Hull will be ‘UK City Of Culture’ in 2017 and so there are many ongoing renovations and widespread replacement of paving stones. The free museums (including one that featured the history of the city from The Big Bang, via Romans and a life-size woolly mammoth), impressive central church and waterside developments are all in place, so what about the pubs?
The Lion And Key feels welcoming; there is an impressive array of handpumps along the high bar, plenty of old signs decorating the walls and behind the bar as well as the high ceiling covered with old pump clips and beermats. ‘White Rose Original Blonde’ and ‘Hilltop Blonde’ (both 4%) were very drinkable golden ales and ‘Summer Solstice'(3.8%) from Derbyshire’s Raw Brewery has a citrus flavour. This was probably the best pub of the visit, but the nearby Wm Hawkes was fine too; converted sympathetically from a printer’s workshop it has a good range of ales, served in handled glasses. Great Newsome Brewery ‘Pricky Back Otcham'(4.2%) is a tasty, clear golden ale (and a local name for a hedgehog?).
In the same area there was Ye Olde White Harte with the room where plotters met before the English Civil War…and Ye Olde Black Boy, hosting a “socialist meeting” in its upstairs room and providing some very nice locally sourced pork pies and Wye Valley ‘Hereford Pale Ale’.
Venturing away from the River Hull area we found The Polar Bear with its architecturally rare ceramic bar and less rare Sharp’s 4.2% ‘Atlantic’ to drink while enjoying the live music. It is on the edge of a newer road of bars and eateries, bustling on a Tuesday evening!
Following directions through an unpromising non-residential road, you eventually reach The Whalebone, a cosy pub steeped in industrial tradition. With a darts match, free refreshments, cheap beer, a raffle (I won first prize!) and Olympic cycling on a discreet TV it was a comfortable and hospitable place to be and Hull CAMRA Pub Of The Year in 2015.
As well as these and many more pubs, Hull has three Wetherspoons, including The William Wilberforce, commemorating Hull’s anti-slavery campaigner.
Another celebrated resident was the poet Philip Larkin who described Hull as ‘isolate city spread alongside water’; it definitely does have an individual history and character, of which the pubs seem to be a significant part.
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