People tend to forget what a sh*thole the old bus station area was like despite a couple of decent pubs in the area. ABC, the YEB building, fine in themselves but what could be done with them that included upgrading the bus station? The land that was Northern Dairies was derelict for years even though the office was still functional if anyone want's pictures of the before and afters sort of thing then I will post them.
Having been directly involved with a tenant of two of the shops, I'm well aware of the issues regarding the leaking roof and the costs involved in renovating the existing buildings. The cost of renovation was 50% higher than the cost of demolition and rebuild. Personally, I think it was worth the extra cost, it's now a bland street with tenants that may well leave when their leases expire, just as they have on King Edward Street.
I was alluding to things like this: Victorian aesthetes apart, there can have been few 19th-century homemakers more passionate about ceramic decoration than Hull builder David Reynard Robinson. Many of his gloriously tiled buildings in Hull have sadly been demolished, including his own offices in Freehold Street, but his piece de resistance - the curious house he built for his retirement in the coastal village of Hornsea, Yorkshire - survives. Calling the house Farrago, Robinson used every surface, inside and out, to experiment with multi-coloured, multi-textured tiles of every available type. Since he died in 1913, his effusive ceramic memorial has been desecrated. The task of undoing the damage has tested tile restorers to their limits. http://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/mosaic-effects-1343916.html The house and workshop referred to (Freehold Street) was demolished in order to put up shoddy council houses. The council didn't want to know about it - it was 'in the way' and, also, the philistines who ran the council at that time had no knowledge of Robinson's work. He did a lot of pub. work in Hull and built Beverly Road Baths and, I think, the City Hall. The city council cared not one ****!
Here's an example of David Reynard Robinson's work (and I bet most of us have had a drink in there): http://www.heritagepubs.org.uk/pubs/national-inventory-entry.asp?PubID=357 And this, I think, was another of his: http://www.wheresbest.co.uk/venue/65078/Dairycoates-Inn/
If my old memory serves me well, the Empress was a Moors & Robson's pub; DRR did his work for Hull Brewery as far as I can make out. Still, the Empress is a beaut, but I think I've only been in it twice in my life. http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/30/30915/Empress/Hull
As of yet all is not lost in the city center as far as fine old buildings are concerned. I'm limited to 5 pictures, pity really.
A fair few posts on here are really beginning to annoy me a bit. There's nothing I'd love more than to see my home city genuinely be classed as a top ten city but that is unlikely to happen when people moan about buildings "ruining a view". This is bollocks! As it stands right now, Hull is 40-50 years behind cities such as (dare I say it) L**ds, Manchester and Birmingham and the like. All of these places at one point had just one tall building but look at them now. Hull desperately needs companies to invest in it and this has got f*** all chance of happening when the first thing some folk say is "as long as your building isn't taller than 10 storeys". We're stuck in the dark ages. I say "Bring it on!".
Agreed we must move on but most of the cities you mention also have areas of fine old buildings for which they are justifiably proud.
Yes - and Hull was always a 'low-rise' city, because of the problems inherent in piling into boulder clay/alluvial mud (with no rock strata beneath) Technology now allows for upward development of phallic boasts, so: let's go!
I read somewhere a few weeks ago that companies will be buying land in Hull whilst it's still cheap, before the Siemens thing. We can't turn them down, and for instance at the new Anlaby Retail Park, there were three shops empty and three full(M&S Food, Argos, Next) and since the Siemens development I was told that now an Asda Living, Pets at Home and one unnamed store are moving in. It maybe on the outskirts of the city but it can only improve the city, let's hope for some more skyscrapers!
Size isn't everything There are thousands of cities worldwide full of skyscrapers and highrises, where people live like sad rabbits- ex USSR and China for example. Most of the pleasanter and affluent European cities have elegant old apartment blocks (with preservation orders on the facades but state of the art modern interiors) and that is where the wealthy want to live usually in the centre of town Very few wish to live in high rise modern developments because people value and pay for 'provenance' and 'character' and 'location' rather than height. Apart from alluvial clay and a council of ****s, we are chiefly held up by our isolation which struggles to attract investment to a region with sparse population and not noted for its affluence. Instead of competing with Birmingham and Manchester, we should be studying Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Malmo etc and see how they make those places desirable and attractive.
Lets get this planning thing into some perpsective - the Council are not the investors here they merely decide whether or not to support a planning application and even then there are stringent guidelines as to what they can and can't do/object to. Should any developer feel rough justice has been handed out they wil merely appeal and the Governemnt Inspector will decide. As for 'tall' buildings they would be piled in Hull without doubt due to the clayey nature of the subsoil and the fact that the chalk strata is 60 feet down - bit like London and it hasn't stopped tall buildings being built there. I don't personally want to see Hull become a skyscraper city - just one or two tall iconic structures. Leeds has crammed high rise into a small space in their city centre with its rebirth as a regional fianancial centre and has come in for some real local criticism as a result. The Old Town is a jewel in Hull's crown and has been recognised nationally as such - the Council should at least be applauded for 'assisting' in this. PS I don't get this Birmingham or Manchester comparison - they are much bigger cities/conurbations and as a result attract a different level of investment. Both places generally as far as I'm concerned (after visiting the likes of St Andrew,s the Hawthorns, Villa Park, Salford, Eastlands et al in recent years) just convince me that Hull is far more attractive as a city.
That's a great picture Dazzar. Yeah I live in Warehouse 13, can see it on the end of that row of warehouses. That of course is now is the car park for this building and and row of newer flats. It looks so bustling there. Most of the things have completely changed or gone, but here and there something sticks out as looking exactly the same. The outside of warehouse 13 is still the same now, it's just on its own. Strange to think that the quiet place I live used to be such an important, busy port back in the day.
In this day and age it is so easy to gut the inside of a property and keep the old facade. A lack of imagination by dullards sees the easy option taken the majority of times. Hitler started it and various councillors have finished the job, leaving Hull with very little in the way of historic property - Lowgate, High Street, Chapel Bishop and Scale Lane, Silver Street, Holy Trinity. Very sad for a town/city our size.
