BLUFFER’S
Hull – described by its enthusiasts as a ‘city coming out of the shadows’ – has been announced as the next City of Culture. The northern town was chosen over Dundee, Leicester and Swansea Bay and will succeed the current cultural capital of the UK, Londonderry, in 2017. But apart from how long it takes to high-tail it back to London (two-hours-thirty-one, no changes), what do you really know about this east-Yorkshire city?
NOT MUCH. WHERE IS IT?
Hull, officially Kingston upon Hull, is in the East Riding of Yorkshire. So not as in Kingston upon Thames then, or even Kingston Jamaica. We know southern softies might find it difficult to distinguish between the Outer Hebrides and outside the M25 but trust us they do not take kindly to being referred to as northerners. They’re Yorkshire folk, reet? If you’re coming from down south, head as the crow flies across the Cambridgeshire Fens and if you hit the Angel of the North, you’ve gone too far. Or take the train from Kings Cross.
WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY ABOUT HULL?
More than you might imagine. Former local MP now His Lordship John ‘Baron’ Prescott is often quoted as saying that ‘Hull’s always done its own thing’ and Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy once mentioned the city in passing: ‘As far as I’m concerned, an audience is an audience. Whether it’s an audience in Hull or the National Theatre, that’s who you play to.’ Perhaps not a review for the Hull City Council homepage, but worse things have been said about this seaside city…
LIKE WHAT?
When asked about his hometown of Hull, Philip Larkin answered: ‘very nice and flat for cycling – that’s about the best I can say.’ But like Petrarch fawning all over Laura, or Dante pining after Beatrice, Hull will not stop loving Larkin. In 2011, for the 25thanniversary of the poet laureate’s death, The Larkin Trail was set up. This self-led tour of Hull traces Larkin’s favourite haunts: Whitefriargate & Marks & Spencer, the Pier and waiting room, Pearson’s park, the chippie… The Queen also had this to say about her new Capital of Culture:
SO HULL IS A PRETTY NONDESCRIPT PLACE?
It’s all too easy to jump on the bandwagon and do Hull a disservice. Bluffers should buck the trend and point out that although Larkin moaned about his hometown of more than 30 years it also was a huge source of inspiration to him. He described Hull as ‘a city that is in the world yet sufficiently on the edge of it to have a different resonance.’ Admittedly he appreciated the city because it spoke to his miserable sensibilities but let’s not split hairs: ‘they fuck you up, your mum and dad’ (but that doesn’t mean you don’t love them).
I’M SOLD. TRAIN TICKET BOOKED. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Apart from the Larkin walking tour, you mean? Visit the Hull New Theatre, which will see Christopher Biggins take to the stage in this year’s panto, Jack and the Beanstalk, and where the Russian State Ballet will be performing Don Quixote in January 2014. There’s also Hull’s Old Town which houses the Streetlife Museum, the Wilberforce House, the Hull & East Riding Museum and the Arctic Corsair (which is a fishing boat not a landmass). Or you could take a leaf out of a local’s book; here are some popular tasks as suggested by Hull City Council.
MAXIMUM BLUFFING VALUE
In the mid-90s Hull appointed PR agency Wolff Olins to help rejuvenate its image (this was the first consultancy to ever brand a city). Working as part of initiative dubbed Cityimage, they ran an MOT on the seen-to-be-grim city and decided that Hull’s new aim should be ‘to be pioneering’ (playing on the city’s maritime past). More than a decade later and BAM, job done.
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