Enjoyably radical Hull

After an excellent tour around Hull’s Old Town with eminent guide Paul Schofield, I’m appreciating even more Hull’s ability to be enjoyably radical without anyone outside really noticing.

Radical in regeneration: because the old warehouses between the River Hull and the ancient High Street were converted for accommodation in 1981 – providing desirable dockland residences years before the other cities of the north caught that idea (1981 was the year L8 laid on the riots and Michael Hestletine responded by planting many trees there).

Radical in innovation: if the old dock becomes too small to take modern ships then fill it in, move the watercourse and start again elsewhere; oh, and convert the old dock into a beautiful, spacious town centre gardens for all to enjoy.

Radical in transportation: the booking office at Victoria Pier was the only British Rail terminus without rails – boats carried passengers and produce from here to the train line at New Holland on the opposite bank.

And above all (for this, it emerges, is Hull’s proudest and most defining moment), radical in opposition to undeserving rulers. Though he’s done it countless times before in 19 years of guiding Paul was enjoying standing at the remains of Beverley Gate telling me the tale of how the town’s governor Sir John Hotham declared for the Parliamentarian cause and, on that very spot, refused Charles I entry into the city and access to its large arsenal. It was, they say around here, the first spark of Parliamentarian revolt, an act of defiance which precipitated the English Civil War. The bit I like the best about this story, though, is that whilst standing in defiance twenty feet above the angered and embarrassed king, Governor Hotham did have the grace to lower down to the monarch a tray of refreshments to ease his long wait.

Hull folk seem to quietly enjoy undermining unctious authority. Perhaps that’s why they’ve put public lavatories directly beneath the city centre statues of William of Orange and Queen Victoria; it’s certainly why there’s a strong dock union tradition here, and why there’s still great respect for East Hull MP John Prescott, who has served them well, in a no-nonsense, deeply-rooted political style which is of course mocked by Westminster satirists, but, really, what do they know?