Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull, usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles (40 km) inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of. The Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) population stands at 573,300. Renamed Kings town upon Hull by King Edward I in 1299, the town and city of Hull has served as market town, military supply port, a trading hub, fishing and whaling centre, and industrial metropolis.

Hull was an early theatre of battle in the English Civil Wars. Its 18th-century Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, played a key role in the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.

The city is unique in the UK in having had a municipally-owned telephone system from 1902, sporting cream, not red, telephone boxes.

After suffering heavy damage during the Second World War, Hull weathered a period of post-industrial decline, during which the city gained unfavourable results on measures of social deprivation, education and policing. In recent years the city has embarked on an extensive programme of economic regeneration, reconstruction and urban renewal. The economic crisis since 2008 has caused some setbacks to these developments.

Established tourist attractions include the historic Old Town and Museum Quarter, the Marina and The Deep, a city landmark. The redevelopment of one of Hull's main thoroughfares, Ferensway, included the opening of St. Stephen's Hull and the new Hull Truck Theatre. Spectator sporting activities include professional football and two rugby league clubs. The KC Stadium houses the football club and one rugby club.

History
Kingston upon Hull stands 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 of a substantial settlement in the area of the present city. The general area was attractive to early developers because it gave access to a prosperous hinterland and navigable rivers, but the actual site was not good, as it was remote and low-lying with no fresh water. It was originally an outlying part of the hamlet of Myton, named Wyke. The name is thought to originate either from a Scandinavian word Vik meaning creek, or from the Saxon Wic meaning dwelling place or refuge.

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 on 1 April 1299 granted it a royal charter that renamed the settlement King's town upon Hull, or Kingston upon Hull. The charter is preserved in the archives of the city's Guildhall.

In 1440, a further charter incorporated the town and instituted local government consisting of a mayor, a sheriff, and twelve aldermen.

In his Guide to Hull (1817), J.C. Craggs provides a colourful background to Edward's acquisition and naming of the town. He writes that the King and a hunting party started a hare which "led them along the delightful banks of the River Hull to the hamlet of Wyke … [Edward], charmed with the scene before him, viewed with delight the advantageous situation of this hitherto neglected and obscure corner. He foresaw it might become subservient both to render the kingdom more secure against foreign invasion, and at the same time greatly to enforce its commerce". Pursuant to these thoughts, Craggs continues, Edward purchased the land from the Abbot of Meaux, had a manor hall built for himself, issued proclamations encouraging development within the town, and bestowed upon it the royal appellation, King's Town.

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.

From its mediaeval beginnings, Hull's main trading links were with Scotland and northern Europe. Scandinavia, the Baltic and the Low Countries were all key trading areas for Hull's merchants. In addition, there was trade with France, Spain and Portugal. As sail power gave way to steam, Hull's trading links extended throughout the world. Docks were opened to serve the frozen meat trade of Australia, New Zealand and South America. Hull was also the centre of a thriving inland and coastal trading network, serving the whole of the United Kingdom.

Sir William de la Pole was the town's first mayor. A prosperous merchant, de la Pole founded a family that became prominent in government. Another successful son of a Hull trading family was bishop John Alcock, who founded Jesus College, Cambridge and was a patron of the grammar school in Hull. 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.

The town prospered during the 16th and early 17th centuries, 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.

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 governor of Hull while Parliament nominated Sir John Hotham and asked his son, Captain John Hotham, to secure the town at once. Sir John Hotham and Hull corporation declared support for Parliament and denied Charles I entry into the town. Charles I responded to these events by besieging the town. This siege helped precipitate open conflict between the forces of Parliament and those of the Royalists.

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and leading up to the first World War, the Port of Hull played a major role in the transmigration of Northern European settlers to the New World, with thousands of emigrants sailing to the city and stopping for administrative purposes before travelling on to Liverpool and then North America.

Parallel to this growth in passenger shipping was the emergence of the Wilson Line of Hull. Founded in the city in 1825 by Thomas Wilson, by the early 20th century the company had grown – largely through its monopolisation of North Sea passenger routes and later mergers and acquisitions – to be the largest privately-owned shipping company in the world, with over 100 ships sailing to different parts of the globe. The Wilson Line was sold to the Ellerman Line – which itself was owned by Hull-born magnate (and the richest man in Britain at the time) Sir John Ellerman.

