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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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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