Street Wise

Cranbrook Avenue in Hull is quite unique.

It is a residential street of terraced houses, yellow brick and two storey bay fronted in a dead straight alignment on a north-south axis. What is most remarkable is the authentic appearance of the properties, faithful to the date of their construction in 1905 , well apart that is from a few double glazed windows but even these are in sympathetic style.

For the past few decades the street has been in the single ownership of the University of Hull and managed by them as shared student residences. This has spared the housing stock from the usual assault by individual owners striving to create an individual style. In other nearby roads this has led to the demolition and removal of the bay elevations in a bid to save on repair and maintenance, gawdy medieval effect stone claddings, the unnecessary overpainting of the hardy yellow brickwork in reds, lilacs, mint greens and lemons (not quite Tobermory) and even, in one extreme case where the front living room had been converted into a garage.

Standing on the west side pavement and looking south along the clean and uniform frontages I can easily imagine what the street would have looked like just after the houses were built, a decade before the first world war.

In late August 2012 however, the street is quiet and empty as it is that period of armistice between the end of an academic year and in anticipation of the arrival of the new intake of fresh faced students. Parking bays usually congested with vehicles are completely clear again harking back to the pre-war period of a traffic free suburb, apart from a privileged few car owners, commercial and public transport.

The forecourts still retain the low dressed stonework which would have been resplendent in iron railings before their requisitioning for scrap in the second world war.

I walk along the street and enjoy the neat arrangement of the houses, pleasing to the eye and no doubt a prestigious purchase and address for the middle class population which was finding relative prosperity in Hull in the early years of the 20th Century.

The front rooms, the Parours reserved for Best and Sunday use are however a scene of great activity.

Furniture, assembled or part flat pack is piled up in successive bay recesses. Mattresses in plastic wrappings are slumped against the inner walls and through a few of the open front doors there are long cardboard tubes of contract carpets .

As I pass by the hallways there are the sounds of hammering, a hissing and release of steam from wallpaper strippers, a strong smell of gloss paint and the unmistakable odour of mould and dampness.

After a couple of months of hibernation the houses are being refurbished systematically in order to impress the parents of new students with clean, functional form and amenities.A comfortable and safe place for their precious children.  The same procedure takes place every year as tight weave carpets are scuffed and stained durig the 48 week academic term , paintwork is pockmarked by blu-tac residues and the black mould returns to its natural habitat on ceilings and amongst the grouting of wall tiles in kitchens and bathrooms.

Pastel shades, laminate and wainscot boarding are the favoured finishes in inoffensive neutrality.

The houses take some effort to be restored to adequate standard and their economic use is constantly under review by the University Property Department. Four to five students per house do generate a good level of income but the Corporate Companies who have the ear of the Government are encouraging the development of huge complexes of purpose built apartments in student areas to the detriment of traditional houses.

Spreadsheets and Investors may sound the death knell for the neat terraced blocks which have otherwise survived the ravages of time, weathering, bombing, town planners and the inner pages of the Readers Digest Book of Home Improvements.