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

Hull Blitz
The city's port and industrial facilities, coupled with its proximity to mainland Europe and ease of location being on a major estuary, led to extremely widespread damage by bombing raids during World War II; much of the city centre was completely destroyed. Hull had 95% of its houses damaged or destroyed, making it the most severely bombed British city or town, apart from London, during World War II. Of a population of approximately 320,000 at the beginning of World War II, some 192,000 were made homeless as a result of bomb destruction or damage. More than 1,200 people died in air raids on the city and some 3,000 others were injured.

The worst of the bombing occurred in 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 "a northern coastal town". Most of the city centre was rebuilt in the years following the war, but as recently as 2006 researchers found documents in the local archives that suggested an unexploded wartime bomb might be buried beneath a major new redevelopment, The Boom, in Hull.

Government


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.

The single-tier local authority of the city is now Hull City Council (officially Kingston upon Hull City Council), headquartered in the Guildhall in the city centre. 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 the 2008 corporate performance assessment the city retained its "improving well" status but was upgraded to a three star rating.

The Liberal Democrats won overall control of the City Council in the 2007 local elections, ending several years in which no single party had a majority. They retained control in the 2008 local elections by an increased majority and in the 2010 local elections. Following the UK's local elections of 2011, the Labour Party gained control of the council.

The city returned three Members of Parliament to the House of Commons and at the last general election, in 2010, elected three Labour MPs: Alan Johnson who was the former Home Secretary, Diana Johnson and Karl Turner.

William Wilberforce is the most celebrated of Hull's former MPs. He 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.

It lies within the Yorkshire and the Humber constituency of the European Parliament, which in the June 2009 European Election elected two Conservative, one Labour, one UKIP, one Liberal Democrat and one British National Party MEPs, although one of the elected Conservative MEPs (Edward McMillan-Scott) transferred to the Liberal Democrats in March 2010.



Hull is the only city and forms the major urban area in the official government-defined Hull and Humber Ports City Region.

Geography
At 53.74167°N, -0.33333°W, 154 mi north of London, Kingston upon Hull is on the northern bank of the Humber estuary. The city centre is west of the River Hull and close to the Humber. 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.

The parishes of Drypool, Marfleet, 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. Only Sutton 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. 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. The city is surrounded by the rural East Riding of Yorkshire.

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. Due to its low level, Hull is expected to be at increasing levels of risk from flooding due to global warming.

Many areas of Hull were flooded during the June 2007 United Kingdom floods, with 8600 homes and 1300 businesses affected.

Historically, Hull has been affected by tidal and storm flooding from the Humber; the last serious floods were in the 1950s, in 1953, 1954 and the winter of 1959.



Unlike many other 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. Hull forms part of the Southern Vicariate of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough and included among Hull's Catholic churches is St Charles Borromeo, the oldest post-Reformation Roman Catholic church in the city.

There are several seamen's missions and churches in Hull. The Mission to Seafarers has a centre at West King George Dock and the St Nikolaj Danish Seamen's Church is located in Osborne Street.

Climate
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. Locally, the area is sunnier than most areas this far north in the British Isles, and also considerably drier, due to the rain shadowing effect of the Pennines. It is also one of the most northerly areas where the July maximum temperature exceeds 21 °C (70 °F), although this appears to be very localised around the city itself.

The absolute maximum temperature recorded is 34.4 °C (93.9 °F), set in August 1990. Typically, the warmest day should reach 28.6 °C (83.5 °F), though slightly over 10 days should achieve a temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or more in an 'average' year. All averages refer to the 1971–2000 period.

The absolute minimum temperature is −11.1 °C (12.0 °F), recorded during January 1982. An average of 29.8 nights should report an air frost.

Cleethorpes is the nearest weather station for which sunshine records are available, the overall weather conditions are similar, though with slightly cooler summer daytime temperatures due to its more exposed coastal location. It is also somewhat drier than the city itself throughout the year; Rain falls on about 109 days giving an average total annual rainfall of 565 mm. January is usually the coldest month and November the wettest. The warmest month is August and the driest is February.

Seismic activity
At around 00:56 GMT on 27 February 2008, Hull was 30 mi north of the epicentre of an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter Scale which lasted for nearly 10 seconds. This was an unusually large earthquake for this part of the world.

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

In 2001 approximately 53,000 people were aged under 16, 174,000 were aged 16–74, and 17,000 aged 75 and over. Of the total population 97.7% were white and the largest minority ethnic group was of 749 people who considered themselves to be ethnically Chinese. There were 3% of people living in Hull who were born outside the United Kingdom. In 2006 the largest minority ethnic grouping was Iraqi Kurds who were estimated at 3,000. Most of these people were placed in the city by the Home Office while their applications for asylum were being processed. In 2001, the city was 71.7% Christian. A further 18% of the population indicated they were of no religion while 8.4% did not specify any religious affiliation. In 2001, the city had the lowest church attendance in the United Kingdom.

