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A piece of Britain that shall forever remain foreign |
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Living memory
Following the First World War, and the introduction of quotas on the number of immigrants from each country to America, Britain’s role as a conduit for transmigrants declined. The Emigrant Waiting Room that had once served poor Aliens on a Monday or Wednesday morning was increasingly used on a weekend as a separate part of the main railway station, where poor people living in Hull could board trains used for weekend excursions to the nearby ports of Hornsea, Bridlington or Scarborough.
In the 1850s, one of Hull's emigrant agents, Richard Cortis, operated from the offices above the busy Minerva Public House
© Courtesy of Ian Britton, freefoto.com |
Later, as the motor vehicle provided everyone with the opportunity to travel independently, the building was used by the railway company as a social club for its staff until the building was closed in 1999.
In 2003 the building was refurbished as its location again made it viable for the temporary sheltering, this time for those ‘immigrants’ visiting the newly erected football stadium. Though stripped of its original layout, access to this important site in emigrant history is, once again, possible. For those leaving the main Paragon Railway Station, the separate railway platform and its emigrant waiting room can be seen to the extreme left of the railway station as one travels out of Hull on the transpennine railway service that once conveyed emigrants on their way to transatlantic ocean liners. A living memory to the millions who spent time there on their way to a better life.
Words: Nicholas J. Evans
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