Thursday 22 April 2010

Hullness - a summary

You can now download a summary of the thoughts, ideas and images that have contributed to our Hullness debate so far:

Download 'Hullness - a summary'.

We will be continuing the debate this year, so if you have any ideas or thoughts to contribute, please let us know!

8 comments:

  1. What if there is no such thing as "hullness"?

    What will the £49,700 from the lottery fund be used for??

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  2. Good question! Well, our programme of activities planned as part of the project include 12 community debates/events, 3 education projects, training and upskilling 12 volunteers in heritage techniques, producing a brochure to become part of a permanent archive at the Hull history centre, as well as producing an exhibition of our ‘quest’. We think for £47k this is fairly good value!

    Even if the answer is that there is no ‘hullness’, we think that by participating in our activities, people can gain a stronger 'sense of place':
    "The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) has developed the evidence around place and found that increasing local belonging or strengthening people’s sense of where they live (their sense of place) can have many positive benefits, including increasing their sense of self-esteem and identity, which in turn can lead to stronger communities, in which individuals and groups are actively involved in local decision making."
    Quote from 'Heritage Counts 2009 England'

    What do you think of how the city is often portrayed nationally? We think it is often (unfairly) slated (eg. In the ‘crap towns’ book, location location location etc) by people from outside the community. Those of us who live and work here know there is more to Hull than that – and this is our chance for Hull people to put their own views forward and perhaps to celebrate our city and identity.

    We hope that this has satisfied your query, and we welcome you to come and have your say at our community events – look our on the Arc website for details of where and when they will be happening!

    Hannah Cooper,
    Programme Officer
    Arc

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  3. Thanks.

    I'm fairly certain that there is no such thing, but the schedule of events sounds interesting, hopefully it will be of use to someone.

    Yes I agree that Hull is generally treated with little respect by the press in general - or the place were Philip Larkin lived - with respect to the dead guy - Larkin was more an observer of Hull than a inmate. Certain playwrights don't help the city's image by playing to the 'rugby and chips' image, but doesn't this happen to all places?

    Generally journalists tend to trite (and often innacurate) generalisations - perhaps the money would be better spent educating them ;)

    But is attempting to 'give a voice' to Hull people etc not ultimately counter productive - do they not already have one? Are negative views not best ignored, not rewarded?

    I'm thinking of an application of the 1st law of social work - the extent of the problem is proportional to the number of people assigned to fix it.

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. Oh dear! I accidently deleted the wrong comment there, sorry J, I meant to delete the comment from 'Annoymous'!

    But here is your comment again:

    "Maybe it would be interesting for hull people to define "hullness" in terms of what it isn't...

    This thought sprang into my mind as I was watching this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVCg9Q8E0Bk - I can't imagine anything further removed, except both places will be called 'home' for someone."

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  6. See http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Kingston_Upon_Hull

    last sentence

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  7. Although there are a lot of jokes about the bad stereotypes of Hull, we encourage people to talk about what they think is positive and record those views.

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  8. Posted by anonymous, edited by moderator to remove inappropriate language:

    It's difficult to put a positive spin on the fact that many residents of hull seem to think the city is an open landfill.. Yet it's a constant aspect of the Hull experience (especially places like Beverley Road) - I would hope that some effort might be made into improving the hull environment too - and more specifically attitudes. I'm sick to the back teeth of picking up other peoples rubbish - and getting a subsistence income in return - a never ending thankless process. If the hullness project could make people realise that they are responsible for the "england's dirtiest town" reputation it might help. What really annoys me is the amount of litter on Cottingham Road - where I would expect the better educated students might know better - plus the total failure of the residents of that street to clean the street frontage to their houses - it's a clearly affluent area - yet I've had to remove bags of rotten meat, TVs etc from the path. Not to mention the morons who can't manage to bag their pet' mess, and then for some reason throw it onto the grass verge or drop it behind a wall. Usually it just gets left until a mower comes along and shreds the plastic into hundreds of small non-biodegradable pieces - clever. Hull City Council regards Beverley Road as a "conservation area" but does seem to have cottoned on that large three story victorian mansions require massive investment to make desirable (doesn't happen) or generally get turned in to flats "bedsits" - lack of owner occupiers give rise to degeneration of the area - try looking round the back of these places - it won't take long to find a fly tip. It's difficult to take seriously any attempts to "preserve the character" of beverley road when in the last ten years the council itself has built the "kingston medical centre" and associated "netto" with its delightful bricked up false windows - I suppose that is supposed to reflect the style of local architecture, perhaps the "endeavour school" was too. But to me both look like a crass pastiche built to an absolute minimal cost and conforming to the councils own guidelines on development in word only. Also you may have noticed that the council is letting the street develop into a drinking pit - count the number of developments that are either - pubs and clubs, or student houses - great way to turn it into a no-go area on any night of the week for the general populace. I have no positive experience to report - because as I mentioned - I get a pittance and the only employment option for me is cleaning up other peoples crap - the extensive mutilation and de-greening of most of hulls main streets far outweighs any positives - and it's clear that in the current climate the 'built environment' will only get worse because nobody is interested in building anything of any beauty or value - just more pubs, student acommodation, and turning green areas (usually ex-allotments) into high density housing.

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