Kingston upon Hull

City of Kingston upon Hull
The Queen's Gardens and Maritime Museum in Kingston upon Hull city centre
Logo
Hull shown within England
The unitary authorities of the Ceremonial East Riding. 1. East Riding of Yorkshire (Unitary) 2. Kingston upon Hull (Unitary)
Coordinates:
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Ceremonial county	East Riding of Yorkshire
Admin HQ	Kingston upon Hull
Founded	12th century
City Status	1897
Government
- Type	Unitary authority, City
- Governing body	Hull City Council
- Leadership:	Leader & Cabinet
- Executive:	Liberal Democrat
- MPs:	Alan Johnson (L) Diana Johnson (L) John Prescott (L)
Area
- Total	27.6 sq mi (71.45 km²)
Population (2007 est.)
- Total	257,000 (Ranked 34th)
- Density	9,028.7/sq mi (3,486/km²)
- Ethnicity (2005 Estimate)[1]	94.9% White 1.8% S. Asian 1.0% Black 1.0% Mixed Race 1.3% Chinese and other
Time zone	Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
Postcode Area	HU
Area code(s)	(01482)
ISO 3166-2	GB-KHL
ONS code	00FA
Website: www.hull.gov.uk

Kingston upon Hull (pronunciation), almost invariably referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.^[2] It is located 25 miles (40 km) from the North Sea on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary.^[2] Hull has a resident population of 257,000 (2007 est.). Renamed Kings town upon Hull by King Edward I in 1299, the town and city of Hull has served as market town,^[3] military supply port,^[4] trading hub,^[5] fishing and whaling centre,^[4] and industrial metropolis.^[4] Hull was an early theatre of battle in the English Civil Wars,^[5] and was the backdrop to events leading to the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.^[6]

The city was unique in the United Kingdom in having a municipally owned telephone system from 1902, sporting cream, not red, telephone boxes. After suffering heavy damage during the Second World War,^[5] Hull weathered a period of post-industrial decline,^[7] during which the city gained unfavourable results on measures of social deprivation, education and policing. However, the city has embarked on a programme of regeneration and renewal^[8] and a range of sporting and cultural activities is available.

History

Kingston upon Hull is situated on the north bank of the Humber Estuary at the mouth of its tributary, the River Hull.The valley of the River Hull has been inhabited since the early Neolithic period but there is little evidence for a substantial settlement in the area where the town of Kingston upon Hull was sited.^[9] The situation was attractive to its early developers because of its ability to give access to a prosperous hinterland and navigable rivers, but the actual site was less good as it was remote and low lying with no fresh water. It was originally an outlying part of the hamlet of Myton when, in the late 12th century, it was chosen by the monks of Meaux Abbey to develop as a new town which they named Wyke upon Hull. The River Hull was a good haven for shipping whose main trade was in the export of wool from the abbey. In 1293 the town was acquired from the abbey by King Edward I, who later granted a royal charter, dated 1 April 1299, that renamed the settlement King's town upon Hull, or Kingston upon Hull. The charter remains preserved in the archives of the city's Guildhall.^[5] In 1440, a further charter incorporated the town and instituted local government consisting of a mayor, a sheriff, and twelve aldermen.^[5]

The port served as a base for Edward I during the First War of Scottish Independence and later developed into the foremost port on the east coast of England. It prospered by exporting wool and woollen cloth and importing wine. Hull also established a flourishing commerce with the Baltic ports as part of the Hanseatic League.^[10] Sir William de la Pole was the town's first mayor.^[11] A prosperous merchant, de la Pole founded a family that became prominent in government.^[5] Another successful son of a Hull trading family was bishop John Alcock, who founded Cambridge University's Jesus College and was a patron of the grammar school in Hull.^[5] The increase in trade after the discovery of the Americas and the town's maritime connections are thought to have played a part in the introduction of a virulent strain of syphilis through Hull and on into Europe from the New World.^[12] The town prospered during the 16th and early 17th centuries ^[5] and Hull's affluence at this time is preserved in the form of several well-maintained buildings from the period, including Wilberforce House, now a museum documenting the life of William Wilberforce.^[5]

Hull in 1866

During the English Civil War, Hull became strategically important because of the large arsenal located there. Very early in the war, on 11 January 1642, the king named the Earl of Newcastle as governor of Hull while Parliament nominated Sir John Hotham and asked his son, Capt. John Hotham, to secure the town at once.^[5] Sir John Hotham and Hull corporation declared support for Parliament and denied Charles I entry into the town.^[5] Charles I responded to these events by besieging the town.^[5] This siege helped precipitate open conflict between the forces of Parliament and those of the Royalists.^[5]

