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The city is unique in the United Kingdom 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. However, the city has embarked on an
extensive programme of economic regeneration and renewal.Culturally, Hull has been the base for several notable poets including Philip Larkin, many of whose poems were set in the city. A range of both
classical and popular musical experiences are available, and the various museums offer a glimpse of the scope of Hull's history and development. These, along with a lively night life and popular arts
festivals, attract visitors from a wide area.
Spectator sporting activities include professional football and two rugby league clubs. There are many amateur sports clubs located in the city
offering a wide range of participatory opportunities.
The University of Hull and the Hull York Medical School are situated in the city. In keeping with the maritime history of Hull, the long
established Hull Trinity House School offers training to mariners.
The local accent differs markedly in its vowel sounds from that in the rest of the Yorkshire region and the rhythm of speech
bears a similarity to that of Lincolnshire to which it was linked in the defunct county of Humberside.
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. 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 not as 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 after John Wyke, Archbishop of York. The locals flatly refused to call their town Wyke, and used Hull, the
name of the river, instead.
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. 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 built for himself a manor hall, 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 medieval 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 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 Cambridge University's Jesus College 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.
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Hull in 1866
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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, 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.
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 that city status was granted in 1897. 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, 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". 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 may be buried beneath a major new redevelopment, The Boom, in Hull.
Governance
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The Guildhall
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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, 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 where no single party had a majority. They
retained control in the 2008 local elections by an increased majority.
The city returns three Members of Parliament to the House of Commons and at
the last general election, in 2005, elected three Labour MPs: Alan Johnson who was appointed Home Secretary on 5
June 2009, Diana Johnson and John Prescott who was the Deputy Prime Minister until his resignation on 27 June 2007.
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. Though in March 2010 one of the elected Conservative MEPs transferred to the Liberal Democrats.
Panorama of Hull from the north bank of the Humber near Paull, with the Yorkshire Wolds rising behind the city
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Panorama of Hull from the north bank of the Humber near Paull, with the Yorkshire Wolds rising behind the city
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Hull is the only city and forms the major urban area in the official government defined Hull and Humber Ports City Region
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