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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
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
Works, Popple St, Hull, 1989 89-8o-54
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 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.
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.
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.
Treasure, Fresh Meat, Rose Villa… has some more pictures on Beverley Road, from where I walked into Pearson Park andthrough the Avenues back to my parents-in-law’s home.
Treasure Chest at 220 Beverley Road had closed and was to let, but its frontage contained messages at various levels, including an ‘OPEN’ sign on the door. the shop is still there, one in a row of shops on the east side of the road going north from Temple Street, and in 2022 was occupied by ‘Edward Scissor Barbers’. It had gone through a number of changes since 1989, including ‘£1PLUS’, a Polish Butcher, a Unisex Hair Salon and doubtless more.
I’m not sure what Treasure Chest had offered, though previously it appeared to be possibly a secondhand furniture shop offering to carry out home clearances. The windows were flyposted, with ‘Can Gorbachev reform Russia‘, a meeting at the New White Harte and an SWP ‘Troops out Now‘ protest in London (I think out of Ireland.)
But more mystifying were the two carefully printed ‘SIMPLE MINDS‘ at the top of each window. Were these for the Glasgow rock band?
Fresh Meat, Beverley Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8n-65
Another mystery door behind a wire screen protecting the frontage. It advertises ‘FRESH MEAT’ but with pictures of what I thought was a hamster and some kind of tropical fish. On the door an invitation to ‘JOIN OUR CHRISTMAS CLUB’ has been posted on top of another advertising a holiday play scheme at Kingston Community Centre – what I first took to be a pile of bodies is actually a rather sinister clown whose cap offers ‘TONS OF FUN’.
This picture was taken on Sunday 20th August 1989 and the shop was closed, but otherwise I’m sure it was still in use.
Rose Villa, 269-71, Beverley Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8n-66
Rose Villa, now a nursing home, is on the west side of Beverley Rd on its corner with Pearson Park, facing the Dorchester Hotel. The Beverley Road Heritage Trail leaflet states:
“Rose Villa is now a care home but was originally Claremont Villa, the home of coal and wool merchant William Croft. His business partner Henry Croft lived just across the road at the Dorchester Hotel, which at the time was three houses: Dorchester House, Tamworth Lodge and Stanley House.
The buildings are notable for their fanciful shaped gables and turrets, built by Bellamy and Hardy in 1861-2. Other occupiers here have included ship owners, timber merchants, and popular local grocer William Cussons.”
The Dorchester Hotel was at one time owned by one of my wife’s relatives, though I never went there.
Pearson Park, Archway, Pearson Ave, Hull, 1989 89-8n-51
This Grade II listed gateway to Pearson Park was made by Young & Wood of Hull and is cast-iron in a Classical Revival style.
Pearson Park was Hull’s first public park, laid out on land given to the Corporation by Zacharia Pearson, Mayor of Hull in 1860. Pearson was sent to school by his uncle after this mother died, and ran away to sea when his was 12, but was sent back to complete his sentence at Hull Grammar. He went back to sea on leaving school and rapidly progressed to becoming a captain and then a ship owner. With his brother-in-law he founded Pearson, Coleman & Co shipping timber from the Baltic and freight and later passengers to America – and later Australia and New Zealand.
Pearson became mayor in 1859 and donated liberally to various charities in Hull as well as giving the land for Pearson Park. But in the 1860s several of his business affairs went disastrously wrong. His worst mistake came with the US Civil War where he tried to keep Hull’s cotton mills in work by sending ten ships to try to break the blocade and all ten and their cargoes were lost. His bankruptcy was for a spectacular £646,000 – something like £63m now allowing for inflation – and he was ostracised from civic life in the Hull.
Pearson Park, Archway, Pearson Ave, Hull, 1989 89-8n-52
Despite his spectacular removal from Hull society, Pearson Park retains his name, and Pearson is still among the great philanthropists of Hull. This archway seemed in fairly good condition when I made these two pictures in 1989 , but had long lost both its gates and the maritime themed decorations and urns which had stood on top of the arch and a few large cracks can be seen at the top of the arch.
The archway was returned to its original grandeur by restoration specialists Lost Art in 2019 in an extensive project. It is now also stronger to be more resilient to the extra weight of modern traffic.
House, Salisbury St, Park Avenue, Hull, 1989 89-8n-53
I walked through the park and crossed Princes Avenue to walk down Park Avenue. You can see in this picture the poor condition back in 1989 of these grand houses close to the corner with Salisbury Street. I think this was 109 Park Avenue, but there is a virtually identical house in Salisbury St.
