“When I started this project in 1977, Hull was in the throes of a massive redevelopment, with many inner city areas being bulldozed and instant slums being created on its outskirts. It seemed to have learnt nothing from the mistakes I had fought against during the previous decade in inner-city Manchester, and to be a city that had turned its back on its heritage, which as I hope these pictures show, I had come to cherish.
– Peter Marshall on his project Still Occupied
Still Occupied, Vogue, Closed Shop, Argyle St, Hull, 1980
We’ve features Peter’s photographs of Hull in the English county of Yorkshire on the site before. They show us Hull in colour in the 1980s. Now we’re taking another walk around the place in the 1980s, looking at the city’s shops and the goods on offer.
Yorkshire TV Souvenirs, Anlaby Rd, Hull, 1988
I first went to Hull in the mid 1960s to meet my future parents-in-law, and it felt in many ways like going back in time. Hull seemed very cut off from the rest of the country, a place few visited, still very much in an immediate post-war English mode while the rest of the country had moved on…
I started making an extended study of the city of Kingston upon Hull in 1977, when Hull was in the throes of a massive redevelopment, with many inner city areas being bull-dozed and instant slums being created on its outskirts. It was a process I had been active in opposing in Hulme and Moss Side in Manchester in the previous decade, and it pained me to see the same mistakes being repeated here.
World Championship Three Piece Suite, Snooker, Hessle Rd, Hull, 1981 The World Championship Three Piece Suite, with a settee that ‘easily converts into a snooker table
Trippetts for Gloves & Hosiery, Railway Houses, Londesborough Street, Hull, 1981
Treasure Chest, 228, Beverley Rd, Hull, 1989
The Fish Hole, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989
Stationers, Paragon St, Hull, 1981
Shop window, Spring Bank, Hull, 1989
Royal Wedding Window Display, Church St, Hull
A shop door at No 95 almost certainly on Greek St, on the corner of Carlton Villas. The shop was closed, possibly for good and seemed rather in need of the repair which was stated to be its speciality. Most of this area was demolished around 2012, but few of the streets were long enough to have a No 95 on them.
Refeshments, Hornsea, 1984
Practical Motorist, 167, Spring Bank, Hull, 1989
Phoenix Fitness Centre, Oderma House, 101, Spring Bank, Hull, 1989
Shades, Southwells, Floggits, 359-363, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989
Park Pet Stores, Walton St, Hull, 1979
Norwegian jumpers, West Dock Ave, Hull, 1981
Midland Cafe, Midland St, Hull, 1981
Mayfair, Unisex Salon, Hairdressers, May St, Beverley Rd, Hull, 1989
My contact sheet places this building on Holderness Road, but it wasn’t and I think was actually on WItham, a little closer to the city centre. If so, the site is now one end of a newer buidling from the 1990s of Hull City Council offices.
Humberside Majorettes, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989
Hull Truss & Surgical Co, Dock St, Hull, 1982
Garage, Oxford St, Wincolmlee, Hull, 1988
Fresh Meat, Beverley Rd, Hull, 1989
Free Form Enterprise, Hull, 1987
East Hull Hairdressing Salon, Church St, Hull, 1982
E S Webster, shop, Walton St, Hull, 1979
E E Sharp & Sons Ltd, Sail Makers & Ship Chandlers, High St, Hull, 1982
Dark Birds Eye, tobacconist’s window, Anlaby Rd, Hull, 1981
Country Butcher, Clip Joint, Newbridge Trophy Centre, 142-6, New Bridge Rd, Hull, 1989
Coco’s Restaurant, Carr Lane, Hull
Bush, Opticians, 337 Holderness Road, Hull, 1989
Bob Carver’s Fish Bar, Market Square, Hull 1979
Binnington, Hairdresser, Tobacconist, Beverley Rd, Hull, 1989
Bentley’s Snowflake Laundry was a family firm established in Hull in 1890, becoming a private limited company in 1917 and changing its name to Bentleys Industrial Services Ltd in 1979. It became one of the UK’s leading commercial laundry companies. The company, with large works on Harrow St and 140 employees, was sold up in 2005 with its three divisions being sold separately to different laundry operators.
Bandbox, Dansom Lane, Holderness Rd, Hull, 1989
Air Whistles, Great Union St, Hull, 1981
This row of small shops at 159-163 Holderness Road just to the east of Courtney St was demolished around 2010
All photos by Peter Marshall.
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