Town and Trade of Hull

The waterfront of Kingston Upon Hull is testament to its history as a major shipping port. 

It comprises a series of Dock Basins and Quays which in the majority remain in some form of maritime use to the present day. 

In its halcyon days there will have been large warehouses and other buildings associated with freight and the movement of livestock and some 2.1 million in number of immigrants arriving from Europe for an onward journey to the New World. 

Hull was also home to a large trawling and whaling fleet operating in the harsh and dangerous North Sea and Arctic Waters. 

The Hull Dock Company were the driving force behind the development of their 410 acres of land and 124 acres of basins on the waterfront and their proactive and sometimes ruthless commercial approach was a matter of, jointly, admiration and detestation amongst those in competitive or dependent businesses. 

In their time they brought to Hull the wealth and status of a Port and through investment of £3,537,909 from the late 18th Century a legacy of 8 Docks, 2 Graving Docks (Dry Docks), 3 timber ponds and many buildings was created. 

The first venture was the opening of Queens Dock in September 1778, engineered by John Grundy, at a cost of £64588 (without quays). Funding was through an issue of Shares with a take up of the issue by those with a vested interest being Hull Corporation, Trinity House and Charterhouse. 

The ceremony was a great affair with attendance by Mr Joseph Outram the Lord Mayor and with the first ship through the lock gates, The Manchester which was a Greenland Whaler followed by Favourite with dignatories and the well-to-do on board. Soldiers provided a volley of muskets accompanied by cannon volleys from the shoreside defences. 

The new docks proved popular with shipowners and merchants and a surplus of trade justified the construction of The Humber Dock in 1809 at the huge cost for that time of nearly a quarter of a million pounds. 

This was followed within 20 years by Junction or later called Princes Dock costing £165033 which formed an interconnecting series with Queens and Humber Docks. The design criteria was extended from merchant ships to be able to take 50 guns Men O'War vessels. 

In 1846 at a cost of £123314 the Railway Dock was built to allow freight and other traffic to be brought to and taken from the Docks for global distribution. 

Four years later the Victoria Dock provided a facility for trade in timber and cattle and with a later extension at a combined investment of nearly £600000. 

Continued success in the town  and trade which were seen as indivisible saw, in 1869, the Albert Dock built in 1869 at over one million pounds and the Wright Dock by 1880. 

The last two decades of the 19th Century was a busy time on the waterfront and in 1883 St Andrews Doc was opened having cost £414707 and with Number 1 and 2 Graving or Dry Docks over the three years from 1880. 

Of course global trade and trading routes have changed dramatically even in my own lifetime and Queens Dock, St Andrews Dock and what was called Junction Dock and latterly Princes Dock proved obsolete in the 20th Century to become public open space and the location of a shopping centre and retail park respectively. 

You can still see architectural features of the infilled basins such as huge dressed stones which formed the quayside and moorings many having great tales to tell as an integral part within the heritage of Hull.