More information : Former immigrant station and railway platform situated to the south-west of Kingston Railway Station. It was later converted to a social club. It was built in 1871 by the architect Norbert Prosser for the North Eastern Railway Company. It is built of yellow brick with ashlar dressings and the hipped roof is covered by slate. The single storey building is 13 windows wide. The entrance door is placed off-centre. At the rear of the building is a railway platform. The hipped canopy is supported by cast-iron columns. The building was extended in 1881 and again altered in the late 20th century. It was built to handle passengers from north-west Europe emigrating to America. On arrival in Hull by ship they continued their journey by rail to other British ports such as Liverpool. Grade II listed. (1)
Information from a 'Norway Heritage' website article by Dr. Nicholas J. Evans. Between the years 1836 and 1914 Kingston upon Hull developed a pivotal role in the movement of transmigrants via the United Kingdom. Over 2.2 million migrants passed through Hull on their way to a new life in America, South Africa and Australia. The transmigrants passed through the port of Hull to take a train to Glasgow, Liverpool, London or Southampton. As a result of poor hygienic conditions on some emigrant ships from Northern Europe and the concern that it would affect the sanitary condition of the town, the 'Kingston upon Hull Sanitary Authority' was created in 1851 in order to improve the unsanitary condition of the town and the port. As a consequence the authority changed the procedures for the landing of emigrants. Until 1866, the transmigrants landed either at the Steam Packet Wharf or the Victoria Dock and male emigrants had been free to walk around the town. Only during the night they had to join women and children on the waiting ship. After 1866, as a preventative measure brought out by the outbreak of cholera in European ports, the North Eastern Railway started to transport the migrants from Victoria Dock by rail directly to the railway station. In 1871 still fearing the risk of infection by the large number of European migrants passing through the port, the North Eastern Railway Company built a waiting room near Hull Paragon Station. It had sanitary facilities for the migrants and room to meet the ticket agents. In 1881 due to the huge numbers transmigrating through Hull, the waiting room facilities were doubled in size. It now included a separate room for women and children. After 1905 the numbers of emigrants travelling through the United Kingdom was severely restricted by the Alien Immigration Act and by 1914 the migration via Hull had declined. (2)
On the Ordnance Survey 1:500 historical plan of Kingston upon Hull dated to 1888-1890 the building is indicated as 'Emigrants Room'. (3)
Many immigrants passing through Hull remained in Hull, in particular some Jewish migrants.Testimony to this are the many Jewish shops in the proximity of the emigrants waiting room. In April 1953 the redundant rooms were re-opened as the Paragon Institute, a social club for railwaymen and their families. Since 2003 the building houses the Tigers Lair public house. (4)
In his article, Evans refers to this building as an 'emigrant waiting room'. Please see source for full details. (5)
Please see source for additional information regarding the emigrant waiting room and platform. (6)
This is a digitised version of a plan of the emigrant waiting room. The document belongs to the Hull City Archives and is reference SRL OS 240.2.20. Click on the link to see the plan. (7)
This is a listed building and information used to create this record has been taken from the National Heritage List for England - for a full description of the site please go to this source. (8) |