Whaling played a major role in the town's fortunes until the mid-19th century.^[5] Hull's prosperity peaked in the decades just before the First World War; it was during this time that city status was granted in 1897.^[4] After the decline of the whaling industry, emphasis shifted to deep sea fishing until the Anglo-Icelandic Cod War of 1975–1976. The conditions set at the end of this dispute initiated Hull's economic decline.^[5]

The city's port and industrial facilities, coupled with its proximity to mainland Europe, led to extremely widespread damage by bombing raids during the Second World War; much of the city centre was completely destroyed.^[5] Hull was the most severely-bombed city or town apart from London during World War II, with 95% of houses being damaged or destroyed.^[13] Of a population of approximately 320,000 at the beginning of World War II, approximately 192,000 were made homeless as a result of bomb destruction or damage. The worst of the bombing occurred during 1941. Little was known about this destruction by the rest of the country at the time since most of the radio and newspaper reports did not reveal Hull by name but referred to it as a "North-East" town or "northern coastal town".^[14] Most of the city centre was rebuilt in the years following the war, but it is only recently that the last of the "temporary" car parks that occupied the spaces of destroyed buildings have been redeveloped.^[15]

Panorama of Hull from the north bank of the Humber near Paull, with the hills of the Yorkshire Wolds rising behind the city

Governance

The Guildhall

The city returns three Members of Parliament to the House of Commons and at the last general election elected three labour MPs: Alan Johnson, Diana Johnson and John Prescott who was the Deputy Prime Minister until his resignation on 27 June 2007.^[16] The most famous of Hull's MPs is William Wilberforce. Wilberforce was a native of the city and the member for Hull from 1780 to 1784 when he was elected as an Independent member for Yorkshire.^[17][18]

Following the Local Government Act 1888, Hull became a county borough, a local government district independent of the East Riding of Yorkshire. This district was dissolved under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 when it became a non-metropolitan district of the newly created shire county of Humberside. Humberside (and its county council) was abolished on 1 April 1996 and Hull was made a unitary authority area.^[19][20]

The single-tier local authority of the city is now Hull City Council, headquartered in the Guildhall in the city centre.^[21] The council has several subcomponents with differing responsibilities:

• Cabinet: The Cabinet makes most day-to-day decisions. It consists of the council leader, council deputy leader, and eight other councillors (called Portfolio Holders), all elected by the full council.^[22]
• Cabinet Committees: The Cabinet appoints councillors to Cabinet Committees to handle specific responsibilities, such as granting of contracts above a certain monetary value.^[22]
• Task Groups: The Cabinet can form temporary units called Task Groups, usually to deal with specific issues. These can contain members from outside the council, such as persons expert in the issue or members of the public.^[22]
• Area Committees: These committees are responsible for different geographic areas of the city. They advise the Council and perform certain duties assigned. The Area Committees hold public area forums, in which citizens can participate directly.^[22]
• Regulatory Committees: Required by law or by the nature of the function for which they are responsible. These functions include planning, licensing, standards, school government, and civic affairs.^[22]
• Overview and Scrutiny Committees: Designed to allow citizens greater say in council oversight, these committees hold public hearings into issues of local concern.^[22]

The council was designated as the UK's worst performing authority in both 2004 and 2005, but in 2006 was rated as a two star 'improving adequate' council and in 2007 it retained its two stars with an 'improving well' status in its latest corporate performance assessment.^{[23][24][25][26]} The Liberal Democrats won overall control of the City Council in the 2007 local elections, ending several years where no single party had a majority.^[27] They gained control again in the 2008 local elections with an increased majority.^[28]

Geography

The River Hull tidal barrier is situated at the end of the River Hull where it meets the Humber.

At 53°44′30″N, 0°20′0″W (53.741, -0.333), 154 miles (248 km) north of London, Kingston upon Hull is near the east coast of the United Kingdom, on the northern bank of the Humber estuary,^[2] with the city centre being sited close to the Humber.^[2] The city is built upon alluvial and glacial deposits which overlie chalk rocks but the underlying chalk has no influence on the topography. The land within the city is generally very flat and is only 2 to 4 metres (6.5 to 13 ft) above sea level. Because of the relative flatness of the site there are few physical constraints upon building and many open areas are the subject of pressures to build.^[29] The parishes of Drypool, Marfleet, and Sculcoates, and most of Sutton parish, were absorbed within the borough of Hull in the 19th and 20th centuries. Much of their area has been built over, and socially and economically they have long been inseparable from the city. Sutton alone retained a recognizable village centre in the late 20th century, but on the south and east the advancing suburbs had already reached it. The four villages were, nevertheless, distinct communities, of a largely rural character, until their absorption in the borough—Drypool and Sculcoates in 1837, Marfleet in 1882, and Sutton in 1929.^[30] The current boundaries of the city are tightly drawn and exclude many of the metropolitan area's nearby villages, of which Cottingham is the largest.^[31] The city is surrounded by the rural East Riding of Yorkshire, isolating it from the rest of the United Kingdom.^[32]

