So you think Hull has no culture?

If, like me, you've heard the words "City of Culture? There's no culture in Hull, pal", hopefully this list will help you prove otherwise. (Links are all clickable for more info or proof for the non-believers. Also please note that this is not intended to be a definitive list of people from Hull, but rather an overview of all aspects of culture in our quirky, independent city. Where I have listed names, I've tried to keep it to a few examples.)

Edit: there's now a part two to this here.

Architecture

Hull (or Kingston upon Hull to give it its official name) has many impressive buildings and structures including:

• Holy Trinity Church (Grade I, c. 1300) - largest parish church in England by floor area and soon to be renamed Hull Minster.
• Hull City Hall (Grade II*, 1903-09) - Baroque revival concert and events venue.
• Guildhall (Grade II*, 1913-16) - administrative building for Hull City Council.
• The Charterhouse (Grade II*, c. 1780) - still-functioning almshouse.
• Humber Bridge (1981) - just outside the city boundary, once the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world, now the eighth-longest.
• Scale Lane Swing Bridge (2013) - award-winning bridge which the public can ride as it opens.
• Garden Village (c. 1908) - area of East Hull built as a model village by Sir James Reckitt for his workers at Reckitt & Sons (see also business below).

The city has a novel way of reusing its old docks:

• Queen's Gardens (c. 1930) - Queen's Dock was filled in and turned into a city-centre park.
• Hull Marina (1983) - reusing the old Humber and Railway Docks, now lined with independent bars and restaurants, and home to several summer festivals.
• Princes Quay (c. 1991) - a glass shopping centre constructed over the former Prince's Dock.
• Stage @The Dock (2016) - making use of the old Central Dry Dock to house a new outdoor performance stage.

Hull is also famous for:

• Cream telephone boxes - the city's telephone service is run locally by KCOM instead of BT and consequently its telephone boxes are cream, not red like the rest of the country.
• Cuthbert Brodrick - the architect famous for designing Leeds Town Hall and Scarborough's Grand Hotel was born in Hull.
• Land of Green Ginger - the most unusual street name in Hull (and possibly the UK) which is home to the smallest window in England and a residential address called "2nd Star On The Right & Straight On ‘Til Morning".

Art

Hull's galleries include Ferens Art Gallery (1927), the host of the Turner Prize in 2017, Red Contemporary Arts, Artlink and Kingston Art Group.

Around the city, there are many statues of famous names and events, and there are often instances of public art forming trails of statues around the city:

• Fish Trail - a permanent walking trail around the old town, following fish in the pavement.
• Larkin with Toads - a 2010 trail of large fibreglass toads, some of which are still in place around the city, to celebrate the poet, Philip Larkin.
• A Moth for Amy - a current temporary trail of giant moths to commemorate the life of aviator, Amy Johnson.

Business

For many years, Hull was the second largest port in the country and was part of the Hanseatic League trading with other northern European ports. Nowadays, Hull has a very independent attitude to business with a lack of chains relative to other cities and a tradition of business start-ups. Famous names from the city include:

• Isaac Reckitt and his son, James - founders of Reckitt & Sons and now known as Reckitt Benckiser (RB), the multinational pharmaceutical company.
• Comet - electrical retailer, sadly now defunct but originally started in Hull in 1933.
• Red5 - gadget retailer (and its predecessor The Gadget Shop).
• Sir Alfred James Newton - first chairman of Harrods.

Comedy

The big name on the city's comedy circuit is Hull Comedy Festival which began in 2007 and attracts many big names every year.

Hull also has homegrown comedy acts, both established and up-and-coming, including:

• Isy Suttie - stand-up and star of Peep Show.
• Debra Stephenson - actor and impressionist.
• Lucy Beaumont - writer and stand-up.

Education

Important educational institutions in the city include:

• University of Hull (1927) - former alumni include John Prescott, Jenni Murray, Anthony Minghella and Roger McGough.
• Hull York Medical School (2003)
• Hull College (1950s)
• Hull School of Art and Design (1861)
• Hymers College - independent school rated in the top 100 nationally. 

Food & Drink

Hull's most famous native dishes seem to be the pattie, a deep-fried mashed potato and herbs, chip spice, a seasoning automatically added at all of the city's takeaways, and the boiled sweet, invented by Hull confectionery manufacturer, Needlers.

But its food and drink scene is much more cosmopolitan than this. The highlights include:

• 1884 Dock Street Kitchen - culinary experience in a former dock warehouse on the edge of the marina.
• Tapasya - Indian restaurant with two sites in the city. 
• Bars and restaurants along Hull's cafe culture heartland, Newland and Princes Avenues including Marrakech Ave, Pave and Larkins.
• Several festivals such as Hull Real Ale & Cider Festival, Yum! Food Festival and Minerva Gin Festival.
• Several excellent local breweries such as: Atom Beers, Yorkshire Brewing Co and Bricknell Brewery.
• Various traditional and historical alehouses in the Old Town including Ye Olde White Harte allegedly where the decision was made that started the English Civil War. For many others try the Hull Ale Trail  or check Hull CAMRA.

History

Hull has been at the forefront of several pivotal moments of national and international historical importance.

