Grimsby Docks and the Kasbah                 

The historic significance of Grimsby Ice Factory includes its relationship with the buildings of Grimsby Fish Dock including the historic dock area. You can see some great photos of the historic docks by following this link

The area dubbed the Kasbah is said to be the heart of the Fish Docks. The name is said to have come from a now lost warren of streets and inspired by the 1930's movies "Pepe le Moko" and "Algiers" ("Come with me to the Casbah.")

The Kasbah lay behind Fish Dock Road and had two points of entry.. The first  at the northern end of Fish Dock Road via Brown Street which runs parallel to Henderson Street. The second  off Hutton Road via Surtees Street which is located opposite the former Russell Grant's building and next to the premises formerly occupied by Dobsons. The Kasbah is now an open square but originally it contained a number of premises situated along the four streets that made up this area. They were - Surtees Street, Sidebottom Street, Brown Street and Smith Street

From the 1800's until the decline of the fishing industry, the historic dock area was home to a number of support trades such as banks, coopers, carpenters, and blacksmiths. It even had a Mission Chapel and a Labour Exchange.

In its glory days, the fish dock was a distinct community with its own banks, cafes and shops. Even today, walking down Fish Dock Road is like entering a small Victorian high street.

Fish Dock Road runs through land between the Royal Dock to the West and Number One and Two Fish Docks to the East.

The Kasbah area still contains a few of the Victorian smoking houses with their distinctive chimneys. The smoking houses still practice the method of leaving fillets of cod and haddock for up to 16 hours in smokehouse chimneys. In November 2009 Traditional Grimsby Smoked Fish was awarded Protected Geographical Indication Status.

The pictures above show the premises of Alfred Enderby Limited. Adapted as a Smoke House in the early part of teh 20th Century, this is the most recent of the Smoke Houses to be given a statutory listing.

In 1990, the former Grimsby Borough Council launched a Great Grimsby Heritage Trail with the permission of Associated British Ports. This appears to have been a coach tour, taking tourists onto the docks, past the Ice Factory and the Victorian Smoke Houses. We are indebted to Dr Rod Ambler, who drafted the original notes for the trail and passed us a copy of the leaflet.

It's not clear if, or for how long, the Great Grimsby Heritage Trail ran, but we'd be interested to hear from anyone who went on the tour or has any photos from the tour.

There is, of course, still a thriving fish market on Grimsby Docks, where fish is auctioned, packed and sent on its way to the restaurants and fish counters of the nation.

As you may have guessed, this page is a "work in progress" and we hope to update it as time goes by.