THE ANLABY ROAD

Walker Street

Walker Street shared the same junction on Anlaby Road as Great Thornton Street. It was named after James Walker of Sand Hutton near Beverley, and later of Lairgate, Beverley, who owned the land on which it was built. The street was developed from 1830, but not built upon until the 1840s, and by 1849 it was still “only half built upon”. Plans in the Hull City Archives indicate it was still being developed in the 1860s, and mostly at the Anlaby Road end.

The Zion Wesleyan Chapel was built in Walker Street around 1855, but was replaced by a chapel in Campbell Street in 1866, and was then registered by another denomination. The Independent Methodists held it from 1871-76 and it was taken over again in 1881, as a Zion Calvinist chapel. It was in use until at least 1930 and had seating for just 250. The shared junction of Great Thornton Street and Walker Street has now been re-named Icehouse Road.

Beyond the junction with Great Thornton Street the Anlaby Road widened, probably illustrating the need for more traffic space as the road developed. Historian Edmund Wrigglesworth, writing in 1890, note : -

“The Anlaby Road here broadens out, and from the elegant houses and mansions which line its sides, and the quality of its foliage, presents a striking picture of modern street landscape”.

One line of “elegant houses and mansions” running west from the junction of Great Thornton Street and Walker Street, was named Coburg Terrace (sometimes shown as Coburg Place). This terrace was constructed earlier than the buildings nearer the town, to the east, and was laid out c.1820. Coburg Terrace ran from Great Thornton Street to what later became De Grey Terrace (see below). It initially consisted of eight houses, with front and rear gardens; the front gardens were almost certainly lost when Anlaby Road was widened here, between 1860 and the 1880s. It is possible that the whole terrace was rebuilt to a more uniform appearance at that time. Coburg Terrace suffered a direct hit in 1941, during World War Two, and was demolished by 1946.

Download the 1872-1873 Buchanan Trade Directory entry for Walker Street

Walker Street, No. 87, 1910​.​

Walker Street, No. 87, 1910.

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