The expansion of Kingston upon Hull

Some areas of Hull lie on reclaimed land at or below sea level. The Hull Tidal Surge Barrier is at the point where the River Hull joins the Humber Estuary and is lowered at times when unusually high tides are expected. It is used between 8 and 12 times per year and protects the homes of approximately 10,000 people from flooding.^[33] Due to its low level, Hull is expected to be at increasing levels of risk from flooding due to global warming.^[34] Hull was hit particularly hard by the June 2007 United Kingdom floods, with the local topography resulting in standing water over a wide area affecting 20% of the city's housing and damaging 90 out of its 105 schools. The plight of the city at that time was largely overlooked by the media, which focussed upon the more dramatic, localised, flooding in Sheffield and Doncaster, leading council leader Carl Minns to declare Hull the "forgotten city" of the floods.^[35] Damage to schools alone was estimated at £100 million.^[36]

Holy Trinity Church, Hull

Unlike many other ancient English cities, Hull has no cathedral. It is in the Diocese of York and has a Suffragan bishop. However, Hull's Holy Trinity Church is the largest parish church in England when floor area is the measurement for comparison. The church dates to about 1300^[37] and contains what is widely acknowledged to be some of the finest mediæval brick-work in the country, particularly in the transepts.

Hull forms part of the Southern Vicariate of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough^[38] and included amongst Hull's Catholic churches is St Charles Borromeo, the oldest post-reformation Catholic Church in the city.^[39] There are several seamen's missions and churches in Hull. The Mission to Seafarers has a centre at West King George Dock ^[40] and the St Nikolaj Danish Seamen's Church is located in Osborne Street.^[41]

Located in Northern England, Hull has a temperate maritime climate which is dominated by the passage of mid-latitude depressions. The weather is very changeable from day to day and the warming influence of the Gulf Stream makes the region mild for its latitude. The average total annual rainfall is 565 millimetres (22 in) with rain falling on 109 days of the year. January is usually the coldest month and November the wettest. The warmest month is August and the driest is February.^[42]

Weather averages for Cleethorpes (The nearest weather station to Kingston upon Hull at 20 miles to the south east.)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °F (°C)	44 (6.9)	45 (7.3)	49 (9.5)	53 (11.4)	58 (14.6)	64 (17.7)	68 (20.1)	68 (20.2)	64 (17.7)	57 (14.0)	50 (9.9)	46 (7.8)	56 (13.1)
Average low °F (°C)	35 (1.6)	35 (1.7)	38 (3.1)	40 (4.6)	44 (6.9)	49 (9.7)	54 (12.2)	54 (12.2)	51 (10.4)	45 (7.4)	39 (4.1)	36 (2.4)	44 (6.4)
Precipitation inches (mm)	2 (50.7)	1.51 (38.3)	1.8 (45.6)	1.67 (42.4)	1.71 (43.5)	1.97 (50)	1.51 (38.4)	1.92 (48.7)	2.05 (52.1)	1.83 (46.5)	2.25 (57.2)	2.05 (52.0)	22.26 (565.4)
Source: [43] 2008-06-07

At around 01:00 GMT on 27 February 2008, Hull was 30 miles (48 km) north of the epicentre of an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter Scale and lasting for nearly 10 seconds. This is an unusually large earthquake for this part of the world.^[44]

Demography

According to the 2001 UK census, Hull had a population of 243,589 living in 104,288 households, with a population density of 34.1 per hectare.^[45] Of the total number of homes 47.85% were rented compared with a national figure of 31.38% rented.^[46] The population had declined by 7.5% since the 1991 UK census,^[45] and has been officially estimated as 256,200 in July 2006.^[47]

In 2001 approximately 53,000 people were aged under 16, 174,000 were aged 16–74, and 17,000 aged 75 and over.^[45] Of the total population 97.7% were white and the largest minority ethnic group was of 749 Chinese people. Only 3% of people living in Hull were born outside the United Kingdom.^[45] With regard to religious diversity, in 2001, the city was 71.7% Christian with 18% of the population indicating they were of no religion while 8.4% did not specify any religious affiliation.^[45] In 2001, the city had the lowest church attendance in the United Kingdom.^[48]

