City given £15m to secure future in tourism
Water shows off grandeur of region’s newest minster
HULL HAS been awarded £15m from the National Lottery to help secure its future as a major tourist destination.
The money will be used to help tell the story of the Hull as Yorkshire’s maritime city. The announcement will be made in at a briefing in Hull City Hall today.
Hull City Council’s leader Stephen Brady said: “Today’s announcement is a huge vote of confidence in our city and another major step towards achieving one of the key ambitions of our City Plan to make Hull a world-class visitor destination.”
Building on its success as UK City of Culture 2017, the city will develop three sites: the Maritime Museum, the Dock Office Chambers and the North End Shipyard and two historic vessels, the Arctic Corsair and Spurn Lightship.
Hull City Council will spend £12.5m from its capital programme. Ros Kerslake, of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said: “This is the perfect moment for Hull to benefit from a £15m investment from the National Lottery.”
The project has five elements: Hull Maritime Museum will be reconfigured and visitors given access to one of the building domes which has views over the city and Humber.
The Dock Office Chambers will be converted into a home for the maritime collection. Arctic Corsair and Spurn Lightship will be conserved and relocated in the city, and a visitor orientation centre will be built at the North End Shipyard.
John Glen, Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism, said: “This £15m investment will help Hull build an enduring legacy from its fantastic year as UK City of Culture.”
STUNNING “MIRROR pools” which reflect the grandeur of a Yorkshire minster have been officially unveiled, completing a £2m project to transform Hull’s key Old Town square.
A carillon of Hull Minster’s bells played Handel’s Water Music to celebrate the switch-on of the pools in Trinity Square – an eagerly awaited feature of the city’s £25m upgrade.
Work started on the square in December 2015 and involved the exhumation of hundreds of skeletons.
The square has been repaved, the churchyard wall round the front removed and the statue of the poet Andrew Marvell shifted a few yards.
But the most difficult part of the job has been getting the mirror pools – thought to be the first of their kind – just right.
Invisible when the water is switched off, they fill with just 2mm of water when turned on. When still they reflect the Minster’s Gothic facade. But they can also be pulsed, creating geometric shapes, recalling shapes in the church’s architecture.
The work was delayed by the huge paving stones that form the base of the pools having to be taken up after grease blocked the jets after it was poured into them after a food festival. The naturally rippling stone also had to be painstakingly ground down by hand to make sure it was “billiard table” smooth.
Designer Mel Chantrey, the artist in residence for Fountain Workshop Ltd, also designed the dancing fountains in Queen Victoria Square, which have already proved a hit.
He said: “The thrilling bit about this is that unlike Queen Victoria Square where it’s all nozzles, jets and grilles, here it is just stone and water. We are generating patterns over and over again, rhythmical repetitions, allowing people to introspect and to dream. To engage people in that dynamic is a real privilege.”
The completion of the mirror pools brings to an end the first phase of work on Holy Trinity – recently renamed Hull Minster.
Thousands came to the Minster at the weekend for the resurrection of a mediaeval mystery play Noah, which included a 24ft ark, and tonight it will play host to hundreds for a City of Culture legacy dinner.
It comes after the reopening of the adjacent indoor market as part of a £3m upgrade.
The vicar of Hull Minster, the Rev Canon Dr Neal Barnes, said: “The footfall into the church since of the beginning of the year is three times over and on certain days it’s astronomically different.
“We are definitely turning a corner, getting more people in using the shop and cafe. And because there’s more happening round the square, the work on the indoor market, the different eateries, Trinity House opening up, it is becoming more and more of a destination. All these things are contributing to the Old Town becoming part of the throbbing heart of the city.”
Coun Martin Mancey, Hull City Council’s portfolio holder for regeneration, added: “With Hull Minster’s work progressing incredibly well, Trinity Market’s hall re-opening on North Churchside and the recent designation of the Old Town as a Heritage Action Zone with Historic England, it’s clear to see that this area is treasured and will continue to draw people in for years to come.”
The mirror pools are on each day until 11pm.
We are generating patterns over again, rhythmical repetitions. Mel Chantrey, artist in residence for Fountain Workshop Ltd.