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. The distance travelled to work was less than 3 mi for 64,578 out of 95,957 employed people. A further 18,031 travelled 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.

Economy
The economy of Hull was built on trading and seafaring, firstly whaling and later seafishing. Merchant's houses such as Blaydes House and some warehouses survive in the Old Town, where trade was centred on the River Hull, later shifting to the Humber docks. Another major industry was oilseed crushing. Although the fishing industry declined in the 1970s, the city remains a busy port, handling 13 million tonnes of cargo per year. Freight handling at the port is projected to rise following Network Rail oversight of a £14.5 million investment in the rail link, which was completed in mid-2008. This was projected to increase its capacity from 10 trains per day to 22. The port operations run by Associated British Ports and other companies in the port employ 5,000 people. A further 18,000 are employed as a direct result of the port's activities. 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. 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 and has 270 berths for yachts and small sailing craft.

Industry in the city is focused on the chemical and health care sectors. Several well-known British companies, including BP, Smith & Nephew, Seven Seas, and Reckitt Benckiser, have facilities in Hull. 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. In recent years, with the decline of fishing and heavy industry, the retail sector, tourism, the arts and further and higher education sectors have played an increasingly prominent role in the process of economic regeneration and raising the profile of the city. In 2009 it was estimated that businesses in Hull deliver an annual turnover of almost £8 billion, and over 5 million annual visitors contribute almost £210 million to Hull's economy.

In January 2011 Siemens and Associated British Ports signed a memorandum of understanding concerning the construction of wind energy machine manufacturing plant at Alexander Dock. The plan would require some modification of the dock to allow the ships, used for transporting the wind turbines, to dock and be loaded. Planning applications for the plant were submitted in December 2011.

Retail
As the biggest settlement in the East Riding of Yorkshire and the local transport hub, Hull is a natural focus for retail shoppers. Major department stores in Hull include Debenhams, House of Fraser and British Home Stores (BHS). The city has three main shopping centres, St. Stephen's, Princes Quay and the Prospect Centre. There are also a number of "retail parks", and suburban shopping centres including the North Point Shopping Centre at Bransholme, St Andrews Quay on the Humber bank, as well as near Great Gutter lane (Willerby), Mount Pleasent (Holderness Road), Priory Park (near Hessle) and Kingswood retail park (Kingswood)

Whitefriargate is one of the shopping streets, along with King Edward Street and Carr lane.

The electrical retailer Comet Group was founded in the city as Comet Battery Stores Limited in 1933; the company's first superstore was opened in Hull in 1968.

The city's branch of Woolworth's on King Edward Street closed in 2008, as did the branch of T J Hughes on the site of the former C&A store on Ferensway in August 2011, following the parent companies' bankruptcies. The main out-of-town shopping streets are Hessle Road, Holderness Road, Chanterlands Avenue, Beverley Road, as well as Princes Avenue and Newland Avenue. Two covered shopping arcades remain in the town centre: the Hepworth and Paragon Arcades.

The Prospect Centre on Prospect Street is a smaller, older shopping centre with a range of chain stores, banks and fashion retailers. It contains branches of Boots, Claire's, a large Wilkinsons, Poundland, W H Smith, Santander, and Hull's main post office. At Bransholme, the North Point Shopping Centre (Bransholme Shopping Centre) contains a similar range of popular chain stores and budget-oriented retailers including Boyes and Heron Foods.

The Princes Quay Shopping Centre (1991) was built on stilts over the closed Prince's Dock, and houses a variety of chain stores and food outlets. It was originally built with four retail floors, known as "decks". The uppermost deck has housed a Vue cinema since December 2007.

Budget and discount retailers such as Boyes, Primark, Peacocks, Poundland and Wilkinsons have branches in the city. Hull has a good selection of supermarkets, including several branches of Tesco, Sainsbury's, the Co-operative and budget food stores including Heron Foods and Iceland.

During the early 2000s, large areas of central Hull were marked as sites of regeneration to encourage retailing and commercial development. These areas included the proposed Quay West (cancelled 2010. ) and flagship St. Stephen's projects. The St. Stephen's development on Ferensway is Hull's is a 560000 sqft scheme, costing over £160 million. It is anchored by a large 24-hour Tesco Extra superstore and provides shop units, food outlets, a hotel, car parking; adjacent is Hull's Paragon Interchange completed in the same time period which includes a new bus station and renovated railway station with retail outlets.

