Another digest of daily posts during Hull2017 on Facebook, about the pictures added daily on the intro page at Hull Photos. Comments and corrections to the captions and texts about the pictures are always welcome here or on Facebook. This daily posting will end on 31st December 2017, though more pictures will be added to the site.
Hull Photos
2nd December
The sand and gravel cleaning plant at Tower Street Wharf is seen in many pictures taken from the opposite bank of the River Hull, including a number of my images, but this was the first time I had taken a closer view.
This view shows the north end of the plant, and I think was taken from Tower St, looking roughly south and clearly towards the sun, shining through into my lens, though I tried to hide it behind the conveyor. The image suffers considerably from the flaring of this direct light source and it was not really possible to get a usable print in the darkroom, but scanning the negative and digital processing gives an improved result.
85-10l-32: Tower St Sand and gravel wharf, Tower St, 1985 – River Hull
3rd December
Moving a little closer put the sun behind the structure but also meant I could not show its full height. Concentrating more on the back-lit water draining at the bottom of the plant creates a rather more powerful image – and this was one of a small group of pictures that won a prize from the Building Centre shortly after I took it.
85-10l-33: Tower St Sand and gravel wharf, Tower St, 1985 – River Hull
4th December
Looking upstream from the sand and gravel wharf, with the Humber Star making her way up-river past the moored Joyce Hawksley. In the distance, beyond the Pease Warehouses the Drypool Bridge is raised high in the air.
The Humber Star, a small 274 ton bunkering tanker built in 1969, had a slightly curious life, with her name changing from Wade Stone in 1977, and reverting to that in 2009. Soon after while an effluent carrier for Oran Environmental Services she sank at her moorings in Southampton, polluting the River Itchen with both fuel and effluent, but was refloated. In November 2011 the Wade Stone, then owned by Britannia Shipping Ltd but registered in Sierra Leone was detained as unseaworthy at Southampton for at least 3 months. In 2012 she again became the Humber Star but was renamed Kara in 2013, and was still working in Malta in 2014. I’ve found no record of her since that date.
The barge Joyce Hawksley was built at John Harker (Shipyards), Knottingley for Flixborough Shipping Co in 1964 and carried aggregate. Until a few years ago she could still be seen on the River Hull, but I don’t know if she is still there now.
85-10l-36: The Old Harbour from Garrison Side, 1985 – River Hull
5th December
Northern Divers was founded in Hull in 1963 and is still offering a wide range of diving-related services, though it moved to Oslo Rd in Sutton Fields around 2011. Their web site states:
“We specialise in underwater civil engineering, commercial diving to 50 meters, inland and coastal work (up to 12 miles offshore), harbour and dock maintenance, salvage, sluice / gate maintenance, structural inspections and repairs, windfarm operations, hydrographical surveys, bridge inspections and pipeline installations, to name but a few of our services.”
Their former home, a Grade II listed building, is still on Tower St, but most of the buildings and structures in this picture have gone.
85-10l-41: Northern Divers, Tower St, 1985 – River Hull
6th December
Another picture of Northern Divers. The building in the background is still there, and is the Grade II listed former Trinity House buoy shed, built in 1901.
Northern Divers put the site, which includes some derelict land around the building, up for sale in March 2017
85-10l-42: Northern Divers, Tower St, 1985 – River Hull
7th December
A pile of old timber, perhaps from a riverside mooring jetty and some industrial premises on Tower St, with a boat on one of the roofs of Northern Divers.
The building with three bays was the premises of Erdmann Engineering, and was I think built as a pumping station for the hydraulic power system used in Victoria Dock (and other Hull docks), with the tower behind being the accumulator tower.
85-10l-43: Tower St and accumulator tower, 1985 – River Hull
8th December
The sign on the front of the former hydraulic power station on Tower St is for Erdmann Engineering and the site appears to be still in use. This was a building of some distinction and a significant part of Hull’s heritage and it is perhaps surprising that it was not retained and repurposed in some way, rather than being replaced by the large and undistinguished shed of Hull City Royal Mail Delivery Office. The Royal Mail gives their address as St Peter St, but appears to be on what was and is still known as Tower St, to the south of the former Victoria Dock Drypool entrance.
85-10l-45: Erdmann Engineering, Tower St, 1985 – River Hull
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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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.