Also in 2001, the city had a high proportion, at 6.2%, of people of working age who were unemployed ranking 354th out of 376 local and unitary authorities within England and Wales.^[45] The distance travelled to work was less then 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) for 64,578 out of 95,957 employed people, with a further 18,031 travelling between 5 and 10 kilometres (3.1 and 6.2 mi) to their place of employment. The number of people using public transport to get to work was 12,915 while the number travelling by car was 53,443.^[45]

Economy

The economy of Hull was built on seafaring and although the fishing industry is in decline the city remains a very busy port, handling 13 million tonnes of cargo per year.^[50] Freight handling is projected to rise with Network Rail overseeing a £14.5 million investment in the rail link, which is scheduled for completion mid-2008, to increase its capacity from 10 trains per day to 22.^[51][52] The port operations run by Associated British Ports, together with other companies in the port, employ 5,000 people, with a further 18,000 being employed as a direct result of the port's activities.^[53] The port area of the city has diversified to compensate for the decline in fishing by the introduction of Roll-on Roll-off ferry services to the continent of Europe. These ferries now handle over a million passengers each year.^[54] Hull has exploited the leisure industry by creating a marina from the old Humber Street Dock in the centre of the city. It opened in 1983 has 270 berths for yachts and small sailing craft.^[55]

Prince's Quay Shopping Centre built over Prince's Dock

Industry in the city is focused on the chemical and health care sectors with several well-known British companies, including BP, Smith & Nephew, Seven Seas, and Reckitt Benckiser, having facilities in Hull.^[56] The health care sector is further enhanced by the research facilities provided by the University of Hull through the Institute of Woundcare and the Hull York Medical School partnerships.^[57]

As the biggest settlement in the East Riding of Yorkshire and the local transport hub, Hull is a natural focus for retail shoppers and areas of Hull are undergoing regeneration to encourage retailing and commercial development. These areas include the Quay West and St Stephen's projects.

Costing £300 million Quay West, which is being built on brownfield land and due for completion in 2013, will provide an open air expansion of the existing Princes Quay shopping centre with another 60 shops, two new department stores and other leisure facilities.^[58][59] Princes Quay, which is built on stilts in the former Prince's Dock already includes a new Vue cinema which opened on 21 December 2007 and is the first fully digital cinema in Europe.^[60]

St. Stephen's is a new shopping centre built on the site of the old bus station. It is a 52,000 square metres (560,000 sq ft) scheme, costing over £160 million. It is anchored by a 24-hour superstore and provides shop units, residential areas and car parking. Adjacent to it is a transport interchange, which includes a new bus station and renovated railway station. Stores leasing area in St Stephen's include Zara, Topshop, Oasis, H&M, Next, Jane Norman, Build-A-Bear Workshop and Tesco Extra with more recent additions including USC.^[61]

One Humber Quays, home to the World Trade Centre Hull & Humber

Overlooking the Humber, the new £165 million Humber Quays development, now with World Trade Centre status,^[62] is adding new high quality office space to Hull's waterfront. Phase 1 of the project includes two office buildings (both complete), and 51 new apartments.^[63] Phase 2 will include a new 200 bedroom 4 star hotel, a restaurant, plus more high quality office space.^[64]

The East Bank of the River Hull will see a £100m residential development connected to Hull's old town. This development called the Boom will include over 600 luxury riverside apartments, shops, boutiques, bistro cafés, a 120 bed luxury hotel, plus health and education facilities.^[65] It is to be linked to the City Centre by a new swing footbridge across the River Hull which is described as an "iconic" addition to Hull's skyline.^[66] The 50 stall indoor Trinity Market is also due to be renovated. Between April 2006 and 2007 shops in Hull took £484 million ($991M) a rise of £13M over the previous 12 month period.^[67]

In 2003, the city established a Youth Enterprise Partnership to help to support enterprising young people. Teams from Hull, which were formed under this partnership have reached the National Finals of the Young Enterprise competition, with two teams continuing to the European Finals. The city has also established the John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank to give financial support to qualifying individuals.^[68]

Culture

The Deep at night

Hull's Museum Quarter, on the High Street in the heart of the Old Town, consists of Wilberforce House, the Arctic Corsair, the Hull and East Riding Museum (which contains the Hasholme Logboat - Britain's largest surviving prehistoric logboat^[69]), and the Streetlife and Transport Museum.^[70] Other museums and visitor attractions include the Ferens Art Gallery, the Maritime Museum, the Spurn Lightship,^[70] the Yorkshire Water Museum,^[71] and the Deep, the world's only submarium.^[72] The Fish Trail leads its followers through old and new sections of the city, following a wide variety of sealife engraved in the pavement.^[73]