Regeneration projects
Overlooking the Humber, the new £165 million Humber Quays development, which has now gained World Trade Centre status, 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.

Phase 2 will include a new 200-bedroom 4-star hotel, a restaurant, and more high-quality office space.

During the early 2000s a £100 million residential development was planned for the east bank of the River Hull. This development, called the Boom, would include over 600 luxury riverside apartments, shops, boutiques, bistro cafés, a 120-bed luxury hotel, and health and education facilities. Linking the development to the city centre started in September 2009 with the construction of a swing footbridge across the River Hull which is described as an "iconic" addition to Hull's skyline.

The 50-stall indoor Edwardian Trinity Market, a grade II listed building, and Hepworth's arcade were modernised and renovated in the lated 2000s.

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

In June 2010 due to governmental budgetary cuts on public spending Hull Forward lost funding, and the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward was abolished.

Enterprise Zone
Under the plan firms moving into any of the agreed sites within the Enterprise Zone will be offered a range of start-up incentives like they include not having to pay business rates for five years, saving up to £255,000 per company.

A new Siemens wind turbine plant was planned to be built in Hull’s Alexandra Dock as part of Hull’s bid for a new Enterprise Zone along a three-mile stretch of Hedon Road.

A 12.5-acre site waste-to-energy centre costing in the region of £150,000,000, could also be built in Hull after plans were revealed for a major renewables scheme by the Barrow-upon-Humber-based engineering group, Spencer has submitted plans to Hull City Council for Energy Works, in a project that would see up to 200,000 tonnes of organic material converted into energy each year. Charlie Spencer, chief executive of C Spencer Ltd, said: "This will be the first project of its kind in the UK." The new ‘Energy Works’, which is predicted to create 60 permanent jobs and 200 others  in the construction phase, aims to significantly reduce the need for waste to go to landfill.

The planed project will be built on a between the River Hull and Cleveland Street and convert up to 20,000 tonnes of organic material into energy each year and will produce enough energy to power roughly 25,000 by relying on a process called advanced gasification. The power station could be up and running in 2014, if given planning permission by the end of 2011, since construction is expected to take two years.

Friends of the Earth said it was too early to comment on the proposals for the new plant, planned for Cleveland Street. A previous plan for an incinerator at Saltend to burn waste was opposed by a variety of local groups in 2010. They were concerned that some materials entering the mix that could be recycled wanted the government to prioritise recycling and for the UK to boost recycling rates to 70%.

The planning application was submitted to Hull City Council for consideration in mid-2011.

Culture
Hull has a vibrant tradition of arts and culture with several museums of national importance. The city has a strong theatrical tradition with some famous actors and writers having been born and lived in Hull. The city's arts and heritage have played an important role in attracting visitors and encouraging tourism in recent efforts at regeneration. Hull has a diverse range of architecture and this is complemented by parks and squares and a number of statues and modern sculptures.

Museums
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 ), and the Streetlife Museum of Transport. Other museums and visitor attractions include the Ferens Art Gallery with a good range of art and regular exhibitions, the Maritime Museum in Victoria Square, the Spurn Lightship, the Yorkshire Water Museum, and the Deep, the world's only submarium. The recently refurbished Seven Seas Fish Trail marks Hull's fishing heritage, leading its followers through old and new sections of the city, following a wide variety of sealife engraved in the pavement.

Visual culture and sculpture
Artist and Royal Academician David Remfry grew up in Hull and studied at the Hull College of Art (now part of Lincoln University) from 1959–64. Remfry has had two solo exhibitions at the Ferens Art Gallery in 1975 and 2005. Hull has a number of historical statues such as the Wilberforce Memorial in Queen's Gardens and the gilded King William III statue on Market Place (known locally as "King Billy").

There is a statue of Hull-born Amy Johnson in Prospect Street. In recent years a number of modern art sculptures and heritage trails have been installed around Hull. These include a figure looking out to the Humber called 'Voyage' which has a twin in Iceland. In July 2011, this artwork was reported stolen. There is a shark sculpture outside The Deep and a fountain and installation called 'Tower of Light' outside Britannia House on the corner of Spring Bank.

In 2010 a public art event in Hull city centre entitled Larkin with Toads displayed 40 individually decorated giant toad models as the centrepiece of the Larkin 25 festival. Most of these sculptures have since been sold off for charity and transported to their new owners. Visitors to Hull's Paragon Interchange are now greeted by the new statue of Philip Larkin unveiled on 2 December 2010.

