Kingston upon Hull ( or ), almost invariably referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located 25 miles (40 km) from the North Sea on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary. Hull has a resident population of ( ).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, trading hub, fishing and whaling centre, and industrial metropolis. Hull was an early theatre of battle in the English Civil Wars. Through its celebrated 18th century Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, the city was the backdrop to events leading to the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.

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 is 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.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.

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.

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 fishing 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, 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

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 MEP.

Geography

[[Image:River Hull tidal barrier 1.jpg|thumb|The River Hull tidal barrier

is situated at the end of the River Hull where it meets the Humber.]]

At , north of London, Kingston upon Hull is near the east coast of the United Kingdom, 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, and 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. Sutton alone retained a recognisable 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, isolating it from the rest of the United Kingdom. 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.Hull was hit particularly hard by the June 2007 United Kingdom floods because of the local topography which resulted in standing water over a wide area. It affected 20% of the city's housing and caused damage to 90 out of its 105 schools. The plight of the city at that time was largely overlooked by the media, which focussed upon the more dramatic, localised, flooding in Sheffield and Doncaster. This led leading council leader Carl Minns to declare Hull the "forgotten city" of the floods.Damage to schools alone was estimated at £100 million.

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 1300and contains what is widely acknowledged to be some of the finest mediæval brick-work in the country, particularly in the transepts.

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 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 theSt Nikolaj Danish Seamen's Church is located in Osborne Street.

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. Rain falls on about 109 days of the year giving an average total annual rainfall of . January is usually the coldest month and November the wettest. The warmest month is August and the driest is February.

At around 01:00 GMT on 27 February 2008, Hull was 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. With regard to religious diversity, 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 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.

Population growth in Kingston upon Hull since 1801
Year	1801	1811	1821	1831	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1921	1931	1941	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001
Population	21,280	28,040	33,393	40,902	57,342	57,484	93,955	130,426	166,896	199,134	236,772	281,525	295,017	309,158	302,074	295,172	289,716	284,365	266,751	266,180	243,595
Source: Vision of Britain Through Time

Economy

The economy of Hull was built on seafaring and although the fishing industry is in decline the city remains a very 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.

As the biggest settlement in the East Riding of Yorkshire and the local transport hub, Hull is a natural focus for retail shoppers and areas of Hull are undergoing regeneration to encourage retailing and commercial development. These areas include the Quay West and St. Stephen's projects.

At a cost of £300 million Quay West, which is being built on brownfield land and due for completion in 2013, will provide an open air expansion of the existing Princes Quay shopping centre by providing another 60 shops, two new department stores and other leisure facilities.Princes Quay, which is built on stilts in the former Prince's Dock already includes a new Vue cinema which opened on 21 December 2007 and is the first fully digital cinema in Europe.

St. Stephen's is a new shopping centre built on the site of the old bus station. It is a scheme, costing over £160 million. It is anchored by a 24-hour superstore and provides shop units, residential areas and car parking. Adjacent to it is a transport interchange, which includes a new bus station and renovated railway station. Stores leasing area in St Stephen's include Zara, Topshop, Oasis, H&M, Next, Jane Norman, Build-A-Bear Workshop and Tesco Extra. A more recent addition to the centre is USC. There are still empty stores where no tenant has been forthcoming, these are 'hidden' behind advertising hordings so they are not too conspicuous.

Overlooking the Humber, the new £165 million Humber Quays development, 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, plus more high quality office space.

The east bank of the River Hull will see a £100 million residential development connected to Hull's old town. This development called the Boom will include over 600 luxury riverside apartments, shops, boutiques, bistro cafés, a 120-bed luxury hotel, plus 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, has also been renovated.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 2003, the city established a Youth Enterprise Partnership to help to support enterprising young people. Teams from Hull, which were 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.

Culture

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, the Maritime Museum, the Spurn Lightship, the Yorkshire Water Museum, and the Deep, the world's only submarium.The Fish Trail leads its followers through old and new sections of the city, following a wide variety of sealife engraved in the pavement.

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.From 23 April 2009 the Hull Truck Theatre has a new £14.5 million, 440 seat venue in the St Stephen's development.The Northern Theatre Company, established in 1975, is also based in the city. 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. Contemporary poets associated with Hull are Maggie Hannan, David Wheatley, and Caitriona O'Reilly. 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.

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. 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 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 record label Pork Recordings started in Hull in the mid-1990s and has released workings of 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.

