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Street Name in Hull ???

(13 Posts)
Kateykrunch Wed 23-Aug-17 18:49:56

I know I could just goole it, but more fun this way. We went to Hull last week and walking around the old town area, there is a street name 'LAND OF GREEN GINGER', do you know the background of why its called this?

TriciaF Wed 23-Aug-17 19:04:37

I lived in Hull for many years and often wondered about that.
Just guessing - Hull has always been a major port, so perhaps it's a reference to spices brought from the Far East?

rubysong Wed 23-Aug-17 19:14:59

We were there recently. Did you find the 'world's smallest window'?

Devorgilla Wed 23-Aug-17 20:14:59

I went to Hull in 1966 and came across this street name. I have loved it ever since.

Jalima1108 Wed 23-Aug-17 20:40:34

I remember seeing that! and meant to look it up when I got home again.

This is what Wiki says (which may or may not be true grin)

The street was formerly known as Old Beverley Street.[1] Various suggestions have been proposed for the derivation of its current name. It may simply refer to the sale or storage of the spice ginger in the Middle Ages. A record dating from 1853 indicates that a Mr Richardson "has made it most probable that the designation 'Land of Green Ginger' took place betwixt 1640 and 1735". The unknown writer then goes on to speculate that, as a Dutch family with the surname Lindegreen (meaning "green lime tree") was known to live in Hull during the earlier part of the 19th century, the modern name may be a corruption of Lindegroen jonger (Lindegreen junior). Another idea, dating from 1880, is that the name is a corruption of "Landgrave Granger", meaning a walk or pathway approaching the home of the Landgrave family.

mcem Wed 23-Aug-17 20:47:53

Lovely name. We missed out to Hull as City of Culture so I ' m more interested than I was. Only ever passed through for the ferry.
My favourite street name locally is Peep o'day Lane.

Baggs Wed 23-Aug-17 21:02:59

My DD2's favourite book when she was a child was The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley. She wanted to study Swedish at uni and Hull was one of the few places that did it so she went there. Imagine her delight when she found the street called Land of Green Ginger (the book must be called after it). She says it's in or near the dock area so I expect it has something to do with imports.

Jalima1108 Wed 23-Aug-17 21:08:36

That's where I had heard of it before! It's a book.

It's on the way from the station towards the museum area as far as I remember.

Smithy Wed 23-Aug-17 21:12:14

We have an old church in Tynemouth which has long been home to various little individual shops and cafes and the building is called The Land of Green Ginger. I didn't know there was a street if that name in Hull.

callgirl1 Wed 23-Aug-17 21:51:56

We used to have a snack bar in Boston called Land of Green Ginger. And just outside the town, at Sibsey, there`s Goosemuck Lane. My favourite street name has to be one we saw years ago, in Port Isaac, Cornwall, a very, very narrow little street called Squeezy Belly Alley!

Nana3 Wed 23-Aug-17 22:47:16

I was in Land of Green Ginger yesterday as I was having a short break in Hull. I saw the 'smallest window'. Hull is very interesting, I recommend a visit.

durhamjen Wed 23-Aug-17 23:54:55

My solicitor was in The Land of Green Ginger.
I have an 1890 map which shows all the merchants and warehouses off high street and some of them are tea merchants and seed merchants.
Not difficult to believe that they brought in all the herbs and spices from the far east along with the tea. That's what I always used to think, anyway, particularly as my great great grandmother used to import tea and spices, and her son used to work in a shipping office off the High Street.
Even in the 1890s Hull looked completely different with all the docks and warehouses along the River Hull and the canal up to the oil mills and seed mills.
A lot of them could have been to do with animal feed, but they would also have been to do with spice mills as well.

durhamjen Thu 24-Aug-17 01:10:52

I've just spent a happy hour looking through books of old photos of Hull that we used to buy for my parents. None of them can tell me the history of the name of the Land of Green Ginger, but never mind. Lots of pictures.
One of them was photos of 1950s Hull. Amazing how many of the women looked like my mother!