32m64: Wharf & Hull Exhaust Centre, Bankside,
1982 - River Hull
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A view of Hull
Still Occupied
Images on this site are arranged into rough areas by location as in my book 'Still Occupied', available on Blurb. Eventually this site will contain all the images in that book and more.
The picture was taken where Bankside swings away from the River Hull, around the large paint factory and between it and the gas works. The wharf was in good condition but appeared to no longer be in use. A bend in the river means that this view is loooking roughly east. Hull Exhaust Centre is still here, but the all of the buildings framed inside the metal arch have gone.
Those at the left were part of the paint factory, now all gone, and there is now a new road, Innovation Drive which runs past the the left edge of the newer shed beyond the arch which is now the only building of the Exhaust Centre; the wharf is now a car park.
Paint was produced in Hull at least as early as the 1730s by Joseph Pease and there was a significant breakthrough in 1791 when John Kirkby Picard began the manufacture of white lead, previously imported from Holland (though made from lead mined in Derbyshire) in Lowgate. The paint industry flourished in Hull from the early 19th century with famous names including Sissons Bros (established 1803) and Henry Blundell (1811).
Paint manufacturers Storry Smithson & Co Ltd and Sissons Bros & Co built factories along Bankside around 1830, but later the whole area became Sissons works. Largely destroyed by wartime bombing their new factory was built in a 1930s style and opened in 1953. The works closed around 1990 and were demolished in 1994, with the loss of the building and its famous trademark mural showing two painters carrying a plank a typical example of the failure to conserve the city's heritage.
You can read more about Hull's paint industry (and more) at www.paulgibson.com. Though no longer active in the UK, the Sisson's name is still important in paint in the Caribbean, Far East and elsewhere.
Peter Marshall
01784 456474