So, Hull is my home town, I have lived here for 14 years now. After writing blogs for other cities across Europe, I wanted to see (mainly out of curiosity) what a blog page would look like if I put one together for Hull, and if it would stand up and look as interesting against the likes of Copenhagen or Berlin.
Hull generally gets a lot of bad press, having previously been in the top ten worst places to live on the UK for many years. 2017 we held the title ‘City of Culture’ which has cast somewhat of a legacy.
Hull was crowned “UK City of Culture 2017”, which basically gave the city a big budget to put on a years’ worth of events for both the people living here and beyond, in an attempt to re-vitalise the city and create a long-lasting legacy, which to some degree has worked.
In the first week in January of 2017, we had the first of many lights shows in Queen Victoria Square, where all the buildings were lit up and videos projected on them.
They truly were stunning and at the time nothing like we had seen before. Five years on, there has been a few since, none of which have quite matched up to the standard of the 2017 one. In my opinion the opening week, and particularly the lightshow was the best event of the year.
What is good about Hull, and especially since 2017, is that each year there are at least 2 events around the city, mostly they involve lightshows or light installations of some sort, and this is as well as the traditional events such as Freedom festival, Hull Fair and the monthly street food markets.
The Humber Bridge, the cities main icon since the early 80’s. The bridge that started construction towards the end of the 70’s, I even have a picture taken in front of the half build bridge as a baby (maybe 1980/81). I have walked over the bridge a small handful of times, which provide fairly decent views over the River Humber and Hull, well providing you are not expecting a similar experience to that of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York! There was talk at one point of putting a glass lift for tourists to go up to the top of one of the pillars, but sadly this seems to have come to nothing.
The marina area is probably my favourite part of Hull. I live in walking distance of it, a purposely chosen location. On a summers evening you can go there and genuinely be fooled into thinking you were abroad. The marina area offers some good bars and restaurants, is an area constantly changing and under development, and also is the place for a good number of events during the summer, such as our annual Humber Street Sesh.
Technically this street is part of the marina, but it deserves its own mention. For many years this had been an actual street of warehouses, fruit traders ideally situated off the port and a direct connection to the M62 motorway.
Even in the time since I moved to Hull (2008) this was still trading. From around 2010 the fruit traders all moved out, and the buildings were taken over by bars, restaurants, art galleries and independent artists which brought a whole new vibe to the area. The street houses some of my favourite bars and cafes, such as the Humber Street Gin Distillery, Flour and Feast and Thieving Harrys.
High Street in Hull’s old town is very well preserved from the Victorian era. Now it houses mainly offices, the museums quarter and some residential flats, and not much else. But every now and then film crews will take to the street and recreate ‘olden days’ for movies and drama series due to it being so well preserved. Most recently it has been featured in the Netflix series "Bodies" and the final season of The Crown.
According to Google, Hull Fair has been in existence since 1278, meaning its been going for over 728 years! Every year (except during the War and the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic) all the small fair’s and attractions from across Europe meet up in Hull to create one of Europe’s biggest travelling fairs. Usually, it lasts 8-9 days across the second week in October, therefore the weather is usually damp and raining, however its become part of the charm I guess!
Google also states that each year there are over 300 attractions (whether it be a stall, food cart or ride). My favourite ride is of course the big wheel, being sucker for views at height, and seeing the whole of the fair lit up below you and the ride’s in action is truly stunning. On the way out, my general routine is to pick up a cheeseburger, a toffee apple and some brandy snaps!
The Deep is an aquarium which opened as part of the Millennium Project in the year 2000. Apparently, it is the only attraction from the project that is still open today, although at the time of writing this I cant verify it. However, their website states the following: “The Deep is now the most commercially successful Millennium Project.
In its first year The Deep welcomed over 850,000 visitors, making Hull's new aquarium busier than London Zoo”. So impressive either way! I have been inside 2 or 3 times, I do like looking at the sharks and jellyfish, and more recently there are penguins.
In 2018, Hull residents woke up to a surprise one February morning, Banksy had visited the Witham industrial estate (which is half deserted now), which become a prompt to board up sections of the area and make available for local artists to legally paint and graffiti the boards and some buildings.
I mean, there isn’t much I can say other than Bob Carvers is famous in Hull for providing some bloody good fish and chips! Not forgetting our local touch, Chip Spice!
The first Freedom Festival was in 2008, which was the year I moved to Hull. It started as a festival to celebrate William Wilberforce (that guy that abolished slavery)! The first couple of years Freedom festival had a number of stages with some headline acts.
In 2013 The 1975 played here, which was their first live gig and coincidentally the same month their first album was released. Since then, the festival has ran every year (apart from 2020 and 2021 because of the global pandemic) and has since moved from bands and headline acts to more cultural and art installations.
But over the years there has been a number of things that have been well worth seeing, and one of the things the people of Hull most look forward to in the year.
Bankside Gallery came about after Banksy visited Hull and painted one of his signature graffiti murals in our industrial area. Since then, it has been made legal for local artists to display their talents in a similar way.
Hull Minster was transformed from a standard minster to more of an events venue. It still acts as a minster and holds the usual services, but it can now be hired out for wedding and business events. At least once a month they do tower tours, and even the odd beer festival.
It has also hosted special events, such as light shows and has been the location of the giant moon and earth, ‘Gaia’ that travelled the world.
A little quirky arcade that’s been around for a long time, but recently renovated. Now its packed with small independent traders, shops and cafes. I believe that once a month its open in the evening with music and drink.
Think a smaller (much smaller) version of Central Park in New York! From an arial view anyway, it looks like a rectangular square of greenery in the middle of a city. It holds some of the festival events throughout the summer, and in recent years been the location of Hull Pride.
The Hull town hall is an impressive building, and, arguably, stands up to the architecture of other town halls across Europe. Every evening it is lit up in different colours and has been since 2018.
Looking up, I do think that Hull holds its own as a short (2 day) city break, against some of the other destinations in my other blogs, especially if I was to add in some bars/restaurants, some street food and some sort of sports activity. I guess as its your hometown, you never really see it that way.
Lastly though, whenever there is a sunset (or sunrise) there is never a shortage of places to use that as a great backdrop for some amazing pictures.
