Sorry for the dissertation but following the January window I wondered whether some of our lack of success in recruiting British players had anything to do with a stigma left in their minds that goes back to 2003 when the city topped the âCrap Townsâ list. The following year Kingston Upon Hull had risen 19 places to be replaced by Luton, but few people seem to remember that and I think the city should now take steps to re-invent itself in order to finally dispel that perception. The areas where I think advances could be made are: 1) Students; This is a strange one, but cities with large student communities are usually more vibrant than those without. Students bring outside money to towns and often they act as a catalyst for better night-life, better shops and a more youthful appeal. The other advantage is that many people tend to be sentimental about the places where they were students and thereâs no better way of making this far corner of East Yorkshire familiar to people from all over the country (for the right reasons). 2) Trade and cultural bridges with our Viking cousins; A major part of our ancestry goes back to those raping, pillaging bastards, but considering we have a regular ferry to Norway it seems mad not to start looking beyond these shores to form better relationships that could eventually improve tourism and business. York is still living off the back of the Jorvik Centre (even though itâs crap) so why not an annual long boat race from the Humber to Norway to kick things off? 3) Tall Ships; When Hull had that Tall Ships thing a few years back everyone I knew who went were raving about it (including people who rarely if ever go to the city). It was a good indicator that we should make more of our sea-faring heritage and thereâs no reason why this area couldnât become a national attraction as the centre for the countryâs maritime history. It could be done by encouraging the owners of existing tall ships to moor on the banks of the Humber and by building replicas of the most famous old ships. If these ships were sea-worthy and safe they could be used to take tourists on cruises up the Humber. People love the old sailing ships and what could be better than seeing them regularly on the estuary. 4) Promotion to the EPL. I know Iâm preaching to the converted on this one but there is no better way these days to raise the profile of an area than being represented by a Premiership team. The city got more national recognition from two seasons in the EPL than we probably gained in all our previous history. We have people on this forum from all over the world and many of them connected with the club due to the Prem. days. Without making this party-political politicians of all parties donât seem to appreciate the positive contribution this makes to the way a place is perceived by outsiders. 5) Finally âHullâ; I know itâs an old chestnut but I wasnât brought up in a ****ing river!! The city is KINGSTON upon Hull and wherever Iâve been where a town or city is named with the nearby river, it is always shortened to the main name and not the riverâs name. It is just plain laziness of the first order that we still refer to the city as Hull and if the area does try to re-invent itself I think the first step should be a re-branding back to our official name. Iâm going to make a tit of myself by referring to âKingstonâ from now on (until the ridicule and abuse becomes unbearable) in the hope that if someone starts rolling the snowball others might help and together we could start to make the name more familiar and acceptable.
Do you mean Kingston Upon Thames? If so it's their problem not ours. We've been Kingston for hundreds of years so no-one can argue about us using the name.
Totally agree ! In fact people from Hull are (or should be) known as Kingstonians--Not "Hullies" I always. still wear my Old Kingstonian School scarf with memories of old W Cameron Walker the, then headmaster regaled in his motorboard and gown.
So are you saying that the full name of our main rivals is actually Leicester on ****hole, but they only use the Leicester bit? Now it all makes sense!
Yeah, we could re-sign Marlon, change our name to Millwall and pour into Brighton before the game raping and pillaging in the town center before a few beers then on to the match! Great afternoons sport!
