City's banana history featured in exhibition

These days, Humber Street in Hull is lined with coffee shops, galleries and bars, as the area continues to evolve into a leisure destination following a plan to regenerate the area in 2016.

But, from the 16th Century, the cobbled street was home to a vibrant market and, after World War Two, it was thought to be the third largest fruit market in the UK, importing produce from all over the world.

Now, an interactive exhibition, called Bananarchy at Humber Street Gallery, hopes to highlight the area's rich history, as well as giving visitors a reason to smile.

On the first floor, the exhibition features a maze made up of 1,560 banana boxes which artist Pippa Hale, 53, said was a nod to the purpose of the building in the 1950s.

"This used to be a banana ripening room", she said. "It belonged to TJ Pupparts and was built on a bombed out site around 1956."

Downstairs, you can dress up in a variety of banana-based outfits.

Ms Hale said: "They're all connected to nicknames that people in the trade used to go by. If you didn't have a nickname, you were no one."

She said the street echoed to the sound of shouting and barrows. People would have spats but they all ended each day as friends again.

Pamela Howes' father, George Noble, used to work in the building opposite at 14-15 Humber Street, part of which is now home to Mousey Brown's hair salon.

Ms Howes, 70, said she loved coming down to the street on a Saturday as a five-year-old.

"We got given apples and melons by all the traders and we used to feed all the cats - although we shouldn't have done because they were all wild," she said.

Ms Howes said Mr Noble started on the street as a barrow boy, knocking on every door until he finally got a job in 1931 at AW Kirebye's, owned by a Danish company.

She said: "Eventually he became junior salesman then managing director, before the company was sold to Fyffes."

She said the street was full of "nice memories".

"We'd go round the other side of the building and watch the bananas come down.

"And, on about three occasions, my dad found tarantulas in the bananas. Then you had to call up a person who would come and take them away.

Ms Hale added: "What I like about this street now is that so much has been preserved and restored."

The exhibition runs until Sunday 21 September.

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