mile further up the river.

The company, as their web site relates, began in 1873 when Robert Rix, a sea Captain and Merchant Adventurer working in Hull set up in business building small coastal craft on the south bank of the River Tees in Stockton. In the 1900s the company bought steam ships and began operating them. The move into petroleum products came in 1927 when they began importing tractor vaporising oil and Lamp oil, packed in oak casks on their ships from Russia to the Humber.

The company expanded rapidly after the end of World War Two, supplying agricultural and commercial diesel across Yorkshire and opening petrol filling stations around Hull. The company has continued to grow and expand into new areas.

Boats, River Hull, upstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8n-21 — *Vessels, River Hull, upstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8n-21*

Barges like these in the middle of the picture were once very common, and were often moored three or four abreast in the Old Harbour downstream of Drypool Bridge, but by 1989 were becoming much less common, though some are still in use. Others have been converted to houseboats.

Barges like this might carry as much as 24 large lorries and could transfer goods from the docks to river wharves at much lower costs than road transport, with much lower pollution and carbon footprint. But of course they could only take goods to sites on navigable rivers and canals and so are much less flexible than road transport.

*Hedon Sand, River Hull, upstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8n-22*

Hedon Sand, IMO 5185875 was a Grab Hopper Dredger built in 1954 close to Hull at Richard Dunston’s Hessle Yard. The ship had gross tonnage 677 tons, deadweight 813 tons and was around 50 metres long with a breadth of 10 meters. An 8 cylinder four-stroke msrine Ruston & Hornsby engine give it a top speed of 9 knots.

*Hedon Sand, River Hull, upstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8n-23*

Known for most of its active life as Kenfig, it had been built for the British Transport Commission and was transfered to the British Transport Docks Board in Cardiff in 1963. It returned to the Humber and was used in dredging the Humber Dock Basin when Humber Dock was being converted to the Marina.

Mud is always a problem in the Humber and in the River Hull and I think dredging was always needed when the River Hull was still a commercial river. In recent years there seems to be far more mud in the river close to the mouth than I remember.

*Hedon Sand, River Hull, upstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8n-24*

Kenfig was sold to Jones & Bailey Contractors Ltd, Hull in 1983 – they also owned another dredger, Grassendale and they renamed it Hedon Sand. In 1989 when I took these pictures the vessel was sold to be broken up in Hull.

*River Hull, upstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8n-25*

I think some at least of these massive wooden beams had probably once supported parts of the riverside path I had hoped to walk.

*Kenfig, River Hull, upstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8n-26*

Ahead of me I could see North Bridge but with extensive work taking place on the riverbank there was no way I could continue to walk along it and I had to retrace my steps to Drypool Bridge

*Hedon Sand, River Hull, upstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989 89-8n-12*

On my way I took another picture of Hedon Sand before walking up to the road and going on into East Hull – where I took more pictures. More later.

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Tags:1989, August 1989, barges, coastal tanker, dredger, Drypool Bridge, Felix-tow, Grab Hopper Dredger, Hedon Sand, Hull, IMO5185875, Jones & Bailey, Kenfig, North Bridge, River Hull, Rix, Robert Rix, tug, upstream, Vessels
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Trinity House & High Street, Hull – 1989

Friday, April 5th, 2024

Trinity House & High Street. On Monday 21st August 1989 I took a bus to Queen’s Gardens and then walked down Prince’s Dock Street and on to the High Street at the heart of the Old Town.

Hull Trinity House, Princes Dock Side, Hull, 1989 89-8n-56 — *Hull Trinity House, Princes Dock Street, Hull, 1989 89-8n-56*

This massive archway on Princes Dock Street led through to Trinity House Navigation School and other buildings of Hull’s Trinity House. The date 1842 above the entrance is for this building, erected a few years after Princes Dock was opened as Junction Dock in 1829 – and before it was renamed in honour of Prince Albert for the royal visit of 1854. Junction Dock joined the Old Dock (Queen’s Dock) to Humber Dock creating a string of docks joining the River Hull to the River Humber and making an island of the Old Town.

Hull’s Trinity House is of course far older, established in 1369 as the Guild of the Holy Trinity by Alderman Robert Marshall (I’m sure no relation of mine) and around 50 others as a sort of ‘Friendly Society’ for parishioners of Holy Trinity Church. It was only in 1457 when Edward IV granted it the right to charge duties for loading and unloading goods at Hull to fund an almshouse for seafarers that it got a maritime connection, and it acquired its premises from Carmelite friars, though the current Trinity House Lane building is a 1753 rebuild.