The crap towns book was a made up load of rubbish, the author even admitted he'd never been to Hull, yet the national media still broadcast 'Hull officially named Britain's no.1 'crap town', as though it was an actual fact. There are many, many worse places in the UK than Hull, but the media seem to have latched onto using Hull as the butt of all jokes like they used to do with Liverpool - they've probably moved on because of 2 things: billions of pounds worth of ERDF funding and plenty of scouse whinging. 1. Students: I think with Hull uni being so out on a limb, it's different for Hull and shows why the avenues are classed as the 'vibrant, cosmopolitan' area of Hull. I think the council needs to focus on helping Hull College improve and add to it's degrees offering to attract more students that would be centrally based, rather than all it's students being local. 2. Although Hull has a lot of links with Scandinavia, it's main links culturally and trade-wise are with The Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium, hence a lot of Dutch, Danish and Flemish influence in the architecture in the old town. Look at the King Billy statue - he didn't come to Hull to invade England, but the people of Hull supported his invasion of England because the king of England was trying to close off trade with The Netherlands, a country which Hull was making it's fortunes with. I put forward an idea to the council last year that Whitefriargate needed a new use, a new sense of direction and suggested making it the UK's first 'Continental Quarter' by using our links to other countries and inviting Dutch, Danish, Belgian and German independent bakeries, patisseries, pancake houses, waffle houses, continental ale inns, belgian chocolatiers, along with independent clothing brands, furniture makers... etc, etc... from those counties. They would be filling empty shops which many are of a traditional style of their own countries too. 3. The council put forward the idea to purchase the HMS Illustrious when it 'retires' from duty next year, but there are many other ships with links to Hull that should be purchased too, to create a collection worthy of visiting. I put forward the idea of purchasing some ships associated with Hull to the council last year, the ships included: HMS Bounty replica (only 1 left, the other was wrecked by hurricane Katrina) HMS Rose replica - located in San Diego. HMS Boreas replica - would need to be built. All 3 were originally built by the Blaydes family on High Street in Hull. Everyone knows thr story of The Bounty (Mutiny on the Bounty), but HMS Rose was sent to stop smuggling to Newport on Rhode Island, which made it's inhabitants declare independence from Britain and forced them to form their own navy to combat the HMS Rose which was much bigger than any American ships. HMS Rose was then the main ship that drove George Washington and the Americans out of New York. The HMS Boreas was a ship which Lord Nelson was stationed on in Antigua, enforcing navigation acts and was under the threat of imprisonment, due to 'illegally' seizing American ships - he stayed aboard the Boreas for 8 months until the courts ruled in his favour to aviod being jailed. All 3 tell decent stories, then there is... SS Ollanta - used by Che Guevara, situated at Lake Titicaca in Peru. & The Viola - The oldest surviving steam trawler in the world - located in South Georgia. I'm sure there are many more from Hull around the world, waiting to be rescued too. 4. No doubt about it, not sure why councillors down play it so much. 5. The reason Hull is used instead of 'Kingston' isn't due to laziness, it's because the name Hull was used by the people who lived here well before it became the 'King's Town'... it wasn't because they disliked being called the King's Town, they disliked it's earlier name of Wyke-Upon-Hull, which is why they shortened it to 'Hull' instead of 'Wyke' in protest, as they felt 'Wyke' had been thrust upon them. Wyke was the surname of the bishop of York at the time, so I guess because 'Hull' had been used for many years, the shortening just stuck. Also there is the fact there is another 'Kingston' in this country, which many do shorten to 'Kingston'. Though it has in fact stole our right to be able to be called Kingston by ourselves. We were named The King's Town by the king. Kingston-Upon-Thames should actually be known as 'Kingstone' not 'Kingston' the reason being, their name comes from the stone anglo-saxon kings were 'coronated' on.
Who cares where we are on the so-called 'crap towns' list? It's just a journalistic concoction anyway.
Two other things Hull doesn't make anything of tourism-wise: There is evidence to suggest the only place Rembrandt ever visited outside of The Netherlands, was Hull. Why the council have never looked to capitalise on this I do not know. The other is the Royal Armouries. I've never understood why it is in Leeds; the Royal munitions were located in Hull (hence the King being turned away at Beverley Gate/English Civil War etc). I haven't been to the Royal Armouries in years, but I was told there is a collection of armouries from the English Civil War, many of which have been given/loaned to the museum by Hull City Council.... if true, WHY?!!
Very informative dazzar, especially the stuff about the ships. It's always good to know someone is actually trying to get things improved rather than the usual apathy. I haven't heard one good reason why the city shouldn't be referred to as Kingston (which is a brilliant name). Hull is always lumped in with Grimsby and Scunthorpe which are quite ugly names for towns and together outsiders mitakenly imagine an ugly, dour region.
Hull's history is ridiculously rich and unique. The council have not taken the opportunity to promote the City effectively. The people who claim it is a ****hole have never really been and those who "have been" and still dislike it obviously believe everything they read and their mind is already made up for them. I can honestly say that Hull is a nice town with nice people that is worth visiting.