The city has three main theatres. Hull New Theatre, which opened in 1939,^[74] is the largest venue which features musicals, opera, ballet, drama, children's shows and pantomime.^[75] The Hull Truck Theatre is a smaller independent theatre, established in 1971,^[76] that regularly features plays, notably those written by John Godber.^[77] The Hull Truck Theatre will have a new home in the St Stephen's development.^[78] The Northern Theatre Company, established in 1975, is also based in the city.

Hull New Theatre

Hull has attracted the attention of poets to the extent that the Australian author Peter Porter has described it as "the most poetic city in England".^[79] Philip Larkin set many of his poems in Hull; these include "The Whitsun Weddings", "Toads", and "Here".^[80] Scottish-born Douglas Dunn's Terry Street, a portrait of working-class Hull life, is one the outstanding poetry collections of the 1970s.^[81] Dunn forged close associations with such Hull poets as Peter Didsbury and Sean O'Brien; the works of some of these writers appear in the 1982 Bloodaxe anthology A Rumoured City, a work that Dunn edited.^[82] Andrew Motion, current Poet Laureate, lectured at the University of Hull between 1976 and 1981,^[83] and Roger McGough studied there.^[84] Contemporary poets associated with Hull are Maggie Hannan,^[85] David Wheatley,^[86] and Caitriona O'Reilly.^[87]

In the field of classical music, Hull is home to Hull Sinfonietta, the largest professional chamber ensemble in the Humber region,^[88] and also the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the oldest amateur orchestras in the country.^[89] The Hull Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, established in 1952,^[90] the Hull Choral Union, the Hull Bach Choir - which specialises in the performance of 17th and 18th century choral music, the Hull Male Voice Choir, the Arterian Singers and two Gilbert & Sullivan Societies: the Dagger Lane Operatic Society and the Hull Savoyards are also based in Hull. There are two brass bands, the East Yorkshire Motor Services Band^[91][92] and East Riding of Yorkshire Band.^[93]

Newland Avenue, Hull

On the popular music scene, in the 1960s, Mick Ronson of the Hull band Rats worked closely with David Bowie and was heavily involved in production of the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.^[94] Ronson later went on to record with Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and The Wildhearts.^[94] There is a Mick Ronson Memorial Stage in Queen's Gardens in Hull.^[95] In the 1980s, Hull bands such as The Red Guitars, The Housemartins and Everything But the Girl found mainstream success.^[96] Paul Heaton, former member of The Housemartins went on to front The Beautiful South.^[97] Another former member of The Housemartins, Norman Cook, now performs as Fatboy Slim.^[98] In 1983, Hull-born Paul Anthony Cook, Stuart Matthewman and Paul Spencer Denman formed the group Sade. In 1984, the singer Helen Adu signed to CBS and the group released the album Diamond Life. The album went Triple Platinum in the UK.^[99] Vocalist and actor Roland Gift, who formed the Fine Young Cannibals, grew up in Hull.^[100] The record label Pork Recordings started in Hull in the mid-1990s and has released workings of Fila Brazillia^[101] and Mr Beasley amongst others. The Sesh night has released four DIY compilations featuring the cream of Hull's live music scene and there are currently a few labels emerging in the city, including Purple Worm Records^[102] and Empire. The Adelphi is a popular local venue for alternative live music in the city, and has achieved notability outside Hull, having hosted such bands as The Stone Roses, Radiohead, Green Day, and Oasis in its history,^[103] whilst the Springhead, caters to a variety of bands and has been recognised nationally as a Live Music Pub of the Year.^[104]

The nightlife of Hull attracts people from outlying areas as well as inhabitants of the city. It has the concentration of pubs and bars expected of any large city in contemporary Britain. The drinking culture in the city centre tends towards late bars while the wine bars and pubs around Hull University and its accommodation area are popular with students. In particular, the areas around Newland Avenue and Prince's Avenue have seen a rapid expansion in continental style bars and cafes encouraged by the redesign of the street layout.^[105]

Picture of Hull Fair taken from the top of the Big Wheel, 2006

The city is host to a number of festivals and events. The Humber Mouth literature festival is an annual event and in the 2008 season featured writers such as Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Lisa Appignanesi, Jonathan Miller, Christopher Reid and Janet Street-Porter.^[106] The annual Hull Jazz Festival takes place around the Marina area for a week at the beginning of August.^[107] This is followed, in early September, by the Sea Fever Festival, an International Sea Shanty Festival.^[108]