Theatres
The city has three main theatres. Hull New Theatre, which opened in 1939, is the largest venue which features musicals, opera, ballet, drama, children's shows and pantomime. The Hull Truck Theatre is a smaller independent theatre, established in 1971, that regularly features plays, notably those written by John Godber. Since April 2009, the Hull Truck Theatre has had a new £14.5 million, 440 seat venue in the St. Stephen's Hull development replacing the old complex on Spring Street. The playwright Alan Plater was brought up in Hull and was associated with Hull Truck Theatre. The Northern Theatre Company, established in 1975, is also based in the city and offers youth training in acting.

Hull has produced a number of veteran stage and TV actors. Sir Tom Courtenay, Ian Carmichael and Maureen Lipman were born and brought up in Hull. Younger actors Reece Shearsmith, Debra Stephenson and Liam Garrigan were also born in Hull. Garrigan attended Hull's Northern Theatre Company and Wyke College.

In 1914, there were 29 cinemas in Hull but most of these have now closed. The first purpose-built cinema was the Prince's Hall in George Street which opened in 1910. It was subsequently renamed the Curzon.

Poetry
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".

Philip Larkin set many of his poems in Hull; these include "The Whitsun Weddings", "Toads", and "Here". Scottish-born Douglas Dunn's Terry Street, a portrait of working-class Hull life, is one the outstanding poetry collections of the 1970s. 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. Andrew Motion, past Poet Laureate, lectured at the University of Hull between 1976 and 1981, and Roger McGough studied there. Both poets are speaking at the Humber Mouth Festival in 2010. Contemporary poets associated with Hull are Maggie Hannan, David Wheatley, and Caitriona O'Reilly.

17th century Metaphysical Poet and parliamentarian Andrew Marvell was born nearby, grew up and was educated in the city. There is a statue in his honour in the Market Square (Trinity Square), set against the backdrop of his alma mater Hull Grammar School.

Classical
In the field of classical music, Hull is home to Hull Sinfonietta, the largest professional chamber ensemble in the Humber region, and also the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the oldest amateur orchestras in the country. The Hull Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, established in 1952, 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, who are the current North of England Area Brass Band Champions, and East Riding of Yorkshire Band.

Hull City Hall annually plays host to major British and European symphony Orchestras with its 'International Masters' orchestral concert season. During the 2009–10 season visiting orchestra's included the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Internationally renowned touring pop, rock, and comedy acts also regularly play the City Hall.

Rock and Pop
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. Ronson later went on to record with Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Morrissey and the Wildhearts. There is a Mick Ronson Memorial Stage in Queen's Gardens in Hull.

In the 1980s, Hull groups such as the Red Guitars, the Housemartins and Everything But the Girl found mainstream success. Paul Heaton, former member of the Housemartins went on to front the Beautiful South. Another former member of the Housemartins, Norman Cook, now performs as Fatboy Slim. 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. Vocalist and actor Roland Gift, who formed the Fine Young Cannibals, grew up in Hull. The pioneering industrial band Throbbing Gristle formed in Hull; Genesis P-Orridge (Neil Megson) attended Hull University between 1968 and 1969, where he met Cosey Fanni Tutti (Christine Newby), who was born in the city, and first became part of the Hull performance art group COUM Transmissions in 1970. The record label Pork Recordings started in Hull in the mid-1990s and has released music by Fila Brazillia, Mr Beasley and the Brilliance among 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 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, while the Springhead caters to a variety of bands and has been recognised nationally as a Live Music Pub of the Year.

Nightlife, bars and pubs
The drinking culture in Hull 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.

Festivals
The Humber Mouth literature festival is an annual event and the 2010 season featured writers such as Roy Hattersley, Andrew Motion and Roger McGough. This was followed, on 17 July 2010, by the Sea Fever Festival, an International Sea Shanty Festival, July being the new date for the sea shanty. The annual Hull Jazz Festival takes place around the Marina area for a week at the beginning of August.

As of 2008 Hull has also held Freedom Festival; an annual free arts and live music event that celebrates freedom in all its forms.

Early October sees the arrival of Hull Fair which is one of Europe's largest travelling funfairs and takes place on land adjacent to the KC Stadium.

