The Geology of the Hull Fish Trail

by Mike Horne

updated for Winter 2020

In 1992 the Hull City Council created a fish Pavement trail through the 'Old Town' of Hull, sponsored by Seven Seas. It consists of sculptures or engravings of fish (and some invertebrates) representing all the letters of the alphabet. Most of these are of geological interest, either being carved in stone, set into stone or made of man-made geological materials, such as glass, brick, steel and other metals. Here is a description of the rock types you will find if you follow the trail. It is quite a long walk, but you can do it in bits, or take a break in some of the pubs on the way.

 Please be aware that the names of the shops mentioned in the text may change and a number of the "fish" are not accessible in 2020 due to construction work at the Marina and Hull Pier.

Because we cannot hammer or test the rocks and can only go on their appearance, the descriptions and geological names given may not be 100 per cent accurate. Please do not damage the rocks.

The trail starts at the City Hall Booking Office in Queen Victoria Square, with the first fish of the alphabet - a shoal of chromed bronze anchovies, set into sandstone paving stones.

Near the entrance to Princes Quay (just beyond Monument Buildings) are 8 lobsters, cut into Cornish slate. When the trail was created there was a children's' bookshop there and it was a reference to the Lobster Quadrille in Alice in Wonderland. The pillars of Monument Buildings are lovely pieces of granite with xenoliths.

At Beverley Gate there is a cod, made of chromed bronze set into white Carrara Marble (a metamorphosed limestone) from Italy. The medieval bricks of Beverley Gate were probably made locally from clay dug out of the moat that surrounded the town. Nearby is a shoal of tiny x-ray fish etched into a piece of glass, which has now been broken.

In Princes Dock Street there are two flying fish in new "York Stone" panels on the front of Papa's Fish and Chips and one on an old paving stone beside the drain pipe. A line of red herrings in red brick leads the way through Posterngate, which has red and ,grey granite cobblestones. Kippers are depicted on the wrought iron side gate to number 8 Posterngate and beside this erratic blocks are used as cobbles in the courtyard.

In Market Square there are four plaice in a sandstone paver on the street corner. Hull Minster dominates the area and is made of brick and Magnesian Limestone from West Yorkshire and in places is patched up badly with Ancaster Stone from Lincolnshire.  A shoal of mackerel can be found carved into the old grey/brown sandstone paving stones of Market Place, at the eastern end of the Minster.

In the pavement at the western side of the Minerva Hotel there is a haddock carved into black Belgian Carboniferous Limestone with fossil crinoids. This has the words "blistering barnacles" carved into it; which is a reference to Captain Haddock from the Belgian cartoon Tin Tin.

Pilot fish are carved into Elland Flags outside 50 Queen Street and Oberon estate agents opposite; a reference to the former Humber Pilots Office. Outside 4-15 Nelson Court, near the corner with Wellington Street, a Garfish is carved into green Tilberthwaite Tuff from the Lake District. This fascinating rock is volcanic ash which settled as a sediment in a lake or sea, (this example shows brecciation implying that the sediment settled partially lithified and was then disturbed), and later the rock became metamorphosed into a slate.

Icefish carved in Carrera Marble.

In Humber Street, beside a big black anchor between the tidal barrier and the Garrison Road bridge, is an icefish carved into Carrara Marble. On the riverside boardwalk eels made of steel are set into the decking.

In High Street you can see a black crab in the pavement at the base of a drainpipe outside the Sailmakers Arms and a bronze shrimp in a pale crinoidal limestone on the left of number 167A High Street opposite Nelson Mandela Gardens. A shoal of whitebait impressed into Kettley bricks leads round from High Street, through Gandhi Way into Alfred Gelder Street.

A long electric eel is carved into Derbyshire gritstone on the corner of Alfred Gelder Street near the electricity substation and a sea trout is carved into old York Stone. The Court building is made of red granite, buff coloured gritstone (perhaps from Derbyshire) and red brick. On the corner with Lowgate there is a lumpsucker carved into sandstone.

John Dory carved in Orton Scar Limestone

Under the tower of St. Mary's Church the john dory is made of Orton Scar limestone, which has mineral veins (presumably calcite) in it; this paver is now badly worn. Beside the bus stop is a brill in sandstone. St. Mary's Church is made of Magnesian Limestone and inside the floor is tiled with red and black Carboniferous Limestone, containing corals.

At the entrance to Exchange Court a gurnard is carved into Lazenby coarse grained red sandstone. Notice how the white Carrara Marble step with lead lettering has been eroded over the years. The squid in Exchange Court Alley is made of cast iron and the long oarfish is carved in Hopton Wood stone. Two hake can be seen in cut steel across the road in White Harte Alley (you might have to access this via Silver Street in 2020). On the corner of Silver Street and Trinity House Lane you can see that Yates Bar, (a former bank) is made of deep red 'Vergo' granite from Sweden containing blue strained quartz at its base and Ancaster Stone with its 'streaky bacon' texture above. There are also beautiful turned pillars of the granite.

Virgo Granite pillars, Yates Bar

Turning into Whitefriargate you can find a monkfish in black Belgian Carboniferous Limestone outside the Dove House Hospice shop. The shop fronts of Whitefriargate incorporate a wide variety of rocks, including red granite and black gabbro at Boyes, beautiful orbicular "Baltic Brown" granite from Finland at the clearance shop that was formerly New Look and sparkling "Blue Pearl" Larvikite from Norway at the now empty Marks and Spencer's shop. A replacement shark carved into grey Cornish slate is outside the now empty Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation building. The zander outside Burtons completes the fish alphabet and is carved in Tilberthwaite Tuff; the shop is clad in Larvikite.

Further reading:

Anon 1992. The Fish Pavement [map and guide leaflet]. Hull City Council.

Home M & R Harrison, 1991. A Geological Walk in the City of Hull. Humberside Geologist 8, 21-25.

Horne M, 1995. Geology in the City. Humberside Geologist 11, 3-4.

Horne M 1999. The Geology of the Hull Fish Trail. Humberside Geologist 12, 4-7.

Copyright Hull Geological Society.

Copyright - Hull Geological Society 2020

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