Early October sees the arrival of Hull Fair which is one of Europe's largest travelling funfair and takes place on land adjacent to the KC Stadium.^[109] The Hull Global Food Festival held its first annual event in the city's Queen Victoria Square for three days in 2007 with the next event scheduled for 22 August–24 August 2008. According to officials, the event attracted 125,000 visitors and brought some £5 million in revenue to the area.^[110] In 2007 the Hull Metalfest began in the Welly Club,^[111] it was the second largest UK Metal festival after the Download Festival. It featured Major Label bands hailing from the United States, Canada and Italy, as well as the UK, such as: Dead To Fall (USA), From A Second Story Window (USA), Ion Dissonance (Canada), Belay My last (USA), Abel Is Dying (Italy), Eternal Lord, Annotations of an Autopsy, With Chaos in Her Wake, Postmortem Promises, Clone the Fragile and many more. The first Hull Comedy Festival, which included performers such as Stewart Lee and Russell Howard was held in 2007 and it is anticipated that this too will become an annual festival.^[112]

See also: Bands and musicians from Yorkshire and North East England

Media

The BBC building in Hull

Hull's daily newspaper is the Hull Daily Mail which was named Yorkshire Daily Newspaper of the Year in 2003,^[113] 2004,^[114] 2006^[115] and 2007.^[116] Mail News and Media also has an internet presence, with separate sites for local news, sports and nightlife. Local listings and what's on guides include Tenfoot City Magazine and Sandman Magazine. The BBC has its new Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regional headquarters at Queen's Gardens,^[117] from which the regional news programme Look North is broadcast. Radio services come from BBC Radio Humberside, Viking FM, KCFM, Magic 1161, Hull University Union's Jam 1575, and Kingstown Radio, the hospital-based radio station, which all broadcast to the city.^[118]

Sport

Kingston Communications Stadium

The city's professional football team, Hull City AFC, play in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system, having been promoted in the 2007–08 season.^[119] The team play at the Kingston Communications Stadium.

Hull is a rugby league hub, having two teams who play in the Super League. Hull FC, along with Hull City AFC, play at the Kingston Communications Stadium^[120] and Hull Kingston Rovers who play at Craven Park.^[121] There are also several lower league teams in the city, such as East Hull, West Hull, Hull Dockers and Hull Isberg, who all play in the National Conference League.^[122] Rugby union is catered for by Hull Ionians who play at Brantingham Park.^[123]

The city also has Hull Ice Arena,^[124] a large ice rink and concert venue, which is home to the Hull Stingrays ice hockey team who play in the Elite Ice Hockey League.^[124] New to the city is the Hull Hornets American Football Club which acquired full member status of the British American Football League on 5 November 2006 and played in the BAFL Division 2 Central league for 2007. Greyhound racing returned to the city on 25 October 2007 with the re-opening of The Boulevard stadium as a venue for the sport.^[125] In mid-2006 Hull was home to the professional wrestling company 1PW, which held the Devils Due event on 27 July in the Gemtec Arena.^[126]

Transport and infrastructure

The Humber Bridge from the south bank

The main road route into and out of Hull is the M62 motorway/A63 road, which is one of the main east–west routes in northern England.^[127] It provides a link to the cities of Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds as well as the rest of the country via the UK motorway network. The motorway itself ends some distance from the city; the rest of the route is along the A63 dual carriageway. This east–west route forms a small part of the European road route E20.^[128]

Hull is close to the Humber Bridge, which provides road links to destinations south of the Humber. This toll bridge was constructed between 1972 and 1981 and at the time it was built it was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. It is now fourth in the list.^[129] Prior to the construction of the bridge those wishing to cross the Humber could either take a ferry or travel inland as far as Goole.^[130]

Public transport within the city is provided by two main bus operators: Stagecoach in Hull and East Yorkshire Motor Services. A smaller operator, Alpha Bus and Coach, provides one of the two Park and Ride services in the city, whilst East Yorkshire Motor Services provide the other. Generally, routes within the city are operated by Stagecoach and those which leave the city are operated by EYMS.^[131][132]

Hull Paragon Interchange, opened on 16 September 2007,^[133] is the city’s transport hub, combining the main bus and rail termini in an integrated complex. It is expected to have 24,000 people passing through the complex each day.^[134] From the railway terminus, services run to the rest of the UK, including direct services to London, provided by First Hull Trains.

