OT - Hull Town Hall

Never wanting to take away from the suffering endured during the Blitz on Hull , i was trying to show the amount of destruction our very own council managed without fair reason .
Especially considering the empty sites STILL available from the war . . .

I wanted to also mention the old Warehouses on little Castle street and Mytongate . . some of which are grass footprints , the land wasnt even re-used :/

 

OLM, I can now tell my two kids they are famous, they were both born in the same building as you.

 

If it wasn't for the war and varied councils, this City would be a beautiful place . Don't get me wrong, I was born and bred here and i'm lucky enough to live in the Old Town and love 'Ull.
On my Facebook there's a group called ''Hull: The good old days'' There's some great old photos of the old 'Ull on there.

 

With city status brought the requirement for larger courts, which is why it was knocked down and replaced with the current Guildhall. The town hall was designed by Cuthbert Brodrick who won a design competition to have it built. I think I remember reading that he was an apprentice at the time at another architects firm (located at what is now one half of Brown's Books).

He went on to design Scarborough's Grand Hotel, Leeds Town Hall, Leeds Corn Exchange and what is now Leeds City Museum. His two main buildings in Hull - both gone. The town hall (demolished), and The Royal Institute (pictured) on Albion St (bombed by the luftwaffe)

 

What building is that?

I was born in Hedon Road hospital which was demolished I believe, but I have no idea what it looked like.

Edit: A quick Google tells me it is the very same.

 

Yaay. I knew I wasn't going bonkers.

It's an odd twist of fate that the wealth brought to Hull through the port meant we could replace our slums with new buildings, but poverty stricken York had to make do and mend. That's why they've still got the old buildings that brings so much income from tourists.

 

A Council can be blamed for lots of things but it is not the Council that demolish or redevelop sites it is Developers in the widest context.

A building's use changes, falls into disrepair, developers seek planning permission to redevelop the site - their role as local planning authority is limited - force a change of design yes ( the 25 storey hotel near the Deep for example) but there's only so many times you can do this before the developer gets pissed off and appeals and its then down to the Government Inspector not the Council to approve or not.

The Council for all its faults would love to knock down the Edwin Davis building for example and has now allocated a sum of money to CPO and tidy up some sites in the City but this budget is severely limited.

 

...and the view today:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=pa...NxVJ1d3AfFShiWExyUgOA&cbp=12,122.09,,0,-12.03

They've even managed to make the crap 60s block in your original pic look even crapper. The Portland Hotel isn't a terrible building, but the Imperial Hotel had a classy looking facade - don't have a clue what state it was in when demolished though.

Funnily enough, the Portland Hotel is being converted into student accommodation now.

 

It's ridiculous that they demolished the Mail Buildings then replaced it with a cheaper-looking replica of the buildings they'd just demolished!

It was damaged by bombing, but think I remember reading it wasn't beyond repair, but demolished it anyway.

 

It was still a hospital in the 60's..

 

It certainly was and bloody grim it was too...

 

How come that old cinema down Bev Road hasn't been demolished yet?

If they're going to keep it standing the council should at least make use of it- an indictation of what the Blitz was like on Hull for school kids maybe.

 

Whilst as many have said a lot of old Hull has gone, but we are lucky the Old Town survived - not many cities have such a jewel in their crown.

 

Buildings can be renovated though - much better to renovate than demolish and replace with something that looks cheap, nasty and dated not long after it is built.

 

Not to mention the masses of Georgian town houses that the council demolished around the market place junction to make way for Castle St.

It's quite telling that it seems Hull City Council has had it's fingers in the pies of demolition companies throughout history.

 

Again it's not the Council's property - its currently owned by a developer from the NE who recently sought planning to incorpoarte the front of the old cinema into a small flats complex and incorpoarte this in to a restaurant in the Swan PH next door.

A 'preservation society' (forget who) objected to this and any proposal other than the one thay wanted and it continues to rumble on.

The Council along with every Council in the country at the moment is severely strapped for cash for public services let alone capital ventures suh as this..

 

...and WWII of course - From a programme I watch on TV about Yorkshire during the Blitz, it seemed Leeds and York were barely touched. York only seemed to get bombed a few times around the train station area. At least that's what the programme made out.