Hull City Centre is awesome
09/01/2015
Well, it's been great fun spreading Christmas cheer for the last few weeks, but now that 5th January has been and gone it's time for us to hang up the elf hats for a while. However, there's a very important message that we'd like to share first.
Christmas in Hull is brought to you by HullBID, which exists to help businesses in the city centre sustainably grow and progress. This is fuelled through numerous initiatives, including media relations, networking, events such as Yum! Food Festival and Fashion Week, and a Crime and Grime strategic plan to keep Hull City Centre a safe and attractive place to live, visit and do business. Christmas in Hull helps people to access information and events whilst warming hearts and bringing smiles to faces. As with the festive season, the campaign needs to end shortly after the new year begins, but that doesn't mean that there's nothing going on in Hull City Centre. Far from it, in fact.
If you live in Hull, you'll know about the three central shopping centres, St Stephen's, Prospect and Princes Quay. You'll also know that we have the large department stores House of Fraser, BHS and Debenhams, the beautiful arcades of Paragon and Hepworth, and an abundance of retailers, boutiques, bars, coffee shops, restaurants, market traders and pop-up stalls lining the many streets that radiate outwards from Queen Victoria Square. Ours is a wonderful city that attracts people from far and wide, and we really do need to shout about it.
Thanks to Hull Truck Theatre, Hull City Hall, Hull New Theatre, Holy Trinity, Fruit, Kardomah94, NAPA and Hull Arena, there's always something going on. And with Hull Central Library, Hull Museums, The Deep and a range of other cultural and recreational spaces, there are countless opportunities to expand your mind, broaden your horizons, and see things from a fresh perspective.
Hull has always been a city with, as Larkin put it, a different resonance. Even with the remarkable Humber Bridge we're more geographically isolated than most other cities, but in spite of this we remain a welcoming gateway to Europe that's known for its warm and friendly people. Our fishing industry dwindled decades ago, unemployment rose and national funding often turned a blind eye, and yet now we find ourselves the UK City of Culture for 2017, a hub for arts enablement, a home of entrepreneurs, a hotspot for the renewable energy sector, and a key part of the UK's busiest port complex. We have a lot to be proud of, and even more to share with the world.
Charity and community are also very important to the city. From running marathons to donating food, not a minute goes by when there isn't someone working to help those less fortunate, whether at home or halfway across the planet. Hull has a big heart and its people are what keeps it beating.
There are gems throughout the city: the bohemian vibe of Princes and Newland Avenue, the valuable work of the Freedom Centre, the passion within the sports stadiums and the excellence that flows from Hull University, to name but a few. The city centre is what connects everything: east to west, business with the arts, people to one another, and Hull with the rest of the UK and beyond, be it via a train journey or getting involved in one of our many eclectic festivals.
Even in this era of online shopping and movies direct to your mobile, we must each help Hull City Centre to thrive in any way we can, even if it's simply by taking in some local history one afternoon or enjoying a walk along the marina. Support Hull City Centre and you'll create a ripple effect, one that will become stronger and wider with time, bringing with it prosperity, pride, regeneration and opportunity. It really is that simple.
Thank you for being a part of Christmas in Hull. You're what makes this city great, so keep up the good work and we'll see you again when the tinsel reappears.
Article: Rich Sutherland
Photos: Andrew Reid Wildman
Artwork: Pinkyvision
