Again the Ugly Inside editorial team have spent many pain staking minutes on unearthing some interesting facts about our next opponents and their City.
1. Hull isnt actually called Hull at all, its full title is Kingston Upon Hull, which beggars the question, why isnt the football team called Kingston City, after all Stoke play in Stoke On Trent, but they arent called Trent City and we dont ask why we dont call Ross On Wye, Why either ! although possibly toke fans do when they sing Wye Wye Wye Delilah, anyway I gots to know !
2. The KC Stadium is named after Kingston Communications set up by the local council (Notice not Hull Communications) for many years Hull (Or Kingston) was the only council authority that owned its own telephone exchange, in 1902 it was granted a licence to do this, most of the other independent phone companies were absorbed into the post office over the years, however Hull remained independent, for instance its phone boxes were not red but cream coloured, to this day Kingston Communications remain the only available supplier of landline phone services in Hull, the profits from this company, the [profits from this company enabled the City Council to build the KC Stadium and it remains in Council Ownership today and probably tomorrow and the rest of the week for that matter.
3. Hull (or Kingston) has a population of 263,900 in its unitarian authority area with a urban zone of 573,300 which is quite a big catchment area, however the football teams relatively small attendances over the years can be easily explained, its firmly a Rugby league town and is home to two teams from this barbaric sport which is a mixture of Rugby Union and all in wrestling, Hull FC, one of these teams also play at the KC whilst Hull Kingston Rovers play elsewhere.
4. The Housemartins were once the Fourth best band in Hull and wrote many songs about Hull and life in the City, the video for Happy Hour was shot in a local pub, which has now been turned into a museum celebrating the work of the group, it was felt that whatever Liverpool could do with the Beatles, Hull could match with the Housemartins, the museum is now the third best tourist attraction in Hull, ironically going one better than the group themselves.
5. Hull actually has a rich musical heritage, Mick Ronson who older readers will recall was the guitarist on David Bowie's best work in the early 70's was from the city and there is a Mick Ronson Memorial stage in Queens Gardens, other notable Hull pop stars include, Everything But The Girl and Sade (Sade was the name of the band not just the singer, they came from Hull she probably didnt) English Folk Giants The Watersons are virtual gods in their home town and last summer played five sell out nights at the KC Stadium something that even Elton John couldnt manage.
6.The first cinema in Hull was opened in 1910 ( The Prince's Hall in George Street for those that are interested, by 1914 there were 29 cinemas in Hull but most of these have now closed, the introduction of betamax video recorders to the City in 2002 hammering the final nails into the coffin of what was once called the Hollywood of East riding.
7. I truthfully did once go to Hull and thought that it was closed, Thursday afternoon in Hull doesnt seem to be the most popular time for shopping it seemed and staring at the windswept pedestrian shopping precinct all that was missing apart from shoppers was tumbleweed.
8. Hull stands on the north Bank of the Humber estuary some 25 miles inland which makes it puzzling why it isnt called Kingston Upon Humber, its actually named after a small tributary the River Hull, it was granted its charter in 1299 by King Edward 1 who on April 1st of that year who bought it off the local Abbey in what was possibly the first ever April Fools prank, anyway he changed its name from Wyke to Kings Town Upon Hull which over the years has been abbreviated to its current form.
9. Hull's big rivals are Grimsby, this is rather a strange choice as both teams certainly have other far nearer football clubs to hate due to being on opposite sides of the Humber, even after the opening of the Humber Bridge around two decades ago made the journey a little shorter, its still a lot easier to get to ork from Hull or Scunthorpe from Grimsby, presuambly its a fishing fleet type of thing
10. Hull was, outside of London the most severely bomb damaged British city in World war 2, although this doesnt seem to get mentioned much for some reason, most of the City Centre was destroyed and 95% of the housing was either destroyed or damaged, newspaper reports at the time didnt even name the City but referred to it as a North Eastern Town, much of the City Centre has now been rebuilt, but in 2006 it was discovered in archived records that a new developement ironically called the Boom, might actually be built on an unexploded bomb.