The Hull Global Food Festival held its third annual event in the city's Queen Victoria Square for three days – 4–6 September 2009. According to officials, the event in 2007 attracted 125,000 visitors and brought some £5 million in revenue to the area. In 2007 the Hull Metalfest began in the Welly Club, it featured major label bands from the United States, Canada and Italy, as well as the UK. The first Hull Comedy Festival, which included performers such as Stewart Lee and Russell Howard was held in 2007.

In 2010, Hull marked the 25th anniversary of the death of the poet Philip Larkin with the Larkin 25 Festival. This included the popular Larkin with Toads public art event. The 40 Larkin toads were displayed around Hull and later sold off in a charity auction. A charity appeal raised funds to cast a life-size bronze statue of Philip Larkin, to a design by Martin Jennings, at Hull Paragon Interchange. The statue was unveiled at a ceremony attended by the Lord Mayor of Hull on 2 December 2010, the 25th anniversary of Larkin's death. It bears an inscription drawn from the first line of Larkin's poem, 'The Whitsun Weddings'.

Parks and green spaces
Hull has a large number of parks and green spaces. These include East Park, Pearson Park, Pickering Park and West Park. West Park is home to Hull's KC Stadium. Pearson Park contains a lake and a 'Victorian Conservatory' housing birds and reptiles. East Park has a large boating lake and a collection of birds and animals. They are registered Grade II listed sites by English Heritage. The city centre has the large Queen's Gardens parkland at its heart. This was originally built as formal ornamental gardens used to fill in the former Queen's Dock. It is now a more flexible grassed and landscaped area used for concerts and festivals, but retains a large ornamental flower circus and fountain at its western end.

The streets of Hull's suburban areas also lined with large numbers of trees, particularly the Avenues area around Princes Avenue and Boulevard to the west. Many of the old trees in the Avenues district have been felled in recent years with the stumps carved into a variety of 'living sculptures'. Other green areas include the University area and parts of Beverley Road to the north.

West Hull has a district known as 'Botanic'. This recalls the short-lived Botanic Garden that once existed on the site now occupied by Hymers College. Elephants once lived nearby in the former Zoological Gardens on Spring Bank Avenue and were paraded in the local streets. The land has since been redeveloped. There was also a former Botanic Garden between Hessle Road and the Anlaby Road commemorated by Linnaeus Street.

Media
Hull's only local daily newspaper is the longstanding Hull Daily Mail, whose circulation area covers much of East Yorkshire. A free paper, The Hull Advertiser, is issued weekly by the same publisher. Local listings and what's-on guides include Tenfoot City Magazine and Sandman Magazine. The BBC has its Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regional headquarters at Queen's Gardens, from which the regional news programme Look North is broadcast. Radio services come from BBC Radio Humberside, Viking FM, KCFM, Magic 1161, 106.9FM WHCR, Hull University Union's Jam 1575, and Kingstown Radio, the hospital-based radio station, which all broadcast to the city.

Sport
The Hull area has available a wide range of both spectator and participatory sporting clubs and organisations. These are as various as professional football, rugby league, golf, darts, athletics and pigeon racing.

The city's professional football club, Hull City A.F.C. (The Tigers), play in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system after relegation from the Premier League in season 2009–10. The team play at the KC Stadium.

Hull is also a rugby league hub, having two clubs who play in the engage Super League competition. Hull F.C., alongside the city's football club Hull City, play at the KC Stadium while Hull Kingston Rovers play at Craven Park in East Hull. 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. Rugby union is catered for by Hull Ionians who play at Brantingham Park. and Hull RUFC who are based in the city.

The city has two athletics clubs based at the Costello Stadium in the west of the city – Kingston upon Hull Athletics Club and Hull Achilies Athletics Club.

Cycling wise the city is home to Hull Cycle Speedway Club situated at the Hessle raceway near the Humber bridge. The side race in the sports Northern league and won both the league titles in 2008. Other cycling clubs also operate throughout the city including Hull Thursday, the areas road racing group.

The city also has Hull Arena, 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. It is also home to the Kingston Kestrels sledge hockey team. In August 2010, Hull Daily Mail reported that Hull Stingrays was facing closure, following a financial crisis. The club was subsequently saved from closure following a takeover by Coventry Blaze.

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 when The Boulevard stadium re-opened as a venue for the sport. In mid-2006 Hull was home to the professional wrestling company One Pro Wrestling, which held the Devils Due event on 27 July in the Gemtec Arena. From 16 May 2008, Hull gained its own homegrown wrestling company based at the Eastmount Recreation Centre-—New Generation Wrestling—-that have featured the likes of El Ligero, Kris Travis, Martin Kirby and Alex Shane.