• In 1642, at Beverley Gate, Sir John Hotham denied King Charles I access to the city's arsenal, leading to the first siege of Hull, the first major action of the English Civil War. The ruins of Beverley Gate are still visible at the top of Whitefriargate and the decision to refuse the king was taken at Sir John Hotham's home which is now Ye Olde White Harte (see food & drink above).
• William Wilberforce was an MP for Hull and a social reformer. In 1807, he managed to pass an act in the Houses of Parliament which abolished the slave trade in the UK. His house is now a museum (see below).
• In the 1940s, Hull was one of the country's leading ports and its location on the Humber estuary made it easy to find for German bombers. These two facts ensured that the city became the most bombed city in the country outside of London during World War II with 95% of houses damaged during the Hull Blitz.
• Over the years, Hull has thrived as a proud fishing port, but in 1968 the city was shocked by the Triple Trawler Tragedy, three disasters in which 58 fishermen lost their lives and which led to many changes to health and safety laws thanks to tireless campaigning by Lillian Bilocca and her Headscarf Revolutionaries. A huge mural of 'Big Lil' can now be seen on Anlaby Road.

The many venues charting Hull's history include:

• Several free, council-owned museums including Wilberforce House, Hull and East Riding Museum, Hands on History, Maritime Museum, Spurn Lightship and Arctic Corsair.
• Fort Paull - Yorkshire's only remaining Napoleonic fortress.
• Hull Fair - Europe's largest travelling funfair, convening on Hull every year since 1278.

Literature

Hull hosts the Humber Mouth Literature Festival annually in November attracting many big-name talks.

Having once been referred to as "the most poetic city in England" by Australian poet, Peter Porter, Hull has its fair share of writers including:

• Phillip Larkin (1922 - 1985) - poet who was the librarian at University of Hull for 30 years.
• Andrew Marvell (1621 - 1678) - metaphysical poet and politician with a Hull school named after him.
• Andrew Motion (1952 - ) - former poet laureate and University of Hull lecturer.

Music

Whether it's big names from the past or up-and-coming stars, music is a huge part of Hull's heritage.

• Big names over the years comprise The Beautiful South, Everything But The Girl, The Housemartins, Sade, David Whitfield, Roland Gift of The Fine Young Cannibals and Spiders from Mars.
• There are also many current acts creating a buzz inside and outside of the city such as Affairs, Bud Sugar, Counting Coins, Nineties Boy and Calum Scott.
• As for legendary music venues how about The New Adelphi Club, Welly, Spiders and The Sesh?
• Over the summer, festivals form a big part of Hull's culture including Humber Street Sesh, Hull Jazz Festival, Hull Folk and Maritime Festival, Trinity Festival and Springboard Festival in nearby Cottingham.
• Classical music fans are catered for by Hull Sinfonia and the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra.

Science & Technology

The city has several links to scientific and technological feats and discoveries. Some of the best of these are:

• The liquid crystal display (LCD) was invented at the University of Hull allowing the development of digital watches, calculators and TV screens.
• John Venn - a mathematician who invented the eponymous Venn diagram.
• Amy Johnson - an aviator who became the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia.

Hull also has several attractions celebrating the best of science and technology of today and yesteryear:

• The Deep - one of the country's leading public aquariums and also an important centre for marine research.
• Dinostar - a hands-on, interactive dinosaur exhibition for children
• Streetlife - a free museum displaying 200 years' worth of transport innovations and street scenes from bygone eras.

Sport

Ebenezer Cobb Morley is quite possibly one of the most important men in English sport and yet one of the most un-celebrated Hull natives. In 1863, he helped found the Football Association at a pub in London, became the FA's first secretary and drafted the first laws of the game. Without him, we wouldn't have football as it is today.

Other famous sporting names from the city include:

• Luke Campbell - gold-medal-winning boxer from the London 2012 Olympics who not only has a golden post-box in his home city but also a golden phone box too thanks to Hull's locally owned telephone network.
• Dean Windass - footballer who scored the goal which took Hull City into the Premier League for the first time ever.
• Clive Sullivan - rugby league player who played for both Hull FC and Hull Kingston Rovers and became the first black player to captain any national British team in a major sport.

Today, sport fans are well catered for in Hull.

• Hull City - football club currently playing in the Premier League.
• Hull FC - rugby league club currently playing in Super League, six-time national champions, and four-time winners and current holders of the Challenge Cup.
• Hull Kingston Rovers - unfortunately relegated to the rugby league championship last season but nonetheless, five titles and one challenge cup are among their honours.
• British Open Squash Championship - the "Wimbledon of squash" currently held at the Airco Arena.
• Hull Pirates - Hull's current semi-professional ice hockey team playing in the second tier.

Theatre & Performance

The city has a strong tradition of theatre with important venues including:

• Hull Truck Theatre - theatre and touring production company founded in 1971.
• Hull New Theatre - Hull's main commercial theatre, opened in 1939 and featuring musicals, opera, ballet, drama and pantomime.
• Fruit - a multi-purpose arts and events space in the revitalised Fruit Market area of the city, home of theatre, music, comedy, markets and craft beer.
• Kardomah 94 - part-restaurant, part-theatre space for music, comedy and more.
• NAPA - the Northern Academy of Performing Arts.

Hull's premier event of the year is undoubtedly the Freedom Festival, a summer weekend of music, art, comedy, dance, circus acts and street performances in celebration of freedom and of Hull's famous MP William Wilberforce who helped abolish the slave trade in 1833. Other theatrical events include:

• Heads Up Festival - an eclectic array of performers and performances at various venues across the city.
• Assemblefest - performances in unusual locations in the city's bohemian Newland area, close to the university.

There are also many theatrical names associated with Hull, such as John Godber (1956 - ), Alan Plater (1935-2010) and Richard Bean (1956 - ).

TV & Film

The city is home to the Hull Independent Cinema showing many art-house films at various venues and which organises the annual Hull Film Festival.

Hull was the birthplace of J Arthur Rank, an industrialist born into the Rank Hovis dynasty who went on to found Pinewood Studios in order to rival Hollywood's dominance of the film industry. Other famous names include Maureen Lipman, Tom Courtenay and Reece Shearsmith.


So tell me, what aspect of culture do you think Hull is missing?