Former Hull Hydraulic Power Company premises

TA0929SE 680-1/18/247

KINGSTON UPON HULL CATHERINE STREET (East side) Former Hull Hydraulic Power Company premises

07/03/91

II Former works of the Hull Hydraulic Power Company, now a workshop.1875. By Henry Robinson of London. Red brick with blue brick dressings and rendered plinth.

Single storey; 4x2 windows. Windows are round-arched cast-iron glazing bar casements. Right return has a blocked door to left and a window to right. There is no separate roof, the whole building acting as support for a sectional cast-iron tank which is inscribed "Stacey Davis & Co., Phoenix Foundry, Derby". In operation, water was pumped from the River Hull into the roof tank where it was allowed to settle. It was then raised to pressure by steam pumps and supplied by underground pipes to consumers.

Hydraulic power was frequently used in the oil-extracting industry and for firefighting. This undertaking was the first of its kind to be established by Act of Parliament in the UK. It was also Hull's first public utility. At its fullest extent, c1900, the system supplied about two-hundred consumers as far away as the Old Harbour. The operating company closed down in 1947.

Hydraulic power companies operated in a similar way in a number of cities in the late C19, notably in London and Manchester.

(Exhibit in Yorkshire Water Museum, Springhead, Hull; Plaque on building placed by City Council).

Listing NGR: TA0996029488