A day in Hull

Husband and I had a good day ( and two nights) in Hull. We looked online for what to do in this City of Culture (it has been awarded this title for one year only). Sadly, we had come at a time of little cultural activity, so we were not able to find anything we wanted to see at the theatre. However, we found that we could do a Philip Larkin Trail (a walking tour) (Philip Larkin was a 20th Century English poet whom I like) and rocked up at the tourist information office at 9 a.m. ready to collect the guide. But sadly, the tourist info office didn't open until ten. So we photographed the Blade (a turbine blade given by Siemens in lieu of a sculpture) and went for a walk, by the waterfront to the old town (cobbled streets and old warehouses, now rather chic student lodgings).

Turbine blade only just fits in the square.

This is the City Hall, in which tourist information has an
 office, and where P. Larkin went to listen to concerts. 

The river Hull here flows into the Humber.  The building on the right is a new shopping centre. Like many towns, Hull has built three shopping malls with adjacent car parks, thereby rendering their pleasant pedestrianised shopping streets redundant. Own goals.

A lift bridge in action, and a boat moored by the historic dockside.

Boat coming through the lift bridge.

We then found the William Wilberforce museum. This MP was born in Hull and is best known for his campaign, based on his religious convictions, to pass laws making the slave trade illegal. (I am sorry to say that the wealth of the British Empire was built on slavery, amongst other abuses.)  Wilberforce found out all the facts about the disgusting trade and his campaign made them common knowledge so no-one could say they didn't know how cruel it was. However, he didn't campaign to end slavery - that only happened in the West Indies 30 years later.

The Wilberforce house and museum - very idiosyncratic architecture

William in the garden - apparently he had a big nose
 and was small
but here he looks gorgeous.

Went back to the square and went to the historic city toilets, which are under the city square. I made Husband take photos of his toilets as they were rather quaint. I also took some pics of mine which didn't come out well.

male toilets

female loo showing wooden door with real brass fittings.

traditional taps

random tile design

The Larkin tour took us into Marks and Spencer, which inspired a poem mentioning baby-doll nighties, and a street famous for its name "The Land of Green Ginger", which was the legal district and all the old legal chambers were down there. It inspired a novel by Winifred Holtby which I haven't yet read.

The tour took us to another historic area - Trinity Square - has a lovely church in the centre and the old grammar school.

A more recent school



The old grammar school

Boys were not encouraged to look out of the window.

 Although we did not photograph them, the large number of council workers laying new pavements was a huge feature of the city. I have never anywhere seen so many workpeople (there were girls amongst them) wearing hard hats and hi-viz and busying themselves with fenced off areas of pavement. Hundreds. There were a number in this square.

We then had a longer walk to the pier where Larkin used to catch the ferry across the Humber. Apparently what he liked about the city was the way the clouds pile up in the large skies. It is true that we had lovely skies on the day that we were there but I imagine it is often quite grim.



This aquarium is apparently brilliant - it is called The Deep and looks like the bows of the Titanic when sinking - or like a shark's tooth.

This sculpture looks out to Europe. It is not a Gormley.

There was another quite seductive-looking toilet in the neighbourhood but no café open.

We then went to the historical area and visited a pub called the Sailmakers' arms (nice drinks) and two museums, the Streetlife and the William Wilberforce. We enjoyed the Streetlife museum with its old trams and shops.

Hot chocolate

The trouble with Hull is that most of its pubs, which are very historical and decorative from the outside, don't serve food, so that they go out of business and look very run down, and this is true of one of the Larkin trail pubs, the White Hart. You can't see its lovely ceramic bar (there is a photo online), and general cosiness, because it is closed.

This picture shows a particularly good, elaborate, but empty pub

The picture above also shows an area of the street fenced off for re-pavementing.

We saved one of the best things to see until the end of our day - at the station is a good sculpture of Larkin by Martin Jennings.

The station is not called a station, but the Paragon Interchange. This is because there is a bus station as well. But for heaven's sake! I think Hull needs to get its feet back on the ground (and stop building shopping centres and get more of its pubs to do decent food.)

Amongst the other things to look at is a barrage (a dam that goes up and down on a huge gantry) and a memorial to Wilberforce on a column.