Saskia Tideman - Turning tides for Hull’s waterfront

This research explored Hull’s relationship with its historic docklands in past, present and future. To do so, I investigated what has become of Hull’s docks which no longer have an industrial purpose and how Maritime Industrial Heritage sites are integrated in Hull’s cultural regeneration.

A year following the submission of my dissertation, the research was published in the European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes:

Hull’s Maritime Industrial Heritage: Sites of Debated Value and Conflicting 21st- Century Port-City Mindsets. Case Analysis and Suggested Learnings.

Above : Photo by Author, 2020.

Below : Marshall, Peter. 1981. St Andrew’s Dock and Humber Bridge. http://hullphotos.co.uk/images/4-docks/27o13.html.

The story of Hull’s docklands is an endless struggle to keep up with industrial ambitions which came to a sudden halt due to a perfect storm of circumstances. Since, the city has retreated from its waterfront, struggling to re-use docks whose industrial purpose disappeared. This thesis set out to understand the city’s relationship with its Maritime Industrial Heritage, by questioning how deindustrialised docklands were re-used and whether Hull’s cultural regeneration features a fair representation of Maritime Industrial Heritage. If Hull’s docks are regenerated without considering wider social, economic and urban ramifications, this priceless cultural asset risks dereliction and misuse.

Diagrammatic evolution of Hull’s Waterfront from the middle-ages to today.

[Data obtained from Ordnance Survey GIS databases and Historic maps.]

Hollar, Wenceslas, c.1640, Hull Defenses. https://hollar.library.utoronto.ca/islandora/object/hollar%3AHollar_k_0957

Bellway Homes. c.1990, The New Riverside Village In The Heart Of Hull. Hull History Centre.

The study of archival sources, press and academic papers provided a nuanced understanding in Hull’s Maritime Industrial Heritage while fieldwork and photography have provided insight into their current condition. Research on the topics of cultural regeneration, waterfront redevelopment and industrial heritage supplied a context on the basis of which Hull’s relation with its Maritime Industrial Heritage could be appraised.

Evolution of Hull’s docks, original drawing by author, 2020.

Graphic representation of data which enables the identification of trends and factors influencing the likelihood of dock re-use. The infographic represents both space and time, demonstrating how the location and age of a dock influences its fate: the oldest, most central docks were all made redundant and re-purposed for leisure and cultural uses, while the more recent docks retained their industrial uses.

Here, the life of a dock begins slanted, with its construction. Upon completion, the dot indicates the beginning of the industrial use of the dock. In the case of historic docklands, a second dot indicates the permanent end of such activities, followed by which a second slanted phase begins. During its redundancy, the dock lies in limbo. On most occasions, this phase is terminated by a new form of use, indicated by the horizontal continuation.

Left : Town Docks of Kingston Upon Hull, Victoria Dock with timber yard in Kingston upon Hull, & St. Andrews Dock in Kingston upon Hull, England, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, 1942.

Right : Google Maps satellite photo of Hull Marina, Victoria Park, & St Andrew’s Dock, Google, n.d.

From Top Left to Bottom Right : Victoria Dock, Attendant’s Office for Filling of Victoria Dock, Site of Earle’s Shipbuilding & Engineering works, and Half Tide Basin and entrance locks. Photos by Peter Marshall, 1982.

This thesis finds that Hull has always entertained an ambivalent relationship with its Maritime Industrial Heritage. This ambivalence suggests a bias against heritage associated with less desirables images of the past, and this selectiveness affects both the choice of Maritime Industrial Heritage which is curated, as well as the manner in which it is presented. While most post-industrial docks have been reused, their portrayal of maritime heritage is caricatural and romanticised. Hull’s fish dock, however, was never developed due to the different stakeholder views of the sites’ role in place-memory.

Above : Visual of the North End Ship Yard, Hull City Plan, n.d.

Below : Work beings on the North End Shipyard site. Original photo by author, 2020.

This thesis finds that Hull’s nascent ambitions to improve its city-destination potential following its nomination as City of Culture in 2017, still fail to present a nuanced vision of the city’s maritime past. This has led to urban amnesia, whereby the built testimony of the fishing industry is disappearing. This thesis finds that tourism, due to its requirement for simplified maritime narratives, cannot ensures the safeguarding of Hull’s disappearing Maritime Industrial Heritage. This thesis concludes that a new model of community-based redevelopment is needed to retain and protect Hull’s contentious Maritime Industrial Heritage sites.