The nightlife of Hull attracts people from outlying areas as well as inhabitants of the city. It has the concentration of pub and bars expected of any large city in contemporary Britain. The drinking culture in the 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.The city is host to a number of festivals and events. The Humber Mouth literature festival is an annual event and in the 2008 season featured writers such as Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Lisa Appignanesi, Jonathan Miller, Christopher Reid and Janet Street-Porter. The annual Hull Jazz Festival takes place around the Marina area for a week at the beginning of August.This is followed, in early September, by the Sea Fever Festival, an International Sea Shanty Festival.

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 Spetember–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 hailing 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 and it is anticipated that this too will become an annual festival.

Media

Hull's daily newspaper is the Hull Daily Mail which was named Yorkshire Daily Newspaper of the Year in 2003,2004, 2006 and 2007.Mail News and Media also has an internet presence, offering separate sites for local news, sports and nightlife. Local listings and what's-on guides include Tenfoot City Magazine and Sandman Magazine. The BBC has its new 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 (The Tigers), play in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system, having been promoted in the 2007–08 season.The team play at the Kingston Communications Stadium.

Hull is also a rugby league hub, having two clubs who play in the engage Super League competition. Hull, along side the city's football club Hull City, play at the Kingston Communications 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.

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.New to the city is 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.

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

Transport and infrastructure

The main road route into and out of Hull is the M62 motorway/A63 road, which is one of the main east–west routes in northern England.It provides a link to the cities of Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds 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. This toll bridge was constructed between 1972 and 1981 and at the time it was built it was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. It is now fifth on the list.

Prior to the construction of the bridge those wishing to cross the Humber could 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. A smaller operator, Alpha Bus and Coach, provides one of the two Park and Ride services in the city and, until November 2009, East Yorkshire Motor Services provide the other at which point CT Plus will take over the contract.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 the rest of the UK, including direct services to London, provided by First Hull Trains.

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 largest ferries operating from the United Kingdom.

The nearest airport is Humberside Airport which is away in Lincolnshire, this mostly provides charter flights but it also has four KLM scheduled flights to Amsterdam and Aberdeen each day. Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire is from the city centre and provides low cost flights to many 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 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, 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, Kingston Communications. Its distinctive cream telephone boxes can be seen across the city. 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.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 they sold their remaining stake in the company for over £107 million.

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 cost, technical problems and user dissatisfaction. In recent years, Kingston Communications, despite being a virtual monopoly within Hull itself, has expanded 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.

Public services

Policing in Kingston upon Hull is undertaken 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. Other forms of health care are provided for locally by Hull NHS Primary Care Trust at several smaller clinics and general practitioner surgeries.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 abstracted from the River Derwent at Elvington and moved to Hull via the Yorkshire water grid. 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 which is powered by a wind turbine.

Education

Kingston upon Hull is home to the University of Hull, which was founded in 1927 and received its Royal Charter in 1954. It has a student population of 16,000.Associated with the university is the Hull York Medical School, which took its first intake of students in 2003 as a part of the British government's attempts to train more doctors.

The University of Lincoln grew out of the University of Humberside, a former polytechnic, which was 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 still retains a small campus in Hull city centre.

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. 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.

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 accent. 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 ("geuht") 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 while others make a distinction; anyone called "Paul" (for example) soon becomes aware of this (Paul/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 slaveryand 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 Southand guitarist Mick Ronson who worked with David Bowie.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).

Twinned cities

Hull has formal twinning arrangements with several places:

! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |

! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |

! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |

! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |

! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |

! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |

	Country		Place		County / District / Region / State	Date
Sierra Leone ! style="background: #ccf; color: #000" ! |	Freetown ! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |	Western Area
Japan ! style="background: #ccf; color: #000" ! |	Niigata ! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |	Niigata
United States ! style="background: #ccf; color: #000" ! |	Raleigh ! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |	North Carolina
Iceland ! style="background: #ccf; color: #000" ! |	Reykjavík ! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |	Reykjavík
Netherlands ! style="background: #ccf; color: #000" ! |	Rotterdam ! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |	South Holland
Poland ! style="background: #ccf; color: #000" ! |	Szczecin ! style="background: #fff; color: #000" ! |	West Pomerania

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

See also

• Hull Street Tramways

References

1. London group wins Hull park and ride deal on thisishullandeastriding.co.uk news website. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
2. A Spectrographic Analysis Of Vowel Fronting In Bradford English, Dominic Watt And Jennifer Tillotson, (Microsoft Word Document). Retrieved 9 November 2006.

Notes

There was no census in 1941: figures are from National Register. United Kingdom and Isle of Man. Statistics of Population on 29 September 1939 by Sex, Age and Marital Condition.

There is a discrepancy of 6 between Office of National Statistics figures (quoted before) and those on the Vision of Britain website (quoted here).

External links

• Hull City Council