House, Salisbury St, Park Avenue, Hull, 1989 89-8n-55
This group of eight Grade II listed houses are thought to be the only remaining examples of domestic buildings by George Gilbert Scott Junior, an early exponent of the Queen Anne style.
House, Salisbury St, Park Avenue, Hull, 1989 89-8n-54
Some of these houses had already been restored as this view shows. All now look in good condition.
This was the last picture I took on this walk on Sunday 20th August 1989, but I was back in the centre of Hull taking pictures the following day – which I’ll post shortly.
Binnington seems to be a relatively common family name in parts of Yorkshire, though not one I’d come across before elsewhere. It’s hard to read the street number but I think it is 323, one of a short run of shops between the railway bridge and De Grey St on the west side of Beverley Rd.
I hadn’t come across many shops that were both hairdressers and tobacconists, though I think there may have been a couple of others in Hull. I wasn’t sure whether the CLOSED notice in the window was merely out of opening hours or more permanent.
Newland United Reformed Church, Beverley Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8m-13
Newland United Reformed Church was on the corner of Beverley Road and Brooklyn Street but was sold in 2012 and demolished. Nothing had been built on the site by May 2022.
There had been a church here, Hope Street Congregational Church since 1797. In 1903 it had been replaced by Newland Congregational Church, a simplified Gothic brick church designed by Moulds and Porritt in red and yellow brick with terracotta dressings which was demolished in 1969. Presumably it was then replaced with this simpler structure – Newland United Reformed Church from 1972.
May Street runs east from Beverley Rd, and Mayfair Unisex Salon was on its northern corner with Beverley Rd. As well as the obvious attraction for me of the male and female silhouettes for the ‘SUPPLIERS OF N.H.S WIGS GREAT SELECTION’. But also a face peers down from the upper window.
Hills, Beverley Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8m-15
Not only Mayfair, Hull also had (and still has) its Park Lane, though the lane now looks very different with no trace of Hills or any of its buildings.
The corner is now occupied by a building with a brickwork panel showing a junk and some Chinese characters and was built by the Hon Lok Senior Association along with ten houses and ten bungalows in Park Lane.
Hills, Office, Park Lane, Bull Inn, pub, Beverley Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8m-16
Thomas Hill Engineering Co. (Hull) Ltd had offices on the corner of their site on Park Lane opposite the Bull Inn. I’m not sure what kind of thinks they engineered but apparently in 1977 they were granted US Patent 4031764 on ‘Devices for “rotating articles in which the disadvantages of existing devices are minimized, and in which the containers are kept in line.”
Stepney Chapel is still on the corner of Cave Street and Beverley Road, but now looks in a very sorry state, around ten years or more since there were last services at Glad Tidings Hall (Pentecostal). The Chapel was built in 1849 when Stepney was still a small village as a Methodist New Connexion Chapel, but was replaced in 1869 by a much larger and grander Gothic church with seating for 600. This closed in 1966 and was demolished with a supermarket now on its site.
The Methodist New Connexion began in Sheffield in 1797 by secession from the Wesleyan Methodists led by Alexander Kilham and William Thom and grew rapidly. Accused of having sympathies with Tom Paine and the French Revolution it gave greater power to the lay member of the churches than the minister dominated Wesleyan Methodists. It grew rapidly paricularly across the north of England, though in the 20th century the various Methodist groupings re-united. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was ordained as a Methodist New Connexion Minister in 1858.
As my picture shows clearly, the chapel is aligned to Cave St rather than Beverley Rd.
Scott St Chapel and Beverley Rd: More pictures I made in Hull in August 1989 before and after a week with family and friends in Scotland.
Mason & Jackson, Printers, Scott St, Hull, 1989 89-8f-43
This building was on the corner of Scott Street and Carr St, a short street that ended at the Cottingham Drain.
It was builtaround 1803/4 as a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, one of the first in Hull, and the first in the then fast growing area of Sculcoates and had seating for 531 worshippers. The plain brick was coated with stucco some time in the mid 19th century and the building is mentioned in the Hull pages of Pevsner. Later the population of Sculcoates fell as the area became more industrial and new Methodist churches opened elsewhere in Hull. By 1910 the chapel became a printing works, still in use by Mason and Jackson Ltd until 1997 – you can read more details and see pictures in Paul Gibson’s Hull & East Yorkshire History. Sadly efforts by Gibson and others to get this buidling listed were refused and it was bought and demolished to provide more lorry parking for Maizcor in 2001.
