Hull city centre is well worth a walk around with a camera. Although parts of the city were levelled in the war and then cheaply rebuilt and/or carved up with new roads, other parts are absolutely beautiful. I've taken hundreds of photos of it in recent years: I really should put them online sometime.
My suggested route would be a walk around Kingston Square,which was intended as an imitation of fashionable London squares of its day and is really nicely preserved. After that, walk across to Whitefriargate, which is rather depressed as a shopping street atm (a combination of recession and diversion of trade to the new St Stephens centre) but contains some lovely buildings. Look up, above the shop frontages, and take a walk down Parliament Street and the Land of Green Ginger as well. From there, walk down into the Old Town, around Trinity Square area, and then up Prince Street or Posterngate to Prince's Dock. From there it's an easy walk along the side of the dock, across Castle Street, and down the side of the yacht basin (formerly Humber Dock) to the estuary. Me, I'd stop there, have a pint in the Minerva, a lovely old pub right on the waterfront, and watch the world go by: it's one of my favourite ways to pass a bit of time in the city. But if you're driving that's probably not an option - which is a shame, 'cos I could rattle off half a dozen city-centre pubs that would be well worth a visit. There are plenty of decent coffee shops and suchlike, though, my favourite being McCoy's, just off Victoria Square. It's a nice spot to sit outside and watch the world go by on a sunny day.
If you're bored of walking or it's raining, the city's museums are well worth a look. The maritime museum is a bit faded in need of a refurb (would have happened, then the money vanished with the recession) but still fascinating, and the Streetlife Museum and Wilberforce House on the High Street (another pretty old street well worth a wander) are both excellent - and free. If it's open the
Arctic Corsair, a preserved trawler, is also worth a visit. The the old Spurn lightship, in the Humber Dock just by Castle Street, is also open to the public. Back up in the city centre, if art is your thing I'm told that Ferens Art Gallery is one of the best regional galleries in England.
A few pics:
Prince Street
Trinity Square
High Street
Victoria Square and the maritime museum. The long, narrow stretch of municipal gardens behind this leading down to the River Hull is a filled-in dock, one of the first wet docks in the country - which is why this lovely piece of Victorian architecture was actually the docks office until (IIRC) the 1970s.
Parliament Street, looking down towards Whitefriargate.
*feels homesick*