The city played host to the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, a tough 35000 mi race around the globe, for the 2009–10 race which started on 13 September 2009 and finished on 17 July 2010. The locally named yacht, Hull and Humber, captained by Danny Watson, achieved second place in the 2007–2008 race.

Transport
The main road into and out of Hull is the M62 motorway/A63 road, one of the main east–west routes in northern England. It provides a link to the cities of Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, 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.

Hull is close to the Humber Bridge, which provides road links to destinations south of the Humber. It was built between 1972 and 1981, and at the time was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. It is now fifth on the list.

Before the bridge was built, those wishing to cross the Humber had to either take a ferry or travel inland as far as Goole.

Public transport within the city is provided by two main bus operators: Stagecoach in Hull and East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS). A smaller operator, Alpha Bus and Coach, provides one of the two Park and Ride services in the city and CT Plus the other, having taken over the contract in November 2009 from EYMS. Generally, routes within the city are operated by Stagecoach and those which leave the city are operated by EYMS.

Hull Paragon Interchange, opened on 16 September 2007, 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. From the railway terminus, services run to certain other parts of the UK. These include through expresses to London, up to seven per day provided by First Hull Trains and one a day (the Hull Executive) by East Coast. Other long-distance rail services from Hull are provided by First Transpennine Express serving Leeds and Manchester. The nearest access to fast East Coast Main Line services northwards to Teesside, Tyneside and Scotland is via either or, in either case requiring a connecting journey by local train from Hull. Hull also has no through trains to the West Midlands and beyond. Northern Rail operates regular local stopping trains to, and , and the coastal towns of Bridlington and Scarborough, along with services to Selby, York, Doncaster and Sheffield.

P&O Ferries provide daily overnight ferry services from King George Dock in Hull to Zeebrugge and Rotterdam. Services to Rotterdam are worked by ferries Pride of Rotterdam and Pride of Hull.

The nearest airport is Humberside Airport, 20 mi away in Lincolnshire, which provides a few charter flights but also has high-frequency flights to Amsterdam with KLM and Aberdeen with Eastern Airways each day. Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire is 48 mi from Hull city centre and provides a wider choice of charter flights as well as a number of low-cost flights to certain European destinations.

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 railway level crossings in the city. The level-crossing problem was greatly relieved during the 1960s by the closure of the Hornsea and Withernsea branch lines, by the transfer of all goods traffic to the high-level line that circles the city, and by the construction of two major road bridges on Hessle Road (1962) and Anlaby Road (1964).

Telephone system
Hull is the only city in the UK with its own independent telephone network company, KC, formerly Kingston Communications, a subsidiary of KCOM Group. Its distinctive cream telephone boxes can be seen across the city. KC produces its own 'White Pages' telephone directory for Hull and the wider KC area. Colour Pages is KC's business directory, the counterpart to Yellow Pages. 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. KCOM's Internet brands are Karoo Broadband (ISP serving Hull) and Eclipse (national ISP) 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, among other things. On 24 May 2007 it sold its remaining stake in the company for over £107 million.

KC (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), which has since been discontinued due to financial problems. In the last decade, the KCOM Group has expanded beyond Hull and diversified its service portfolio to become a nationwide provider of telephone, television, and Internet access services, having close to 180,000 customers projected for 2007. After its ambitious programme of expansion, KCOM has struggled in recent years and now has partnerships with other telecommunications firms such as BT who are contracted to manage its national infrastructure. Telephone House, on Carr Lane, the firm's 1960s-built HQ, in stark modernist style, is a local landmark.

Public services
Policing in Kingston upon Hull is provided 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. 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.

HM Prison Hull is located in the city and is operated by HM Prison Service. It caters for up to 1,000 Category B/C adult male prisoners.

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.

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust provides healthcare from three sites, Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital and there are several private hospitals including ones run by BUPA and Nuffield Hospitals. The Yorkshire Ambulance Service provides emergency patient transport. NHS primary health care services are provided by Hull NHS Primary Care Trust at several smaller clinics and general practitioner surgeries. NHS Mental health services in Hull are provided by Humber NHS Foundation Trust. It runs a Memory Clinic in Coltman Street, west Hull designed to help older people with early onset dementia.

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. 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. 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 provided by boreholes and aquifers in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and it is abstracted from the River Hull at Tophill Low, near Hutton Cranswick. Should either supply experience difficulty meeting demand, water abstracted from the River Derwent at both Elvington and Loftsome Bridge can be moved to Hull via the Yorkshire water grid. There are many reservoirs in the area for storage of potable and non-potable water. 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. The treatment works is partly powered by both a wind turbine and a biogas CHP engine.

