25 things you probably didn’t know about the UK's City of Culture 2017.....

25 things you probably didn’t know about the UK's City of Culture 2017…..

• Its official name is Kingston upon Hull and people from the city are “Hullensians”
• Hull is Yorkshire’s only waterfront city
• The boiled sweet was invented in Hull
• The liquid crystal display (LCD) was developed by the University of Hull
• It is the birthplace of Lemsip, Bonjela and Gaviscon
• It has been called the “most poetic city in England”, and has been home to poets such as Philip Larkin and Andrew Marvell
• William Wilberforce who led the bill that freed slaves in British colonies hailed from the city
• It is home to The Deep, the world’s only submarium
• The Humber Ports is the UK’s largest ports complex, handling one million passengers and 90 million tonnes of cargo
• Hull’s Fair is the largest travelling fair in Europe and one of the oldest
• There has been £1.5billion of regeneration investment in Hull over the last eight years
• During World War II Hull was the most bombed city outside of London, with 90% of its buildings damaged
• Telephone services in Hull are provided by KCOM (rather than BT), originally established in 1904 and famous for its cream coloured telephone boxes
• Hull is said to have been the place where the English Civil War started in 1642 – in the Plotting Parlour above Ye Olde White Harte pub to be precise
• J Arthur Rank was born in Hull and served as chairman of Rank Hovis McDougall, Ltd as well as Rank Organisation, which built Pinewood Studios and dominated the British film industry
• England’s smallest window can be found in The George pub on The Land of Green Ginger
• The fictional castaway Robinson Crusoe set sail from Queen’s Dock in Hull (there is a plaque in Queen’s Gardens to commemorate this)
• In 1989 Hull became the first city in the UK to have an all-digital telephone system
• In 1982, Hull became the first city in the western world to twin with a third world city – Freetown in Sierra Leone
• Actress Maureen Lipman, musician Roland Gift (Fine Young Cannibals), TV weatherman Alex Deakin, actress Debra Stephenson, writer Derren Litten (Benidorm), actor Roy North (Mr Roy from Basil Brush), John Venn (inventor of the Venn Diagram) and musician Mick Ronson (Ziggy Stardust’s Spiders from Mars) were all born in Hull
• Hull singer Patricia Bredin was the very first UK representative in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1957
• Golden Pages (a forerunner to Yellow Pages) was first published in Hull in 1954 to celebrate Hull Telephone Department’s golden jubilee
• Hull’s Holy Trinity Church is the largest parish church (by area) in England
• Mike Stock (of Stock, Aitken & Waterman), Beirut hostage John McCarthy, musicians Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl), film director Anthony Minghella, poet Roger McGough, actress Sally Lindsay (Coronation Street), TV presenter Sarah Greene (Blue Peter, Going Live), Labour politician Roy Hattersley and Radio 1 presenter Mark Chapman all graduated from Hull University
• The pattie originated in Hull. It is a flat cake with a potato, sage and onion recipe, battered and deep-fried
So now you know!