The last gasp: Hull life during the fishing industry’s death – in pictures

In 1971, photographer Alec Gill began documenting the lives of Hull’s Hessle Road fishing community, as the city witnessed the downturn of its main trade

Main image: ‘I couldn’t resist taking this picture’ … Alec Gill on his shot of a boy in a launderette, taken 30 August 1978. The Alec Gill Hessle Road photo archive can be purchased here. All photography and quotes by Alec Gill. Text by Iranzu Baker

  • Somerset Street, 9 September 1980

    Over 16 years, photographer Alec Gill witnessed the changing landscape of Hull’s Hessle Road and its community. The project began in 1971. Gill drew up a boundary map and stuck to it conscientiously
    A black-and-white photo of two men standing beside a camper van

  • Hessle Road, 17 December 1977

    The photos reveal the city of Hull during a challenging period of change. Gill’s depiction of this vibrant working-class neighbourhood during the decline of its fishing trade and a period of mass housing demolition is a warm representation of the community
    A black-and-white photo of adults with shopping bags and small children standing closely together

  • Halfway Hotel, 22 December 1977

    Gill: ‘Having only 12 shots on one strip of film made me conservative when taking photos, and I mainly used my Rolleicord camera’
    A black-and-white photo of a man and woman sitting at a pub table with drinks

  • William Wright Dry Dock, 11 April 1978

    ‘This is a photograph of freezer trawler the Dane H144 in the William Wright Dock. I must admit to being a bit scared whenever I went down into the deep and ginormous graving dock. I imagined that the leaking lock gates might suddenly burst open wide, and enormous volumes of water would surge. I did not fancy being bashed around in the dock alongside the 1,480-tonne massive Hull trawler’
    A black-and-white photo of a docked trawler shop

  • Hessle Road, 30 August 1978

    ‘Every visit to the fishing community with my camera revealed something surprising, as I meandered around the community. I could not resist taking a photo of this little boy staring out of the launderette window. I am not sure if he was related to the sleeping baby in the pram, but they make a good contrast’
    A black-and-white photo of a child standing beside a washing machine in a launderette, with a baby in a pram just outside the window

  • Carlton Street, 11 December 1977

    Tom Courtenay, actor: ‘In Alec Gill, the fishermen who went out from St Andrew’s Dock, and their attendant spirits, have found an observant and loving chronicler’
    A black-and-white photo of a man and wooman standing either side of a horse

  • Hessle Road, 4 March 1978

    Gill: ‘Sometimes, when I set off on my bike to photograph Hessle Road, I thought of a theme for that session – for example, the fish dock, pubs, corner shops or kids playing on the streets. More often than not, something would happen and I would get distracted by another theme, and that would take up the full afternoon. In this image, I was struck by the gaudy adverts outside this supermarket. It was fortunate that I not only caught these two elderly women listening to the finger-pointing man, but a young girl stepped out of the shop into the bright spring sunlight’
    A black-and-white photo of a man talking to two women outside a shop with large signs advertising special offers

  • The subway, 12 March 1978

    ‘The Kids of Hessle Road was my first-ever solo photo exhibition in 1979. Having grown up playing on the bombed building sites of Hull’s Old Town, I had an affinity with the Hessle Road kids who were growing up as their community was being demolished around them. This is Andrew and his mates playing on the roof of a derelict warehouse near St Andrew’s Dock. I risked going on the flimsy roof to take this picture – but it captures their joy of boyhood’
    A black-and-white photo of young boys playing on the roof of abandoned warhouse

  • Hawthorn Avenue, 20 August 1977

    ‘I was saddened to see more and more community houses being knocked down. Nevertheless, that is what was happening, and I had to adapt to the fluid and changing situation – especially as a documentary photographer. I had a rule to always have someone in shot before taking a photograph. This elderly lady with her shopping bag just happened to pass by the broken window, so I took this one picture, and left the shell of what had once been a family home’
    A black-and-white photo with a view through a building's broken window of a woman walking on the street outside

  • Goulton Street 18 April 1978

    Gill is a meticulous categoriser, whose body of work has become a collection in itself. See his favourite photograph from his archive: Hull fish workers in white wellies and headscarves
    A black-and-white photo of a woman with a small child. The child is holding a placard with the words 'Does kids need glass or grass'

  • Halfway Hotel, 22 December 1977

    Gill: ‘Fishing communities around Britain are noted for their public houses – and this was especially true along Hessle Road. People said “there was a pub on every street corner”. Historically, this was far from true, and it added to the false stereotype of “drunken, brawling fishermen”. This is Albert Hookem who I saw from time to time. Sometimes we had a brief chat. A few years later, I heard that he had died’
    A black-and-white photo of an elderly man wearing a cap, sitting in a pub with a pint

  • Hessle Road, 14 September 1984

    ‘Because of the rag-and-bone dealers in the area, there were a variety of horses around. In September 1984, I saw this lady feeding or stroking the horse, and quickly took this shot. This was during the final years of my photographic study. Just as Hessle Road had evolved and moved on, I had too. The decline of Hull’s historic fishing community and industry seemed a fair time for me to call it a day and so I moved on in my life to pastures new’
    A black-and-white photo of a woman stroking a horse on the street
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