This is the Zoo Keepers Yard, a fascinating little corner of the city that sat derelict for 30 years before Andrew and Kim from Gomersall Partnership brought it back to life. During restoration, they uncovered all sorts of relics from its past – from an old butter label and a telegram dating back decades, to straw bedding, enamel signs and piles of invoices from the 1940s to the 60s. Each discovery drew them further into the site’s history, revealing layer after layer of stories spanning more than a century.
The site was originally built as a cow keeper’s yard and dairy in the late 1800s, before transforming over the years into everything from taxi garages in the 1920s to a builders’ yard run by the Dalby family for three generations. Today, it’s home to a fireplace factory, stonemason’s yard and sculpture studio, run by award-winning restoration specialists whose work includes Hull Minster and Lincoln Cathedral.
But what makes Zoo Keepers Yard truly unique is its connection to Hull’s long-lost Zoological Gardens, which once stood directly across the street – in what’s now Peel Street Park. The area still holds quiet reminders of the zoo’s past, from the Polar Bear Music Club (named because it lines up with the zoo’s old polar bear pit) to the stones along Spring Bank that mark the route elephants once walked.
Even the house across the road has links to this forgotten era – it once belonged to taxidermist John Seaman, who had the largest collection of taxidermied animals in the region. Sadly, the zookeepers of the time didn’t fully understand how to care for exotic animals, and his services were often needed as a result.
Zoo Keepers Yard is still a private working space, though it occasionally opens to the public for events like Heritage Open Days. If you’re passing by, you can find a plaque on the gate with more information – and a QR code that takes you to a digital brochure telling the story of one of Hull’s most curious hidden landmarks.
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