The Pride of Rotterdam ferry operates from Hull to Rotterdam

P&O Ferries provide daily overnight ferry services from King George Dock in Hull to Zeebrugge and Rotterdam.^[135][136] Services to Rotterdam are worked by ferries Pride of Rotterdam and Pride of Hull, the largest ferries operating from the United Kingdom.

The nearest airport is Humberside Airport which is 20 miles (32 km) away in Lincolnshire, this mostly provides charter flights but it also has four KLM scheduled flights to Amsterdam and Aberdeen each day. Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire is 48 miles (77 km) from the city centre and provides low cost flights to many European destinations.^[137]

Road transport in Hull suffers from delays caused both by the many bridges over the navigable River Hull which bisects the city and which can cause disruption at busy times, and from the remaining three level crossings in the city. The level crossing problem was greatly relieved during the 1960s with the closure of the Hornsea and Withernsea branch lines, the transfer of all goods traffic to the high level line that circles the city,^[138] and by the construction of two major road bridges on Hessle Road (1962) and Anlaby Road (1964).

Telephone system

A Hull K6 telephone box

Hull is the only city in the UK with its own independent telephone network company, Kingston Communications. Its distinctive cream telephone boxes can be seen across the city. The company was formed in 1902 as a municipal department by the City Council and is an early example of municipal enterprise. It remains the only locally operated telephone company in the UK, although it is now privatised.^[139] Initially Hull City Council retained a 44.9 per cent interest in the company and used the proceeds from the sale of shares to fund the city's sports venue, the KC Stadium, amongst other things.^[140] On 24 May 2007 they sold their remaining stake in the company for over £107 million.^[141]

Kingston Communications was one of the first telecoms operators in Europe to offer ADSL to business users, and the first in the world to run an interactive television service using ADSL, known as Kingston Interactive TV (KiT).^[142] In recent years, Kingston Communications has expanded and diversified its service portfolio to become a nationwide provider of telephone, television, and Internet access services, with close to 180,000 customers projected for 2007.^[143]

Public services

Policing in Kingston upon Hull is undertaken by Humberside Police. In October 2006 the force was named (jointly with Northamptonshire Police) as the worst performing police force in the United Kingdom, based on data released from the Home Office.^[144] However, after a year of "major improvements", the Home Office list released in October 2007 shows the force rising several places (although still among the bottom six of 43 forces rated). Humberside Police received ratings of "good" or "fair" in most categories.^[145]

HM Prison Hull is located in the city and is operated by HM Prison Service. It caters for up to 1,000 adult male prisoners.^[146]

Statutory emergency fire and rescue service is provided by the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, which has its headquarters near Hessle and five fire stations in Hull. This service was formed in 1974 following local government reorganisation from the amalgamation of the East Riding of Yorkshire County Fire Service, Grimsby Borough Fire and Rescue Service, Kingston Upon Hull City Fire Brigade and part of the Lincoln (Lindsey) Fire Brigade and a small part of the West Riding of Yorkshire County Fire and Rescue Service.^[147]

Hull and East Yorkshire NHS Hospital Trust provides healthcare from three sites, Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital^[148] and there are several private hospitals including ones run by BUPA and Nuffield Hospitals.^[149] The Yorkshire Ambulance Service provides emergency patient transport.^[150] Other forms of health care are provided for locally by Hull NHS Primary Care Trust at several smaller clinics and general practitioner surgeries.^[151] Waste management is co-ordinated by the local authority. The Waste Recycling Group is a company which works in partnership with the Hull City and East Riding of Yorkshire councils to deal with the waste produced by residents.^[152] The company plans to build an energy from waste plant at Salt End to deal with 240,000 tonnes of rubbish and put waste to a productive use by providing power for the equivalent of 20,000 houses.^[153] Hull's Distribution Network Operator for electricity is CE Electric UK (YEDL); there are no power stations in the city. Yorkshire water manages Hull's drinking and waste water. Drinking water is abstracted from the River Derwent^[154] at Elvington and moved to Hull via the Yorkshire water grid. Waste water and sewage has to be transported in a wholly pumped system because of the flat nature of the terrain to a sewage treatment works at Salt End which is powered by a wind turbine.

