Qualla: Hull History Centre

Hull History Centre: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian S, CC BY-SA 2.0. Stacked end to end, the documents in the Hull History Centre would cross the Humber Bridge four times. The figure is precise enough to make an archivist smile and vast enough to make a researcher despair. Inside this purpose-built repository on Worship Street are 225,000 catalogued items, from a royal charter issued by Edward I in 1299 to the personal papers of the poet Philip Larkin, who worked as Hull's university librarian for thirty years. When the centre opened on 25 January 2010, it made Hull the first city in the United Kingdom to unite local council and university archive collections under a single roof.

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Image: Ian S | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hull History Centre: The Largest Lottery Grant

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andy Beecroft, CC BY-SA 2.0. For most of the twentieth century, Hull's archival memory was scattered across three separate repositories: the University of Hull, the Local Studies Library, and the Hull City Archives. Researchers needing to follow a thread across all three had to make appointments at three dif...

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Image: Andy Beecroft | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hull History Centre: Wilberforce and Wilberforce

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andy Beecroft, CC BY-SA 2.0. The collection's deepest roots reach into Hull's most famous son. William Wilberforce, the Independent MP born in Hull in 1759 who led the parliamentary campaign that ended the British slave trade in 1807, generated a vast paper trail. Letters, speeches, drafts, and committee pap...

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Image: Andy Beecroft | CC BY-SA 2.0

Hull History Centre: Larkin's Hull

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit summonedbyfells, CC BY 2.0. Philip Larkin moved to Hull in 1955 as the new librarian of what was then the small University College of Hull. He stayed thirty years, until his death in 1985, transforming the university library and writing some of the best English poetry of the second half of the twentieth cen...

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Image: summonedbyfells | CC BY 2.0

Hull History Centre: Ships, Trade, and Working Lives

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Coulson - User: (WT-shared) Gnomy96 at wts wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 3.0. Business records preserve the maritime history that made Hull. Ellerman's Wilson Line, once the largest privately owned shipping company in the world, kept its head office in Hull and its papers are here. Earle's Shipbuilding and Engineering Company built the steamers that crosse...

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Image: Chris Coulson - User: (WT-shared) Gnomy96 at wts wikivoyage | CC BY-SA 3.0