In this Hull then and now I’m standing in the road on Spring Bank where it meets with the southern end of Princes Avenue looking west towards the buildings on the corner of Princes Avenue and Spring Bank West.
This was a very tricky one to recapture as Spring Bank is a very busy road so I had to take my “now” photo at 7am on a Sunday.
In the 1951 view you can see the Botanic Level crossing (Spring Bank) with the gates closed to road vehicles with loco shunting carriages towards Botanic Gardens Railway Station. Three cyclists waiting for the loco to pass so they can ride on.
Botanic Railway station was located where the Old Zoological pub is located today, a pub which for a decade starting in 2014 was called Pearsons.
The railway line here is the former Hull to Hornsea railway line (NER).
The loco 69796 was a Class A6, built in 1916 and in use on this line from 1947 to March 1953, dismantled in April 1953.
Hull Botanic Gardens Railway station opened on 1 June 1853, by the North Eastern Railway, and was originally
known as Hull Cemetery. It closed to passengers in November 1854, before being
reopened and renamed Hull Cemetery Gates in September 1866. It was renamed Hull
Botanic Gardens on 1 November 1881, and remained thus until final closure on 19th October 1964 when the services to Hornsea and
to Withernsea ceased, but remained open for goods until the 6th September 1965 and the line (to Victoria Dock) survived until 1968.
You may be wondering why the station was called “Hull Cemetery” and “Hull Cemetery Gates” for 28 years, where those three storey Victorian buildings
are on Princes Ave today once stood a gated entrance and lodge to Hull General cemetery which you can see today running down Spring Bank, this was demolished and those shops built on the site, around that time would be when the station name changed to Botanic Gardens.
The station was named after the former Hull Botanical Gardens, which were located opposite the station until their closure in 1889. The gardens site is
now the location of Hymers College.
The signal box and footbridge over the railway was located just to the left of the 1951 view, today this site is the lorry yard for Jacksons bakery.
All the three storey Victorian buildings on Princes Avenue still present in the 2025 view.
The shop on the left was Duggleby’s toy shop, they also had a shop in the bus station. Duggleby’s was a very popular toy shop with models, train sets and bikes etc.
To the left of Duggleby’s was Reg Stevens cycle shop.
Hope you liked my then and now video, do you have any memories of this area ?
Photo A taken : Summer 1951 by Keith Parker
Photo B taken : 27th July 2025
Time elapsed : 74 years
Past & Present – in fading Photographs.
High quality resolution fading photos showing local scenes as they were and how they are today from exactly the same view point. Then and now, Now and then, Past and Present, Old and New, Before and After. Call it what you want, just try one and see the effect!
The presentations you can see here are the result of many hours of work put in by myself ensuring that the old and new photographs line up precisely, I don’t publish any if I’m not 100% happy with the match.
http://www.derbyphotos.co.uk/thenandnow/
Please note that the Then & now section on my website is currently in need of a revamp as they were all created back in 2005 using Flash and this is no longer supported so I will have to recreate all of my work again using a different method. In the meantime I’m publishing them on my YouTube channel like this one.
Best viewed on a large computer screen or smart TV as this is recorded in 4K resolution with great music so a real waste watching it on a small phone screen. Did you know you can cast it to your smart tv from the YouTube app?
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Music Credits :
‘The Restoration’ by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
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Thanks
Andy
3 Comments
Great match-up once again of the 2 photo's. The Zoological pub was named because of a Zoo across the road. Hull the Good Old Days Facebook site will have more info. I googled and got this info -> "In 1840, the city of Hull was welcomed to the opening of a new and most exotic attraction the Zoological Gardens! At the northern end of Spring Bank and set out in 7 acres of land, the gardens were home to lions, tigers, kangaroos, eagles, owls and monkeys. Most famously, they also housed polar bears and an elephant" .
I think the entrance was were those buildings are now. When I was younger I would have travelled through that station and I remember when there was a traffic policeman where those lights are now.
A lot of history for one site in a relatively short period. Nicel dome Amdy. 👏
Why did it all have to change for the worse? 😢