Hull Photos: 23/2/17-1/3/17

Photos added together with the comments I post on them on Facebook. At a later date I intend to add these comments to the Hull Photos web site, Still Occupied – A view of Hull.

23 February 2017

The view across a wharf with sand and gravel to the buildings on the opposite bank of the River Hull.

The buildings visible in the background, on the opposite bank of the River Hull are, from left to right: the roof and chimneys of Wilberforce House behind trees in the garden; a large shed, now demolished, Lister Court, built as warehouses around 1880 and converted to flats in 1985 and Grade II listed in 1994; and lastly the Pease Warehouses, Grade II listed in 1952. Wilberforce house, the home of William Wilberforce and now a museum was built for the Lister family.


28k65: Wharf on east bank of River Hull, Tower St, 1981 – River Hull

24 February 2017

Much of Charles St was facing demolition as I took these pictures, some being cleared for the building of a kind of bypass road around the north of the city centre, the Freetown Way, named for Freetown, Sierra Leone, which Hull twinned with in 1980. Freetown is the largest city in Sierra Leone, rather larger than Hull, but like Hull is a port, though on the Atlantic rather than the Humber and with a fine natural harbour. The first settlers in Freetown were black Britons who had been born as slaves, and were emancipated and shipped out from London by the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor. There settlement didn’t last long, being burnt to the ground two years later by the local black ruler, who had probably not realised they intended to stay permanently. The city’s formal beginning came a few years later when it was settle by over a thousand former slaves from Nova Scotia.

All this happened a little before Wilberforce became involved in the fight against slavery in 1787, but it was his connection with Hull that, at the suggestion of former Hull University student and High Commissioner of Sierra Leone, Dr S T Matturi, the two towns became twinned. Which also explains why Freetown has a Kingston-upon-Hull Way.

People in Hull voted overwhelmingly in favour of Brexit, with over twice as many wanting to leave as to remain despite the fact that the city has benefited enormously from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund, which have supported pretty well every major development in the city since we joined Europe – including the Freetown Way. The vote came despite too (or perhaps because) Labour’s ‘In’ campaign being led by Hull MP Alan Johnson, and Hull’s two other MPs both supporting remain.

The picture shows bargains in Bedding and Jewellery (cheapest in Hull!) painted on the window of a shop with fine ironwork around its windows, and a row of shops opposite reflected in the glass; the only name across the street I can read clearly is that of Oswald T Hall, who was I think a family butcher.


28l12; Open and closed shops, Charles St, 1981 – City Centre

25 February 2017

I don’t know exactly where this yard with workshops and a wall with the peeling sign ‘PIONEER’ was, but I think it was near Charles St, and I am fairly sure it has now been demolished, though a few small workshops remain not far away from here. It could have been closer to Beverley Rd as I was probably wandering through back streets from Charles St towards Springbank to catch a bus.


28l16 Pioneer, workshop in yard, Charles St area, 1981 – City Centre

26 February 2017

These two doors, next to each other I think down Baker St or Union St, one with a Celtic cross and its neighbour with a permanent ‘Meeting in Progress’ struck me as a mystery. The meeting was apparently still going on undisturbed around ten years later when I walked past. For years I couldn’t decide what the name above the notice had been, though it was familiar. The letters ‘Soft’ remained, followed by the trace of an ‘e’ and another letter, perhaps a second ‘e’, and much later I recognised it as a part of the ‘Mister Softee’ ice-cream logo. This US franchise came to the UK in the 1960s and Massarella Supplies Ltd took a franchise in Doncaster through Lyons as Mr Softee UK. The door is numbered 2, with this crossed out by a rather fish-shaped daub of paint – or perhaps solidified ice-cream.


28l23: Softee meeting in progress, Baker St area, 1981 – City Centre


27 February 2017

The sign that greets travellers approaching Hull by rail while their train waits to go into Paragon Station. The sign was still visible the last time I remembered to look out of the window at the right moment, but most of the black paint has peeled off, leaving the remnants of the white lettering on red bricks, with just a few black flecks.

Trippetts were drapers and had stores in Bradford and Nottingham as well as a large block in Ferensway, Hull, and was “noted for value in Yorkshire since 1887” as a department store with a ‘cash only’ policy. They occupied an ugly 1930s block on the corner of North St which extended to Prospect St and the block was recently demolished. The store closed towards the end of the last century.

The store belonged to the Trippett family. I don’t know if it is simply a co-incidence that the area of Hull immediately to the north of the old town between the walls and the Charterhouse was the liberty of Trippett, which although owned by the corporation for several centuries was only incorporated into the parliamentary borough in 1837. There is still a short and rather empty Trippett Street there.


28l32: Trippetts for Gloves & Hosiery, Railway Houses, Londesborough Street 1981 – Springbank area

28th February 2017

On a street near Chanterlands, Newland or Princes Avenues and was a fairly common sight during the school holidays in many areas of Hull. This one was perhaps unusual in the amount on offer, including the small Coleus plants; most seemed to have just a few toys, outgrown and often rather played out. We stopped and took a good look at what they had for sale and this is one of 5 pictures while my wife (not in picture) talked to them and looked at the books and toys on offer. I think she bought a children’s colouring book.


28o11: Childrens sale on street, 1981 – Springbank

1st March 2017

I wasn’t actually driving the train. Some of the diesel units used for local services had the driver’s cab separated from passengers by glass giving a view out of the front of the train. The glass was often scratched and appeared never to have been cleaned since the unit left the factory many years previously, and once the driver got in the view was less clear. The glass in front of the driver wasn’t too clean either, though the train did have windscreen wipers. You can see a little of a rather cleaner area at the extreme right

Our two sons were keen on railways and we often sat behind the driver. We were on our way to Broomfleet, a station around 14 miles west of Hull by the Humber, where I think you had to tell the driver you wanted the train to stop, and hold out your hand as the train came to travel back to Hull. They didn’t sell many tickets to Broomfleet. It now gets six on seven trains each way every day Mon-Sat.

Broomfleet is where the disused Market Weighton Canal enters the Humber, opposite one of very few islands in the Humber, Whitton Island. In 1981 when we visited this was still just part of a sand bank, the Whitton Sands, but was promoted in status around 2002.

I chose this picture as the cover picture for my Hull web site. Though it would have been better if it were coming in to Paragon rather than preparing to leave, but then the driver’s back would have been obscuring my view.


28015: Waiting to leave Hull Paragon Station, 1981 – City Centre

You can see the new pictures added each day at Hull Photos, and I post them with the short comments above on Facebook.
Comments and corrections to captions are welcome here or on Facebook.


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