The Deep? Or a futuristic crash-landed starship..? and other Kingston upon Hull, United Kingdom Things to Do Tips

Around the UK there have been some ‘millennium’ projects that have been runaway successes, such as the ‘Eden Project’ in Cornwall and some ill-conceived failures that have since folded, such as Sheffield’s ‘National Centre For Popular Music’. Thankfully ‘The Deep’, Hull's 'Natural Museum of the Oceans' if you will, has been one of the resounding success stories.

Head toward The Deep along the A63/Castle Street and you cannot miss the striking angular structure rising up from the waterfront like some futuristic crash-landed starship. Ignore the gushing claims of ‘The World’s biggest/deepest/largest/whatever Submarium’ because still no one around here has the remotest clue what they’re trying to claim anyway. But it is certainly an impressive, high-tech, interactive, and when you get to the main tank – quite mesmerising, few hours you’ll spend here. Perfect for families, but pitched not too patronisingly for the average adult, though it is such a cheesy cliché – there’s something for everyone here.

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Phone: 01482 381000
Website: http://www.thedeep.co.uk

Approaching the city from the west or the south it’s impossible to miss the Humber Bridge rising stark and vertical against the area’s gentle rolling farmland like god’s own goalposts. Official opened by Her Maj’ in 1981, it held the record for the world’s longest single-span suspension bridge well into the 1990’s until the Danes and subsequently the Japanese went one better. A great shame really because it was one piece of trivia you really could surprise people with – East Yorkshire being one of the last places you’d expect to chance upon an record-breaking engineering masterpiece. Follow the signs for the Humber Bridge County Park off the A63/A15 junction to get a chance to park up and marvel at it up close and go for a bracing walk along the impressive central span or a wander in the adjoining parklands. If you don’t have time enough to get out of your car and see it up close it is certainly worth a short detour to drive past. Tolls apply when driving over the bridge obviously, the tollbooths are situated on the north bank and the latest toll prices and information can be found by clicking the link below.

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Directions: Five miles west of Hull
Website: www.humberbridge.co.uk

Swept up in the tide (ahem) of redevelopment in the city the marina is enjoying something of a renaissance itself. Stylish new flats are being built along the waterfront, the unmistakable glimmering wedge of the multi-million pound attraction ‘The Deep’ sits adjacent, whilst trendy new restaurants and bars have begun to spring up in the area. Finally, the city is reclaiming the water – to which its fate has always been inexorably linked. This will never be the Monaco of the north, but who’d ever want it to be? Neglected in recent decades, it’s becoming an intriguing quarter of the city once more without losing a sense of its hard-working past. It still remains breezy and bracing in any other season but winter, but wrap-up and enjoy the views.

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Directions: Riverside - by Castle Street (A63) and Humber Dock Street
Website: www.hcc.gov.uk/visithull