Mason & Jackson, Printers, Scott St, Hull, 1989 89-8f-43
This had been the front entrance to the chapel on Scott Street.
Mason & Jackson, Printers, Carr St, Scott St, Hull, 1989
A view across Scott Street shows the Carr Street side of the building. Listing was denied on the that the building has been ‘too altered to qualify’, but I think this picture shows that the alterations were only superficial. Paul Gibson’s pictures show that many of the interior features remained. This wasn’t a great building, but a fine example of its type and one of the oldest remaining buildings in the Sculcoates area of Hull. As my picture shows it stood out from the other later buildings on the street some of which still survive.
Gatepost, Royal British Legion, Beverley Rd, Hull, 1989 89-8f-31
There is an interesting block of 3 houses on Beverley Road immediately north of College Street, and it was that street name which gave me the clue tothe origin of this post, which dates from 1836 when Kingston College was built by Hull’s leading early Victorian architect Henry Francis Lockwood. The college was built just a little to the north and set back from the road and a few yards to the north two more pillars lake this do form a gateway to what is now Kingston Youth centre. The college didn’t last long closing in 1847 and its building was bought and turned into almshouses by Trinity House in 1851. At some time it became the Kingston Youth Centre and was badly mauled and had a sports centre added.
When the two houses at 46-48 were added inside the grounds of the college (then owned by Trinity House) in the 1860s I imagine this pillar was kept but its peer removed. This pillar is stuck rather oddly into the corner of the front yard of No 46, which is perhaps why it is in better shape than the two along the road.
The British Legion are no longer at Kingston Cottage at 44 Beverley Road, which is only locally listed. Also by Lockwood it was built as the Kingston College Lodge. As one of his earliest works it should be listed – at the moment it only has local listing. The college has been so much altered that it would be hard to make out a case for its retention in the lottery funded schemes to rejuvenate the area.
This grand Grade II listed Victorian style pub at 246 Beverley Road is not quite as old as it looks and was built in 1903 in red brick and terracotta designs of architects Freeman, Son & Gaskell to replace an earlier Bull Inn that had been on the site for around a hundred years. It closed around 2010, briefly reopened in 2011 and was converted to flats in 2017. I chose an angle for the picture which left the fine bull outlined on the shadow side of the more austere building on the opposite side of Stepney Lane, Stepney Board School.
Stepney Board School, built in 1886, architect W Botterill is also Grade II listed. Its Queen Anne style lacks the exuberance of the pub which had to attract customers while the school had school attendance officers to keep its numbers up.
Reynoldson St, Hull, 1989 89-8m-26
I think you were never far from a boat in Hull, but relatively few parked theirs outside the front door. I couldn’t remember exactly where I made this, but the next few frames I took were all on or just off Beverley Rd. Fortunately when I posted it on Hull: The good old days on Facebook, I got over 30 replies in the next hour telling me.
I kept only very brief notes while I was taking pictures feeling it a getting in the way of my creative processes. Often I’d done considerable research before going out to take pictures and had a good idea of what I would take photographs of, but there were always other things like this that caught my attention. Usually I could remember something about the when I’d developed the film and made the initial contact print, but not this time.
Still some more pictures from Hull before I returned to London.
River Hull 1989: I always enjoy a walk by the River Hull and back in the 1970s-90s there was always plenty to photograph, though it is rather less interesting now. My problem then was always to drag myself away and move to a different location. If you click on any of these pictures it will take you to a larger image on Flickr and you can then move forward or backward through the whole set I’ve put on-line.
Drypool Bridge, River Hull, Hull, 1989 89-8e-52
Looking upstream from Drypool Bridge you can see an industrial landscape, most of which has now disappeared, as well as several vessels on the river.
River Hull, downstream, Drypool Bridge, Hull, 1989, 89-8e-53
Turning around and looking out towards the Humber this was the view, one that I’d taken many times in earlier years when the river had been far more crowded. At left is the disused entrance to Victoria Dock and further down the Northern Divers building, sand and gravel works, warehouses and the Myton Swing Bridge built in 1979 to take the A63 leading to Hull Docks. Before then the traffic had gone various Hull ring roads and and the decision to put it through here, splitting off the city centre from the old town was something of a disaster for the city.
