Great Union St | >Re-PHOTO

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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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, Great Union St,, 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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Tag: Great Union St

More from East Hull 1989

Great Union St, Hedon Rd & Popple Street