Hull City Hall is a civic building located in

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Located in

Queen Victoria Square Queen Victoria Square is a public square located in the centre of Kingston upon Hull, England. The square is dedicated to Queen Victoria, and contains numerous buildings including Hull City Hall, the Maritime Museum and Ferens Art Gallery. A sta ...

in the city centre, it is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The hall, which was designed by Hull's City architect

Joseph Hirst Joseph Henry Hirst (1863–1945) was a leading architect of the post-Victorian era based in Kingston upon Hull. Life He was born in 1863 in South Milford, Yorkshire, the son of William Hirst (1833-1918) and Mary Ann Carr (1839-1883). He ma ...

in the Baroque Revival style, was built between 1903 and 1909. It was not intended to perform an administrative function for Hull's council, as these functions have historically been carried out in the

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

. An organ, which was built by the local firm of

Forster and Andrews Forster and Andrews was a British organ building company between 1843 and 1924. The company was formed by James Alderson Forster (1818–1886) and Joseph King Andrews (1820–1896), who had been employees of the London organ builder J. C. Bisho ...

, was installed in time for an opening concert by the composer

Edwin Lemare Edwin Henry LemareFrequently misspelled "Lamare" in early publications (9 September 1865 – 24 September 1934) was an English organist and composer who lived the latter part of his life in the United States. He was one of the most highly regarde ...

on 30 March 1911. An art gallery was also installed in the building but this was removed to form the

Ferens Art Gallery The Ferens Art Gallery is an art gallery in the English city of Kingston upon Hull. The site and money for the gallery were donated to the city by Thomas Ferens, after whom it is named. The architects were S. N. Cooke and E. C. Davie ...

in Queen Victoria Square in 1927. The space created by the removal of the art gallery was instead used to accommodate an archaeological collection amassed by

John Robert Mortimer John Robert Mortimer (15 June 1825 – 19 August 1911) was an English corn-merchant and archaeologist who lived in Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire. He was responsible for the excavation of many of the notable barrows in the Yorkshire Wolds ...

known as the Mortimer Collection and the area re-opened as the Mortimer Museum in 1931. The hall was damaged in bombing in May 1941 during the

Hull Blitz The Hull Blitz was the bombing campaign that targeted the English port city of Kingston upon Hull by the German ''Luftwaffe'' during the Second World War. Large-scale attacks took place on several nights throughout March 1941, resulting in over ...

of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the organ was badly damaged.

King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

and Queen Elizabeth visited the city to see the damage and attended a concert in the hall in August 1941. The building was restored and the organ comprehensively restored in 1951 following the war damage. The Mortimer Collection was transferred to the Transport and Archaeology Museum on High Street in 1956. The hall hosted a performance by the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Siouxsie and the Banshees Siouxsie and the Banshees were a British rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. They have been widely influential, both over their contemporaries and with later acts. ''Q'' magazine in ...

in October 1979, by the rock band The Damned in December 1979 and by the rock band

Slade Slade are an English rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British Hit Singles ...

in December 1981. City Hall was altered in 1986 and again in 1989.

Services

City Hall is home to a grand central hall which plays host to a varied programme of concerts including pop, rock and classical music as well as civic functions such as graduation ceremonies for the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hull ...

. The city's main tourist Information office and shop is based on the building's ground floor. The main hall has a floor, balcony and gallery with total capacity for 1,200 people seated, or up to 1,800 with a mixture of standing on the main floor and seated on the balcony and gallery. In February 2021 it was announced that the building would be used as a

mass vaccination Mass vaccination is a public policy effort to vaccinate a large number of people, possibly the entire population of the world or of a country or region, within a short period of time. This policy may be directed during a pandemic, when there is a ...

centre for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

for the city and the East Riding of Yorkshire.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Kingston upon Hull Grade II* listed buildings in the East Riding of Yorkshire Baroque Revival architecture City and town halls in the East Riding of Yorkshire Music venues in the East Riding of Yorkshire Government buildings with domes Government buildings completed in 1909