Burdalen, Ranks, Clarence Mill, River Hull, Hull, 1989 89-8e-43
Rank’s Clarence Mill on the east bank of the river just downstream of Drypool Bridge had introduced improved methods of bulk handling, sucking up grain from barges moored at the jetty on which I was standing to make this picture.
Although the Victoria Docks had closed in 1979, the entrance to them here remained in use as the only place the River Hull was wide enough to swing vessels like this Rix coastal tanker around. It will have gone up forward to the Rix depot a little over a mile away on Wincolmlee, and then come backwards downriver on the tide until here, where it could turn and then proceed forwards to the Humber. I took a whole series of the Burdalen turning and you can see a few more on Flickr.
Drypool Bridge, Clarence Mill, River Hull, Hull, 1989 89-8e-44
Drypool Bridge and North Bridge are both Scherzer Rolling Bascule Bridges with a large counterweight at the left-hand end in my picture and a curved track below that which rolls on rails at ground level. Because of the counterweight relatively little force is needed to raise the bridge to allow river traffic to pass through. River traffic was heavily dependent on the tides, and the bridge always seemed to block road traffic at the most inconvenient times.
When the mill was in use the pipes at the top of the image could be lowered into the holds of the barges moored below.
A riverside walk led north along the east side of the River Hull, though in 1989 it was largely covered by large amounts of scrap iron at the end of the Union Dry Dock on Great Union St, Hull. The Drypool Engineering and Dry Dock Company Limited of Hull had a number of sites around the city and in Selby by went bust in 1976.
Clarence Mill, Joseph Rank’s great flour mill in Hull was rebuilt after wartime damage and was only finally closed in 2005. With the City Council’s usual disregard for Hull’s heritage it was demolished in 2015 to make way for a hotel which was never built. The site was still undeveloped in 2022.
Pipes, Dry Dock, River Hull, Hull, 1989 89-8e-33
More of the scrap metal which partly blocked the riverside path, including a anchor.
And another view of the mills over the pipes at the Union Dry Dock. The closer building is the Shotwell Mill, still standing. Gamebore Cartridges makes shotgun catridges here, and should not be confused with the Hull Cartridge Company Limited who also make cartridges and sporting goods in Bontoft Ave, Hull. I’ve never owned a shotgun and certainly can’t comment on the relative merits.
More pictures from Hull General Cemetery and Princes Avenue that I took on walks in the area in August 1989. You can see more pictures of the cemetery in 1989 at Hull General Cemetery – 1989.
Quaker Burial Ground, Spring Bank West, Hull, 1989 89-8d-42
According to the article by Chris Coulson on the Friends Of Hull General Cemetery web site, the Quakers bought a 999 years lease on a 0.23 acre plot, about 55 yards by 20 yards and burials took place there from 1855 until 1974.
The graves in this plot, still there, include those of many of Hull’s leading Quaker families and include some whose family names gained international recognition for there products including members of the Reckitt family and engineer William Priestman.
The graves in the foreground of my picture have stones recording seven members of the Reckitt family and there are some others in those behind. All except one of the burials and some whose ashes were scattered here have the same simple design for their memorials.
Hull General Cemetery, Spring Bank West, Hull, 1989 89-8d-41
Back in 1989 the cemetery was home to a number of feral cats who I think scrounged for food in the bins and at the back doors of some nearby houses, though I did see (but not photograph) old women bringing scraps into the cemetery for them. The cats generally scrambled away when I approached, but I caught one clinging to the trunk of a tree.
In the background you can see a grassed largely cleared area of the cemetery, then kept mown short by the council.
Fallen Angel, Hull General Cemetery, Spring Bank West, Hull, 1989 89-8d-55
I don’t know what happened to the many headstones that the council removed from the cemetery, though when the work was taking place there were quite a few piles of them and many had been broken as much of the work was done by unskilled and poorly supervised youth labour.
Vandalism continued in the cemetery after the council had done their worst, and many of the more ornate memorials were damaged and some completely destroyed by youths who roamed at night in the unfenced cemetery.
Dr William Atkin Thompson, Ely House, 149, Princes Avenue, Hull, 1989 89-8d-52
Princes Avenue was only a country lane at the start of the nineteenth century and the first significant development on it were the ornate gates of Hull General Cemetery close to Spring Bank West. A few years later the railway branch to the Hornsea and Withernsea lines was constructed with a level crossing across Spring Bank and a station, Cemetery Gates, later called Botanic, opened in 1864. Further down the road, Pearson Park, Hull’s first public park, was opened in 1862.
