[Our chairman, Howard Greaves writes:]
I’ve always had a soft spot for Grimsby as I’ve got a lot of family there and fondly remember childhood family holidays at nearby Cleethorpes. When SAVE Britain’s Heritage recently advertised a private tour of the regeneration scheme at Grimsby Docks, my wife and I leapt at the opportunity. Alas, it was fully booked so we applied to be on the waiting list. At the last minute we were allocated 2 tickets so swiftly booked a room at our favourite Cleethorpes hotel The Kingsway as it was a full day’s tour and we arrived the previous evening to ensure we were on site in time.
A group of about 25 people met at Grimsby Station and they were from as far afield as London, Brighton and Birmingham. In a short walk around the city centre we were shown the 1960’s-Library which is currently under threat due to asbestos and water ingress problems. Historic England refused a spot listing in Nov 2025 and the 20th Century Society have just applied again and hopefully this time they will be successful. The original library was destroyed in 1941 and its replacement was built between 1966 and 1968 at a cost of £400,000. Its main feature is the row of 5 figures on its façade. At 11ft high they are twice lifesize and the man we have to thank for them is Peter Todd who was head of Grimsby School of Art at the time. They represent pillars of wisdom and guardians of culture and learning. The central cloaked figure symbolises the mystery of knowledge. These impressive figures were made in nearby Market Rasen and took 18 months to create. Although I am not a fan of this era I can see the merit in this building and its loss would be a tragedy for Grimsby. It is to be hoped that its asbestos and concrete problems can be resolved although an estimated repair bill of £13.6m does not bode well.
The foundation stone for the Royal Grimsby Dock was laid in 1849 by Prince Albert and just before we headed there we were given a guided tour of a fantastic youth project which could and should be repeated in Sheffield. An early waterside warehouse has been beautifully and painstakingly restored to its original splendour in original bricks and the only giveaway is the bottom 10 layers of bricks which are just above water level. These are non-original but fortunately will soon be disguised by greenery which when fully grown will disguise the problem and no-one will know. The site is now known as Horizon Youth Zone and the charity behind it has done several such projects throughout the UK and the results from their £8.6m end product have been very successful. For an annual fee of £5 and 50p per visit, young people (aged 8-19) can avail themselves of all the facilities on offer. (The age limit for people with special needs is stretched to 25). Multiple rooms have various activities on offer including a fully equipped gym, full size boxing ring and other fully supervised activities too numerous to mention. It is very well run and has given many young people, who would normally be roaming the streets, a purpose in life. It is fairly strictly supervised, bad behaviour is not tolerated and simply invokes expulsion. What an innovative use of an early industrial building which could so easily have been lost.
Our group then all piled into 2 minibuses and we were taken to our destination of the Port of Grimsby. This vast site spreads over 20 acres and was once home to the largest fishing industry in the world. A figure which I could not get out of my head was that they used to produce over 1,500 tonnes of ice per day! This was produced in the Ice Factory which opened in 1900 and was declared at the time “an engineering miracle”. Covering 60,000 sq ft it is still largely intact and we were privileged to be taken into the main unit to see the magnificent steam turbines which are still in place. We were advised to wear masks as the place is full of guano and there is an obviously thriving pigeon population. The risk was well worth it though and thankfully these impressive monster machines are to be restored and the large room will form the entrance hall to the Ice Factory Project.
Whilst the Grade II* listed Ice Factory is the most important building on the site there are many others which show how the fishing industry in Grimsby evolved and a much later but nevertheless interesting building will sadly be lost. It is all concrete and stylish in its own way but has succumbed to the usual concrete cancer and cannot be restored. It is a massive and open sided building situated between the Ice Factory and the sea and was where the vast catches were unloaded, gutted and loaded onto the adjacent railway line for dispatch all over the country and especially London. The day’s catch could be prepared, packed and be on the tables of posh London restaurants the following lunchtime. The volume of fish that went through this building was mind-boggling but even if the concrete was OK it would be very difficult to adapt, so it’s got to go. Surprisingly, it is to be replaced by a multi-story car park which will be badly needed when the scheme gets off the ground. A 161 bed hotel is to be built on an adjacent site which will be very necessary for the 13,000 sq ft conference centre which is to be built but its main occupants will be workers from the offshore wind industry and Grimsby can now claim to be the largest offshore wind hub in the world. It services several of the largest wind farms in the world and over 12,000 workers are employed around here. This is to increase to 25,000 by 2030.
All is not lost for fish however and although we have lost (given away) most of our fishing grounds there is still a massive fish processing industry operating here from fish imports and this is where most of your fish fingers etc. come from! We were given a private tour of a wonderful smokehouse and shown how salmon and haddock are smoked by burning sawdust; something which I did not know. Alfred Enderby was founded in 1918 and still going strong using the same methods. They have had many celeb visitors and their regular clients include Rick Stein. The owner is a real character and his anecdotes had us all in stitches. I told him afterwards that if ever the fish supply dries up, he ought to go on the stage! We bought some of their products which they also supply by post and believe me, if you try them you won’t eat the supermarket stuff again.
The unique chimneys on their building have been painstakingly restored and it is obvious that great care is going to be taken in getting the restoration of the docks right. One of the Victorian buildings already up and running is a community centre called The Great Escape. Here we were treated to a very pleasant light lunch and given a tour of the buildings. The Black Gull Community Venue are based here and they do a brilliant job helping people with addiction problems. They run an abstinence recovery programme and hold meetings here in one of the many rooms which are available to rent to the public. These have been restored with different themes including some with a WWII twist, hence the name. There is an art studio, a podcast studio, a performing arts space and a community kitchen. As I mentioned earlier in this article, this is another example of what Sheffield needs.
After getting back into the mini-buses we were given a brief tour of proposals for the restoration of the historic town centre and a Conservation Officer from the council filled us in on some very interesting projects which were on the cards. All in all Grimsby seems to be on the verge of becoming a boom town with its links to the motorway network via the M180 and its close proximity to Humberside Airport. The 20 acre Ice Factory site will have mixed space units ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 sq ft and its Freeport status should attract much commerce. A new marina is also to be created which should help the leisure side of things.
A great big thank you to SAVE who organised this trip and if you have never heard of the organisation then please look them up. They work tirelessly throughout the country and have been responsible for saving many of our architectural treasures which would otherwise have been lost. Their colour magazine alone is worth the subs and a recent edition gave Sheffield not one but two mentions! Like us they are also a Registered Charity so please support them when you can.