Education

The Venn Building, part of the University of Hull

Kingston upon Hull is home to the University of Hull, which was founded in 1927 and received its Royal Charter in 1954. It has a student population of 16,000.^[155] Associated with the university is the Hull York Medical School, which took its first intake of students in 2003 as a part of the British government's attempts to train more doctors.^[156]

The University of Lincoln grew out of the University of Humberside, a former polytechnic, which was based in Hull. In the 1990s the focus of the institution moved to nearby Lincoln and the administrative headquarters and management moved in 2001.^[157] The University of Lincoln still retains a small campus in Hull city centre.^[158]

Hull has over 100 local schools; of these, Hull City Council supports 14 secondary and 71 primary schools.^[159] Schools which are independent of the City Council include Hymers College^[160] and Hull Collegiate School. The latter, which is run by the United Church Schools Trust, was formed by the merging of Hull Grammar School and Hull High School.^[161] There is a further education college, Hull College,^[162] and two large sixth form colleges, Wyke College^[163] and Wilberforce College.^[164] Hull Trinity House School has been offering pre-sea training to prospective mariners since 1787.^[165]

The city has had poor examination success rates for many years and was often near to the bottom of government league tables.^[166][167] In the 2007 the city moved off the bottom of these tables for pupils who achieve five A* to C grades, including English and Maths, at General Certificate of Secondary Education by just one place when it came 149th out of 150 local education authorities. However, the improvement rate of 4.1 per cent, from 25.9 per cent in 2006 to 30 per cent in summer 2007, was amongst the best in the country.^[168]

Dialect and accent

The local accent is quite distinctive and noticeably different from the rest of the East Riding; however it is still categorised amongst Yorkshire accents. The most notable feature of the accent is the strong I-mutation^[169] in words like goat, which is [gəʊt] in standard English and [goːt] across most of Yorkshire, becomes [gɵːt] ("geuht") in and around parts of Hull, although there is variation across areas and generations.^[170]

View of Pearson Park

In common with much of England (outside of the far north), another feature is dropping the H from the start of words, for example Hull is more often pronounced 'Ull in the city. The vowel in "Hull" is pronounced the same way as in Standard English, however, and not as the very short /U/ that exists in Lincolnshire, although the rhythm of the accent is more like that of northern Lincolnshire than that of the rural East Riding, which is perhaps due to migration from Lincolnshire to the city during its industrial growth. One feature that it does share with the surrounding rural area is that an /i/ sound in the middle of a word often becomes an /a:/: for example, "five" may sound like "fahve", "time" like "tahme", etc. "Guide" and "guard" for example are therefore homophones.^[171]

The vowel sound in words such as burnt, nurse, first is pronounced with an /E:/ sound, as is also heard in Liverpool and in Middlesbrough, yet this sound is very uncommon in most of Yorkshire. The word pairs spur/spare and fur/fair illustrate this.^[172] The generational and/or geographic variation can be heard in word pairs like pork/poke or cork/coke, or hall/hole, which some people pronounce identically while others make a distinction; anyone called "Paul" (for example) soon becomes aware of this (Paul/pole).^[173][170]

Notable people

The Wilberforce Monument as seen from the Queen's Gardens

Most of the notable people associated with the city can be found in the People from Hull and People associated with the University of Hull categories.

People from Hull are called Hullensians and the city has been the birthplace and home to many notable people. Amongst the most notable persons of historic significance with a connection to Hull are William Wilberforce who was instrumental in the abolition of slavery^[17] and Amy Johnson, aviator who was the first person to fly solo from England to Australia.^[174] Notable entertainers from the city include actor John Alderton^[175] and actress Maureen Lipman.^[176] Playwrights Richard Bean, John Godber and Alan Plater have close connections with Hull.^{[177] [178][179]} Musicians include Paul Heaton of the Housemartins and The Beautiful South^[97] and guitarist Mick Ronson who worked with David Bowie.^[180] Notable sportspeople include Clive Sullivan, rugby league player, who played for both of Hull's professional rugby league teams.^[181] The main A63 road into the city from the Humber Bridge is named after him (Clive Sullivan Way).

Twinned cities

Hull City Hall

Hull has formal twinning arrangements with several places:^[182]

	Country		Place		County / District / Region / State	Date
	Sierra Leone		Freetown		Western Area
	Japan		Niigata		Niigata
	United States		Raleigh		North Carolina
	Iceland		Reykjavík		Reykjavík
	Netherlands		Rotterdam		South Holland
	Poland		Szczecin		West Pomerania

Hull, Massachusetts in the USA is named after this city,^[183] as is Hull, Quebec, which is part of the Canadian national capital region.^[184]

References

Notes

^a There was no census in 1941: figures are from National Register. United Kingdom and Isle of Man. Statistics of Population on 29 September 1939 by Sex, Age and Marital Condition

^b There is a discrepancy of 6 between Office of National Statistics figures (quoted before) and those on the Vision of Britain website (quoted here).

External links

• Hull City Council
• Kingston upon Hull travel guide from Wikitravel

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