The route of the Hull and Hornsea rail-line is a fine example of what can be done with a disused rail-line, this in both urban and rural environments. The Hull and Hornsea rail-line was opened in March 1864 and, as an independent rail-line started as a spur off the pre-existing Victoria Dock Railway (opened 1853), itself built as a spur off the pre-existing Hull and Selby railway, built in 1840. As Paragon station (well west of the Old Town and Town Docks) had been opened in the early 1860s it was possible thereafter to board a train there and be transported to Hornsea station. The photo. above shows a view looking north and taken from the lower steps of the footbridge connecting Argyle St. with the KC football stadium, a surviving section of the Victoria Dock Railway track-bed can be seen (with the train standing on it) with a surviving brick-built engine shed alongside. Beyond this point the track-bed no longer survives.
A Hornsea train setting-off from Paragon station would stop firstly at Botanic Crossing (level crossing) station, just beyond the busy junction where Prince’s Av. meets Spring Bank and Spring Bank West. In this locality the rail-line does not survive as a public right of way. The name Botanic Crossing comes from the fact that Hull’s second site for its botanic gardens (sort of park with a horticultural emphasis and entry charges) was nearby, now the grounds of Hymer’s College (which can be partly seen in the above photo., including a modern metal-roofed extension).
However, a walk to the bottom of Duesbery Street (off Princes Av.) takes one to the beginning of the ‘green corridor’ (see the six blogs 20th to 27th August this year) that was the route of the Victoria Dock Railway, now through north and east Hull but originally (1853) skirting round the then built-up area. Hereon the centre of the route is hard-surfaced and divided into a cycle lane and a footpath.