Shopping centre gave new Bransholme estate a community focus

For thousands of Hull people living in appalling conditions it was to be the start of a bright future.

Planners enthused about the prospect of creating what, at the time, was regarded as a big new town on the outskirts of Hull. In a city where slum clearance was a major issue such a development was vital.

But it would take 15 years of legal and administrative work before a brick could be laid.

The homes that were to be a dream for thousands of Hull people began to rise in the mid-Sixties. Bransholme the dream was becoming reality.

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That, though, was only part of the story.

Only a handful of residents lived in what was known as Bransholme South in 1967. Eventually the area would cater for 27,000.

The area known as Bransholme North would give homes to another 15,000.

But while the houses and high-rise flats transformed the landscape, little was done about the provision of certain key facilities, in particular a proper shopping centre.

That came in November 1973 when the £1 million-plus "heart" of the community was finally opened. Sprawling across a 20-acre site at the junction of Holwell Road and Barnstaple Road, the Bransholme centre was said to be able to offer the kind of facilities that hitherto had only been available in the city centre.

Thirty shops and four stores were included, as were a library, social services office, health centre and police station. A club was planned to open in 1974.

It took more than 400 men from more than 30 different trade unions to build the centre. Work on the site began in 1972.

The Hull Daily Mail of November 28, 1973 reported: "This type of development, completely new to the Hull area (the nearest similar centre is in Doncaster), originated in America in the late 1940s.

Bransholme was officially declared open on May 1, 1967.

In a short and simple ceremony in Dulverton Close the Lord Mayor of Hull, Ald RW Buckle, said: "This is a most ambitious project, possibly the greatest ever undertaken by Hull City Council."

He was speaking outside the first 20 homes to be completed.

Got a memory of those early days on Bransholme? Letters please to Stuart Russell, Flashback, Hull Daily Mail, Blundell's Corner, Beverley Road, Hull HU3 1XS or e-mail stuartgjr@hotmail.com