Dr William Atkin Thompson (1978-1961) qualified at Owens College, Manchester in 1899 and became a GP in Hull in 1907. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1914, and after the war continued in service in the army and later the Territorial Army while also practising in Hull. There is a profile of him on the RAMC in the Great War site. He was one of Hull’s most distinguished doctors, continuing to practice well past normal retirement age.
Houses, Princes Avenue, Hull, 1989 89-8d-65
Princes Avenue was laid out to lead to the Westbourne Park Estate, now known as The Avenues, and opened in 1875, with the houses facing the Park at its north some of the first built on it.
Shops, Princes Avenue, Hull, 1989 89-8d-64
Further south on Princes Avenue most of the development took place between 1890 and 1910, but the cemetery entrance was still on the west side at the southern end. I think these shops are on the long parade south of Welbeck Street which probably dates from around 1900, but those on the corner with Spring Bank West, which later housed one of Hull’s most internationally famous shops, Gwenap, were only added after the cemetery gates were moved to Spring Bank West.
Gwenap is said to have opened in 1903, though it was rather a different business back then and I think may have been in other premises as I think the shop the business occupied until 2013 was probably only built in the 1920s. The windows where it used to be are now of no interest.
Hull – Spurn Lightship & Spring Bank – In August 1989 I went with my family for a week with friends in Scotland and we spent a few days staying at my wife’s family home in Hull on our way there and again on our way home.
Spurn Lightship, Humber Dock, Hull, 1989 89-8c-35
In the 70s and early 80s I’d photographed the city extensively and had exhibited some of this work at the Ferens Art Gallery in the city. I think most of the over 140 pictures in that show are among those I posted online during 2017 when Hull was UK City of Culture – and I added a picture each day throughout that year to my website ‘Still Occupied – A View of Hull‘ – the same title as my show and my self-published book – still available but ridiculously expensive except as a pdf.
Going back to Hull again in 1989 I was still drawn to many of the same places I had photographed in previous years, particularly the docks, the River Hull and the Old Town, and it was sometimes difficult to find anything new to say.
Shop window, Spring Bank, Hull, 1989 89-8c-11
All of these pictures – and many more – are in my Flickr album Hull Black and White.
Phoenix Fitness Centre, Oderma House, 101, Spring Bank, Hull, 1989 89-8c-12
I had taken a bus into the city centre with my family and we had gone to visit the Spurn Lightship which was moored in what was by then Humber Dock Marina. The lightship was opened here as a floating museum by Hull Council in 1983 and has recently been restored and returned to the Marina to a new berth close to the end of the Murdoch’s Connection footbridge, just a few yards west from where it was in 1989. In the top picture in this post one of my sons is looking out of the ship and to his left you can see the tower of Holy Trinity Church, now Hull Minster.
Sunnybank Antiques, Spring Bank, Hull, 1989 89-8c-14
The second picture taken from the lightship is looking towards the City Centre and at Warehouse 6 on the north side of Castle Street at the end of Princes Dock Street. This warehouse survived the demolitions of the 1970s and is now home to an Italian restaurant chain. I found the place excessively noisy when I ate there.
We walked back from the City centre and along Spring Bank. A shop window included the book Batman:The Killing Joke a DC Comics graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland with the Joker using, a Witz camera with a 50mm f1.8 lens – Witz is German for ‘Joke’ . There was also a poster for American rock band Kiss, who were to perform at Donington Park, Castle Donington, Derby in ten days time. They had released their fourteenth studio album Crazy Nights in September 1987.
Houses, Spring Bank, Hull, 1989 89-8d-61
The Phoenix Fitness Centre at 101 Spring Bank is now Victory Socialcare Enterprise providing accommodation for adults requiring nursing or personal care.
Sunnybank Antiques and the St John Ambulance were in Georgian houses dating from around 1820. The St John’s HQ and its attached railings were Grade II listed in 1994.
Even the drainpipes on Eastfield House/Eastfield Villas at 226-8 on the corner with Louis Street are ornate, though you cannot see these in my picture.
As these houses show Spring Bank was once one of Hull’s ‘best’ addresses, but that was long ago, and much has been lost, both by wartime bombing and later developments.
