Our repurposed dock correspondent Angus Young discovers what discolours the water and what lurks therein.
As regular Curiositeers will know, the bed of clay Hull happens to sit on is largely responsible for the colour of much of the water flowing in and around it. A notable exception to this distinctly brown soup is Princes Dock.
Originally named Junction Dock when it opened in 1829, this rectangular slab of water means lots of things to different generations. If you were around before 1968 you will probably remember it being full of ships.
After that, the dock went into a period of hibernation only briefly interrupted by Francis Daly’s thwarted plan to berth the former Humber ferry Lincoln Castle in the dock outside his Waterfront nightclub – it ended up on Hessle Foreshore instead.
Then, in 1991, American mall-style shopping arrived in Hull in the shape of Princes Quay. Perched on stilts above the dock, the shopping centre under the colourful leadership of long-serving manager Mike Killoran ushered in a new retail era for the city centre until the Internet came along with other ideas up its sleeve on how we were going to shop in the future.
When Princes Quay opened it was surrounded by brackish water originally from the Humber. However, with the dock now sealed off from neighbouring Humber Dock and ultimately tidal flows from the estuary it relied on rainfall to maintain its levels. The brackish water attracted lots of algae which provided an ideal breeding ground for flies. For a while, they became a big problem for the shopping centre.
To resolve this algae-munching fish were introduced and in 2010 another 1,000 new fish were added to boost what has now become an established pastime in the city centre – feeding the fish at Prinny Quay. The new carp, rudd and golden orfe introduced to the eight-metre deep waters joined an already established colony of eels lurking in the depths. Fifteen years on, some have grown into sizeable creatures.
As well as the fish, algae growth in the dock is also contained by the use of a dye called Dyofix which adds the now familiar shade of blue to the water we see today.
Thanks to the passing of time, the hidden contents of the dock itself remain something for a mystery. Aside from litter-clearing and occasional maintenance work to the dock walls, no-one really knows what lies on the dock floor. There is almost certainly plenty of debris from the construction of Princes Quay but my favourite story on this is the urban legend that an abandoned car – said to be a Talbot Sunbeam – lurks somewhere beneath the surface having been deposited there sometime in the 1980s.
If you know the owner, we’d love to hear how and why it ended up in a watery grave.