Later monarchs gave it the right to settle nautical disputes, to charge import taxes to maintain the harbour, set buoys and licence pilots for the Humber. In 1785 it set up a school which taught boys in reading, writing, accountancy, religion and navigation for three years before they began their apprenticeship. The school is now an academy and has moved to another site, and the archway now leads to a car park and events area which has been named Zebedee’s Yard after Zebedee Scaping (1803-1909) who served as Headmaster for 55 years.

*Doorway, Old Town, Hull, 1989 89-8n-41*

You can still see this doorway at 39, High Street, though it is currently not numbered, just to the north of the entrance to Bishop Lane Staith. The area below the semicircular window at top right has been opened up as a larger window, though the sill in my picture suggests it was earlier bricked up.

Transport Museum High St, Hull, 1989 89-8n-44 — *Transport Museum, High St, Hull, 1989 89-8n-44*

The Transport Museum was set up by Thomas Sheppard and opened in 1925 as the Museum of Commerce and Transport and housed in the former Corn Exchange on High Street and had a very extensive display showing the evolution of transport and Hull’s principle industries, along with ten veteran cars bought from a private museum and horse-drawn vehicles from East Yorkshire.

Like much of Hull it suffered extensive wartime damage – Hull was the most severely damaged British city or town during the Second World War, with 95 percent of houses damaged and almost half of the population made homeless. But news reports except on rare occasions were only allowed to refer to it as a “north-east coast town” and even now many histories of the war ignore the incredible damage to the city.

The museum reopened in 1957 as the Transport and Archaeology Museum. But in 2002 the transport collection moved to the new Streetlife Museum and this building became the Hull and East Riding Museum

*Wilberforce House, High St, Hull, 1989 89-8n-46*

Thomas Sheppard became the first curator of the Hull Municipal Museum in 1901 and achieved a massive increase in its visitor numbers by refurbishing the display and making entry free. Sheppard went on to set up half a dozen other Hull museums, the first of which in 1906 was Wilberforce House, opened as a museum in 1906, dedicated to the slave trade and the work of abolitionists and a memorial to Hull’s best-known citizen, William Wilberforce MP.

*Wilberforce House, High St, Hull, 1989 89-8n-31*

William Wilberforce was born in this house on the High Street in 1759. The house is one of the oldest in Hull, built in 1660 but extended by the Wilberforce family in the 1730s and 1760s. In 1784 part of the premises became the the Wilberforce, Smith & Co Bank.

Wilberforce sold the house in 1830. After Hull Council brought in a rate to fund the preservation of historic buildings in 1891, a campaign began for the council to buy the house which they did in 1903, opening it as a public museum in 1906.

*Wilberforce House, High St, Hull, 1989 89-8n-32*

The display that many in Hull had grown up with was updated in 1983 to the dismay of many residents who felt it lacked the detail and impact of the original and that it represented a move towards entertainment rather than enlightenment.

The displays were again altered in 2006-7 with improvements to access and reopened in 2007, which was the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in Britain.

*House, 23-4, High St, Hull, 1989 89-8n-33*

These houses dating from around 1760 and restored after wartime bombing according to the Grade II listing text were incorporated into the Wilberforce museum in 1956.

*House, 23-4, High St, Hull, 1989 89-8n-34*

Here you see the view south down High Street from the houses, past Wilberforce House

From High Street I walked on to Drypool Bridge where the next post in this series will begin.

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Tags:abolitionist, High St, High Street, Hull, Hull Photos, peter Marshall, pilots, Princes Dock, slavery, Thomas Sheppard, Transport Museum, Trinity House, Trinity House Navigation School, Wilberforce House, William Wilberforce, Zebedee Scaping, Zebedee's Yard
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Archive for the ‘Hull Photos’ Category

Victoria Dock & the Old Town – Hull 2017

Holy Trinity, Pigs & Brewery, Hull 1989

More from East Hull 1989

More Holderness Road Hull 1989

Around Holderness Road Hull – 1989

More from Hedon Rd, Hull – 1989

More Around Popple Street, Hull – 1989

Great Union St, Hedon Rd & Popple Street

Kenfig, Hedon Sand & River Hull – 1989

Trinity House & High Street, Hull – 1989

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