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 now has a total student population of around 20,000 across its main campuses in Hull and Scarborough. The main University campus is in North Hull, on Cottingham Road. Notable alumni include former Deputy Prime Minister Baron Prescott of Kingston-upon-Hull (John Prescott), The Poet Philip Larkin, social scientist Lord Anthony Giddens, Woman's Hour presenter and writer Jenni Murray, and the dramatist Anthony Minghella. Hull University is a partner in the new University Centre of the Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education (GIFE) being built in Grimsby, North Lincolnshire.

Hull York Medical School
The Hull York Medical School (HYMS) is a joint venture between the University of Hull and the University of York. It first admitted students in 2003 as a part of the British government's attempts to train more doctors.

University of Lincoln
The University of Lincoln grew out of the University of Humberside, a former polytechnic based in Hull. In the 1990s the focus of the institution moved to nearby Lincoln and the administrative headquarters and management moved in 2001. The University of Lincoln has retained a campus in George Street in Hull city centre whilst Hull University purchased the adjacent University of Lincoln campus site on Cottingham Road. Following government cuts to Higher Education funding, the George Street campus is due to close in 2013 with courses transferred to Lincoln.

Other institutions
The Hull School of Art, founded in 1861, is regarded nationally and internationally for its excellence as a specialist creative centre for higher education.

The Northern Academy of Performing Arts and Northern Theatre School both provide education in musical theatre, performance and dance.

Schools and colleges
Hull has over 100 local schools; of these, Hull City Council supports 14 secondary and 71 primary schools. One of these, St Mary's Sports College, is a Roman Catholic secondary school. Schools which are independent of the City Council include Hymers College 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. There is a further education college, Hull College, and two large sixth form colleges, Wyke College and Wilberforce College. East Riding College operates a small adult education campus in the city, and Hull Trinity House School has been offering pre-sea training to prospective mariners since 1787. There are only two single-sex schools in Hull: Trinity House, which teaches only boys, and Newland School For Girls.

Schools ratings
The city has had a poor examination success rate for many years and is often at the bottom of government GCSE league tables. 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 among the best in the country. They returned to the bottom of the table in 2008 when 29.3 per cent achieved five A* to C grades which is well below the national average of 47.2 per cent.

Dialect and accent
The local accent is quite distinctive and noticeably different from the rest of the East Riding; however it is still categorised among Yorkshire accents. The most notable feature of the accent is the strong I-mutation in words like goat, which is in standard English and  across most of Yorkshire, becomes  ("gert") in and around parts of Hull, although there is variation across areas and generations. 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 northern English, however, and not as the very short that exists in Lincolnshire. Though 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 sound in the middle of a word often becomes an : for example, "five" may sound like "fahve", "time" like "tahme", etc. "Guide" and "guard" for example are therefore homophones.

The vowel sound in words such as burnt, nurse, first is pronounced with an sound, as is also heard in Middlesbrough and in areas of Liverpool yet this sound is very uncommon in most of Yorkshire. The word pairs spur/spare and fur/fair illustrate this. 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 (using the second of the two variations) while others make a distinction; anyone called "Paul" (for example) soon becomes aware of this (pall/pole).

Notable people



 * Most of the notable people associated with the city can be found in the People from Kingston upon 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. Among the most notable persons of historic significance with a connection to Hull are William Wilberforce who was instrumental in the abolition of slavery and Amy Johnson, aviator who was the first person to fly solo from England to Australia. Notable entertainers from the city include actor John Alderton and actress Maureen Lipman. Playwrights Richard Bean, John Godber and Alan Plater have close connections with Hull. Musicians include Paul Heaton of the Housemartins and The Beautiful South and guitarist Mick Ronson who worked with David Bowie. The logician John Venn hailed from Hull. The poet Philip Larkin lived in Hull for 30 years and wrote much of his mature work in the city. Notable sportspeople include Clive Sullivan, rugby league player, who played for both of Hull's professional rugby league teams and was the first black Briton to captain any national representative team. The main A63 road into the city from the Humber Bridge is named after him (Clive Sullivan Way). Another is Dean Windass, who had two spells with Hull City and scored the goal which helped the club to promotion to the top flight of English football for the first time in the club's history. On accepting a peerage, Welsh-born Baron Prescott of Kingston-upon-Hull (former MP and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott) took his title from his adopted home city of Hull.

Twinned cities
Hull has formal twinning arrangements with several places:

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